The moments that helped ignite the Padres-Dodgers rivalry ahead of NLDS Game 4

The latest installment of the San Diego Padres–Los Angeles Dodgers rivalry hasn’t disappointed.

The NL West rivals are in the middle of their third playoff meeting in the last five seasons, with San Diego on the verge of pulling off another upset over Los Angeles in the NLDS. The Padres took a 2-1 series lead over the Dodgers behind a 6-5 win in Game 3.

While Game 3 was a tight win for the Padres, it didn’t feature the dramatic and tense moments that Game 2 had in their 10-2 victory. Sunday’s Game 2 had thrilling plays as each team exchanged words with each other throughout the battle. There was, unfortunately, an incident where fans threw items at Padres players, too.

As the Padres look to close out the Dodgers in Game 4 (9:07 p.m. ET on FS1 and the FOX Sports app), let’s look back at the moments that ignited arguably MLB’s most entertaining rivalry.

September 2020

While the Dodgers have been a mainstay in the National League pennant contention race for over a decade, the Padres began to threaten their standing during the COVID-shortened 2020 season. As San Diego made a push to try and win the NL West away from Los Angeles, tensions heated during a matchup in September between the two teams.

Former Padres outfielder Trent Grisham hit a solo home run off Clayton Kershaw in that matchup. Grisham knew the ball was gone right off the bat, admiring his home run for a moment before tossing his bat. He stared down Kershaw when he began his trot to first. He ended his home run trot by chirping at the Dodgers’ dugout.

Roberts made it clear that he wasn’t happy with what Grisham did following the Padres’ win.

“I don’t mind guys admiring a homer; certainly it’s a big game, big hit,” Roberts told reporters. “Really like the player. But I just felt to overstay at home plate, against a guy like Clayton, who’s got the respect of everyone in the big leagues for what he’s done in this game, I just took exception to that. There’s a certain respect that you give a guy if you homer against him.”

2020 NLDS

The Dodgers wound up winning the NL West in 2020, but that didn’t stop the two teams from meeting up in the postseason. 

Los Angeles decisively won Game 1 of the 2020 NLDS, 5-1. Game 2 was much more dramatic. The Dodgers got out to a 4-1 lead before the Padres made it a 4-3 game in the sixth inning. It appeared San Diego was about to take the lead in the seventh inning when Fernando Tatis Jr. crushed a ball to center field with a runner on base off Dodgers reliever Brusdar Graterol. But Dodgers outfielder Cody Bellinger extended his arm over the centerfield fence and made a grab to end the inning.

The Dodgers were euphoric in their celebration over Bellinger’s home run robbery. Bellinger put up a No. 1 sign before chest-bumping Chris Taylor. Graterol took off his cap and glove, tossing both items toward the Dodgers’ dugout.

Manny Machado took exception to Graterol’s celebration. He tossed some expletives at Graterol, who blew kisses back at Machado. Other Dodgers players, like Max Muncy, had some words for Machado, too.

Nothing came of the exchange, though. The Dodgers held on to take Game 2 and won Game 3 to complete their sweep of the Padres.

April 2021

The Padres continued their push to try and take the division from the Dodgers in 2021, bolstering their pitching staff over the offseason as they acquired Blake Snell and Yu Darvish. The Dodgers made their own high-profile moves after winning the World Series, too. They signed reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Trevor Bauer during the 2020-21 offseason. 

Those moves helped provide early-season fireworks between the two teams when they met in a pair of series. Each team made clutch defensive plays to help seal a win against each other, with Mookie Betts making a diving grab to win the Dodgers a game in one of the matchups.

In the series at Peco Park in April of that year, benches cleared when Dodgers pitcher Dennis Santana plunked Padres infielder Jorge Mateo on the first pitch of an at-bat in the 10th inning of a game. Santana and Mateo got face-to-face as Mateo made his way over to first, causing the benches to clear. Los Angeles went on to win that game.  

In the series at Dodger Stadium a week later, Tatis made history in the second game of a four-game set. The Padres’ young star hit a pair of homers off Kershaw in that game, 22 years to the day after his father became the only MLB player to ever hit two grand slams in one inning at Dodger Stadium.

A day later, Tatis had another two-home run game. But those homers came with some flare. First, he crushed a home run off Bauer, covering one of his eyes as he rounded first base to mock Bauer for pitching with his eyes closed during a spring training game between the two teams. After hitting his second homer off Bauer, Tatis flipped his bat before strutting like Conor McGregor back to the Padres’ dugout once he crossed home plate. 

Tatis told reporters after the game that it was “payback time” for what Bauer did during spring training. Bauer took Tatis’ homers on the chin, saying he actually liked the Padres star’s celebrations.

“I’m all for it,” Bauer told reporters at the time. “And I think it’s important that the game moves in that direction, and we stop throwing at people because they celebrated having some success on the field.”

2022 NLDS

The Padres weren’t able to make it to the postseason in 2021, falling short of their lofty expectations as the San Francisco Giants surprisingly took the NL West from the Dodgers that year.

San Diego got back into the playoffs, though, in 2022. After some of the drama between the Padres and Dodgers subsided on the field between April 2021 and October 2022, San Diego outbid Los Angeles to land superstar outfielder Juan Soto at the 2022 trade deadline.

The Padres won their wild-card series matchup over the New York Mets, setting up another playoff battle with their southern California rival. Although it was a playoff battle, both teams kept their cool during the 2022 NLDS. Los Angeles, who won 111 games in 2022, was upset by an 89-win San Diego team in the series. The Padres won the series, 3-1, scoring five runs in the seventh inning of their comeback win in Game 4 to clinch their spot in the NLCS.

May 2023

Some off-field antics caused another moment in the rivalry in May 2023. The Padres chased Kershaw out of a game in 4.2 innings in a game at Petco Park on May 6. After San Diego won that game, the scoreboards at Petco Park displayed the usual “Padres Win” signage following Padres victories. However, they added an image of Kershaw crying next to the text, with the image looking like the popular Michael Jordan crying meme. 

While the action caused some controversy, Kershaw didn’t seem too upset by the matter. He said on Betts’ podcast later that month that, “if you don’t like it, you just got to pitch better.”

The Padres might have been dealt a deal of karma after placing a crying image of Kershaw on their video boards, though. They lost 10 of their next 12 games following the incident. They also lost five games in a row to the Dodgers after the ordeal, playing a hand in why they missed the postseason in 2023. 

April 2024

After a few years without any real tension on the field, the fire in the Padres-Dodgers rivalry lit up again in April. Padres outfielder Jurickson Profar took exception to a pitch Dodgers starter Gavin Stone threw in the fifth inning of a game at Dodger Stadium. Stone’s pitch was high and inside, causing Profar to take a couple steps back to avoid getting hit by the pitch. 

Profar appeared to say something to the home plate ump before Dodgers catcher Will Smith said something back at him. Profar and Smith exchanged words, with the home plate ump separating the two as the benches cleared.

Smith mocked the idea that Profar thought the Dodgers were throwing at him in an interview after the game.

“I don’t know why we would have thrown at him … he’s kind of irrelevant,” Smith told 570 AM in Los Angeles.

In the following game, Profar showed he’s relevant. He hit a three-run double in the seventh inning of a Padres 6-3 win over the Dodgers. Profar didn’t want to speak about Smith’s comments, but the Padres had his back, even making a “Mr. Relevant” shirt that fans can purchase.

Profar made his first All-Star Game in July, joining Smith on the National League roster. Smith took the opportunity to apologize to Profar for his comment then. 

“It was the situation only,” Smith told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “My bad. It was nothing personal. … He’s fiery, plays hard. He’s a competitor. In competition, the best and worst comes out of us. He’s a competitor and a good player.”

Game 2 of 2024 NLDS

Continuing an every-other-year trend, the Padres and Dodgers met up again in the postseason in 2024. The Padres made a late-season surge to possibly steal the NL West from the Dodgers, but Los Angeles clinched the division in a series between the two teams in the final week of the regular season. San Diego settled for a wild-card spot, but Machado knew a playoff battle with its division rival was on the horizon.

“No disappointment,” Machado told reporters after the Dodgers clinched the NL West. “We’re in the postseason. We’re going to see them in a few weeks.”

Sur enough, Machado’s prediction came true after the Padres swept the Atlanta Braves in two games in the wild-card round, setting up another battle with the Dodgers in the NLDS. Los Angeles took Game 1 with Shohei Ohtani stamping his mark in the rivalry, crushing an early three-run homer that tied the game and sparked a comeback Dodgers win.

The rivalry might have reached its apex in Game 2. After Tatis gave San Diego a 1-0 lead with his homer in the first inning, it appeared Betts was about to even up the game with a homer of his own in the bottom half of the frame. However, Profar robbed Betts of a home run, trolling Dodgers fans in the process as he made it appear that he didn’t make the grab before exchanging some words. 

Tensions only rose from there. After striking out Machado in the sixth inning, Dodgers starter Jack Flaherty exchanged words with the Padres star, with each appearing to hurl some expletives at each other. Prior to the start of the bottom of the sixth inning, Machado tossed a ball toward the Dodgers’ dugout.

Machado’s toss to the dugout caused the Dodgers to send tape of the incident to Major League Baseball, with Roberts calling it, “unsettling.”

“I don’t know his intent. I don’t want to speak for him,” Roberts told reporters. “But I did see the video. And the ball was directed at me with something behind it.”

MLB reportedly won’t discipline Machado for the matter. Tensions still ran hot and heavy during Game 2, with Dodgers fans hurling items at Profar and Tatis in the outfield. Padres manager Mike Shildt called it a “hostile environment,” but said his team was “not going to back down.”

The Padres certainly didn’t back down in Game 2. They won Sunday’s game, 10-2, before taking Game 3, 6-5. There weren’t any heated moments between the two teams in Game 3, but Machado took an unusual route while running to second base on a ground ball hit to Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman in the second inning. Freeman’s throw to second to try to induce a double play deflected off Machado into left field, sparking a six-run inning for the Padres.

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