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For whatever reason, the Padres have had the upper hand against the Dodgers in head-to-head matchups this season, but that shouldn't mean too much heading into this weekend's series in Los Angeles.
"For whatever reason"!?! DUDE. You work for ESPN. You're breaking this down. There are plenty of reasons why the Padres own the Dodgers this year and it's your job to point them out. Just scroll down your own f_ckin' preview. It's right there. The Padres are batting .269 against the Dodgers and the Dodgers are batting .209. You know what that difference in ERA means? It means that the Dodgers pitchers give up almost 2 more runs per game than us. The Dodgers give up more runs against us. We've owned them so far at Chavez Ravine. And none of that matters!?
If one team struggles, it has the fallback position of the wild-card race, but neither club wants to be in the position of having to fend off the likes of the Marlins, Phillies, Giants, and Astros.
Ummm.. yeah... cause those teams are absolutely terrifying.
The key players in this series figure to be veterans who are used to performing under pressure (Mike Piazza or Jeff Kent), but don't be shocked if a rookie who has proven to be clutch (Josh Barfield or Dodgers closer Takashi Saito) steps into the spotlight at a pivotal time.
So basically, the keys to this series will be either the guys who've been around a while, but also maybe the guys who haven't been around as long. The only sentence that's missing is, "Also, don't forget that there are a lot of guys who aren't rookies and who aren't veterans who will be playing this weekend as well."The moral of the story is when in doubt, say whatever.