By all accounts, the San Diego Padres looked like they were going to play the Dodgers in 2022 in this year’s NLDS. They took a 2–1 series lead and only needed to win one game to advance and face the Mets in the next round. Unfortunately, Los Angeles successfully silenced the Padres’ bats and was able to rally and knock the Padres out of the playoffs.

This playoff loss stung enough. There was so much bad blood between the two teams that it resulted in open fights involving Manny Machado and Dave Roberts, as well as a nasty situation where Dodgers fans threw things on the field early in the series. When emotions run high, losses hurt even more, especially considering how well San Diego has played so far.

To make matters worse, the Dodgers simply handily beat the Mets in the NLCS to advance to the World Series, making it easy to assume that the Padres came tantalizingly close to doing so themselves.

For the Padres, the 2024 NLDS matchup against the Dodgers seems more like a missed opportunity.

It’s important to give credit where credit is due. The Dodgers were clearly the best team in the NLCS. The Mets were able to get a couple of wins thanks to a couple of impressive pitching failures, but Los Angeles was the stronger team from top to bottom, and when they won, they won in extremely convincing fashion.

In fact, the Dodgers were so clearly the better team that it seemed like the Padres would have destroyed the Mets. Yes, yes…the New York media was aggressively touting that this Mets team was built differently and had some kind of “magic” or something like that. These runs do happen, but talent almost always wins, and like the Dodgers, San Diego would have a clear talent advantage there.

In some ways, it’s results like these that make the playoffs such a unique experience. A team can win over 100 games and look untouchable, but one bad week from them or one great week from their opponent can completely turn the World Series picture on its head. This certainly won’t make Padres fans feel any better about them being on the wrong end of the luck spectrum in 2024, but that’s what makes the postseason so interesting.

Still, watching the Dodgers, who were forfeited by San Diego a week or so ago, take on the Yankees in the World Series will hurt. The Yankees have a ton of talent, especially now that Giancarlo Stanton has suddenly returned to his old form, and while there’s no guarantee the Padres could beat them, it would be nice to see if they could.

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