Padres Editorial: Padres Hoping to Play Spoiler Against Dodgers

By Daryll Dorman | Sep 29, 2015

In their long history dating back to New York, the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers have both had hands in regular season collapses before. Bobby Thompson might be one of the most famous examples where the two met head-to-head to settle the score, but sometimes other teams can also have a hand in late season collapses. This year – the Padres just might be able to have that chance as well.

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Last night the Giants won in 12 innings to defeat the Dodgers 3-2. With that win, the defending champions have now gone just 5-5 in their last 10 but it is their third consecutive win while the Dodgers have fallen to 2-8 in their last 10 and 4 straight losses. The two have three games left against each other before both finish the season at home against NL West basement dwellers. The Giants host the last place Rockies while the Dodgers host the San Diego Padres.

Currently the Dodgers magic number stands at just 2, so the Giants need to sweep the remaining 3 games of the 4 game series to have any hope of making a miraculous comeback to win the NL West for the first time since 2012 as they entered the 2014 playoffs as a wildcard. These two have a history of making things miserable for the other when the season winds it way down to October:

– In 1982 the Giants and Dodgers entered a season ending series one game back of first place. The Giants lost the first two to eliminate themselves but then beat the Dodgers on the final day to keep them out of the playoffs as well.

– In 1991 the Atlanta Braves began their run of 14 consecutive division titles, but only after the Giants took 2 of 3 from the Dodgers to keep them out by one game.

– The Dodgers returned the favor in 1993 by dominating the Giants on the last day of the season to keep the 103 win Giants out of the playoffs by one game to the Atlanta Braves again. Of course this would be the final year of just two divisions before the wild card was implemented in 1995.

As the Padres head to the Dodgers place Friday to finish out a lost season, the Dodgers might have a lot more than getting ready for October on their mind. They could enter the series clinging to a 2 game lead and trying to avoid one of the worst collapses in recent memory to the team that it would hurt the most. Will the Padres get a chance to add to this stories history?

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