Padres swept by Dodgers ending a magical 2020 season
Credit: Padres
The San Diego Padres lose 12-3 at the hands of the Los Angeles Dodgers, which closes the door on a memorable season.
After a grueling Game 2 saw the Padres fall just short of tying an exciting NLDS against their rival from Los Angeles, the life seemed to be sucked out of a team in need of some magic.
The Padres once again settled for a bullpen game from their pitching staff, setting a new postseason record with 11 pitchers used in game three. An unfortunate theme for the Padres in the postseason due to injuries and inconsistent starting pitching proved to be a losing formula against a Dodgers offense that seemed almost unstoppable.
Rookie Adrian Morejon got the start for the Padres, going two innings and giving up three earned runs. Though the Padres showed signs of life briefly in the second inning with two runs, the Dodgers quickly ended any hope of San Diego making the NLDS a competitive series.
2-1 would be the only lead for the Padres in the game, lasting less than an inning after the Dodgers scored five times in the third inning to make the score 6-2. After Morejon was pulled, Craig Stammen followed with a similar performance of three earned runs allowed.
That trend would continue throughout the rest of the game for both teams, as the Dodgers would go on to score 12 runs on 14 hits. Los Angeles had multi-hit games from four players, including a five-hit game from catcher Will Smith, who drove in three of the team’s 12 runs.
It was an ugly end to what was an exciting and franchise-altering season for the Padres. 2020 saw the Padres ignite a city in desperate need of excitement and distraction, making Thursday’s loss a tough pill to swallow. When fans and players look back at the season, it will eventually be looked at as a major success, but the sting of a lopsided loss will delay that for a while.
San Diego will now put their focus toward 2021, where even more exciting baseball awaits.
The expectations for San Diego in 2020 were significantly exceeded, and they will look to continue that momentum in the future.
Kevin is a San Diego Native covering the San Diego Padres and their affiliates
My thanks goes to Padre ownership for lighting a fire under Preller to either get the padres to the playoffs or find another job somewhere else. Although I did not like seeing both France and Naylor leaving I understand you can’t get quality without offering quality in return. If Capusano and Gore along with Patino and Weathers can make the leap to the team next year along with returning players like Castillo, I think we will be fine. A lot depends on whether Preller can retain and sign some of our free agents, and if we can limit injuries to key players. Once we lost both Lamet and Clevinger most baseball fans knew the Padres were done.
A winning and successful season overall. It takes a lot to get to the next level, however, and sometimes it takes overcoming what seems to be a little thing, like Grisham’s antics. In order to beat a superior opponent, the dumbest thing you can do is give them more motivation. While clearly not all his fault, after his entirely unnecessary immature buffoonery, the Padres went 0 and 5 against the Dodgers (and 0 and 2 against the other LA team) AND, worst of all, got swept and thoroughly embarrassed by the dreaded Dodgers in the playoffs. We know Hosmer won’t do anything, or Wil, but hopefully guys like Machado and Pham will set him straight. Their main hope for next year likely rides on whether they can (overpay to) get Trevor Bauer. Their other top 2 pitchers might be out for the entire year.