{"id":154563,"date":"2025-08-18T02:05:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T02:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/154563\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T02:05:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T02:05:08","slug":"sweep-by-la-puts-padres-back-in-underdog-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/154563\/","title":{"rendered":"Sweep by LA puts Padres back in underdog role"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2013 A dugout full of Padres cheered Jose Iglesias as he returned to them Sunday after tying the game in the eighth inning at Dodger Stadium.<\/p>\n

Iglesias had hit a run-scoring groundout while batting for Jake Cronenworth, who was among those to congratulate him.<\/p>\n

Finally, the Padres were looking the Dodgers eye to eye. Since the series began Friday at Dodger Stadium, they\u2019d been looking up at L.A. on the scoreboard save for an inning-and-a-half.<\/p>\n

Now, despite failing to break the eight-inning tie after Iglesias\u2019 one-out blow, the Padres liked their chances.<\/p>\n

After all, they could lean further on MLB\u2019s best bullpen. And their offense was heating up, having erased a four-run deficit against a trio of Dodgers pitchers.<\/p>\n

Three Padres pitches later, the Dodgers replied.<\/p>\n

Mookie Betts launched closer Robert Suarez\u2019s 2-0 fastball into the left-field pavilion for a 5-4 lead<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When Alpine product Alex Vesia closed out L.A.\u2019s victory by getting his third, fourth and fifth outs, the Padres returned to a cramped clubhouse and tried to make sense of a three-game sweep that dropped them two behind the National League West-leading Dodgers with 38 games to go.<\/p>\n

They were diplomatic in their comments, showing respect for the Dodgers but also acknowledging their failings, notably in Saturday\u2019s sloppy performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey won the games,\u201d said Fernando Tatis Jr. \u201cIt\u2019s that simple. We could play better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey played well,\u201d Xander Bogaerts said. \u201cThey\u2019ve got some tough pitching. We\u2019ve got some good pitching, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bogaerts added: \u201cI wouldn\u2019t give them all the credit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The season is too long to get worked up by three games in August.<\/p>\n

No large theme was writ large by what transpired across the 27 innings.<\/p>\n

And that would\u2019ve been true if the Padres had applied the broom instead of being swept back down Interstate 5 toward the East Village, where they\u2019ll begin a four-game series against a bad Giants club Monday.<\/p>\n

The Padres still have a great chance of winning a wild-card playoff spot and advancing to the postseason. They\u2019ll get three more games against the Dodgers this weekend.<\/p>\n

To win the franchise\u2019s first National League West title since Bruce Bochy\u2019s final Padres club did it in 2006 and thus gain a possible first-round playoff bye, they\u2019ll have finish with more wins than the Dodgers. A tie won\u2019t do it, L.A. having earned the divisional tiebreaker Saturday by clinching the season series.<\/p>\n

The best development for the Padres in Los Angeles centered on the continued good hitting from two regulars obtained in recent trades.<\/p>\n

Ram\u00f3n Laureano homered twice in the series, giving him four in 15 games with the Padres. In addition to homering off starter Tyler Glasnow, he doubled Sunday to help spur the comeback.<\/p>\n

Freddy Fermin caught his 10th full game since arriving. Batting ninth, he drove a pitch off the right-field wall.<\/p>\n

Yu Darvish, a day after turning 39, showed a younger man\u2019s velocity Sunday.<\/p>\n

Oddly, his old pitcher\u2019s wisdom, he implied, got away from him, fueling L.A.\u2019s four-run first inning.<\/p>\n

Darvish threw three fastballs in a row to Freddie Freeman in the first inning. The third one landed in the right-field pavilion for a 3-0 Dodgers lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t go three fastballs in a row to a hitter like that,\u201d the pitcher said. \u201cSo it\u2019s about the pitch selection.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t a good series, health-wise, for the Padres.<\/p>\n

A knee ailment that scratched 2024 ace Michael King on Friday created a pro-Dodgers matchup \u2013 Clayton Kershaw opposite starter Wandy Peralta bulk pitcher Randy Vasquez \u2013 that L.A. parlayed into a 3-2 victory.<\/p>\n

Jackson Merrill turned his left ankle Friday during an at-bat. He tried to play through it but was lifted midway through Sunday\u2019s game.<\/a><\/p>\n

But the Dodgers have been hit much harder by injuries this season, and had to dip much deeper into their depth chart throughout this series. Also, the game\u2019s best all-around performer Sunday was a Dodger. Andy Pages homered off Darvish in the first inning \u2014 he clocked the second consecutive split-fingered fastball thrown him \u2014 and made a great defensive play, throwing out Fermin at second base attempting to stretch a single.<\/p>\n

L.A. continues to show an ability to adapt to a wide array of challenges and thus improve its odds of earning a 12th West title in 13 years.<\/p>\n

The Padres, like most San Diego sports teams throughout the decades, seem to do their best work as underdogs. See the upsets of the Dodgers and Mets in the 2022 postseason \u2014 and the recent surge that overtook L.A., if briefly.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re underdogs again. Maybe it suits them.<\/p>\n

Originally Published: August 17, 2025 at 6:44 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2013 A dugout full of Padres cheered Jose Iglesias as he returned to them Sunday after…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":154564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,1370,1266,3549,1306,7264,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-154563","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-san-diego-padres","15":"tag-sandiego","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115047322422634988","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}