Dodgers get exactly what they wanted in Padres NLDS matchup

For the National League’s top-seeded Los Angeles Dodgers, opening their 2022 postseason schedule against the San Diego Padres is shaping up to be the best of all worlds.

After all, not have the San Diego Padres already played a three-game series in the Wild Card round against the New York Mets, using up some of their pitching before Tuesday’s opener at Chavez Ravine, but the Los Angeles Dodgers will also be playing a team that they dominated in 2022.

Los Angeles Dodgers seem to have plenty of advantages over San Diego Padres in NLDS

This season, Los Angeles has posted a 14-5 record against the Padres, outscoring them 109-47 in the process. That includes an 8-2 mark against San Diego when they have had to travel north to meet the Dodgers in Los Angeles, including a 5-1 mark after the MLB trade deadline when the Padres remade their roster with Juan Soto, Josh Bell, and Josh Hader.

As we wrote about in this article, the San Diego Union-Tribune called San Diego “the Dodgers’ little brother” back in 2015. That mantra certainly doesn’t seem to have changed heading into the NLDS matchup.

While the Padres have already traveled across country to take on the Mets in the Wild Card, the Dodgers have been sitting in Los Angeles, just waiting to see which team they would be facing in the first step toward what many believe will be a World Series run. San Diego will have less than 48 hours from the time their game with the Mets ends in New York to when their Game 1 encounter with the Dodgers will begin in Los Angeles. That’s not a lot of time for Padres pitchers to rest and be ready for what was MLB’s highest-scoring team in the regular season.

In the best-of-five matchup, the first two games will take place in Los Angeles. If the Padres can’t earn a split there, it’s going to be a quick series and ticket punched to the NLCS for the Dodgers, which is exactly what they wanted before the postseason began.