Dodgers making World Series should have Padres fans feeling worse about NLDS loss

By all accounts, the San Diego Padres looked like they were about to run back 2022 against the Dodgers in this year's NLDS. They took a 2-1 series lead and just had to win a single game to advance to take on the Mets in the next round. Unfortunately, LA successfully silenced the Padres bats and were able to rally and bounce the Padres out of the playoffs.

That playoff loss already stung enough. There was so much bad blood between the two squads that spilled out into open skirmishes involving Manny Machado and Dave Roberts as well as the unfortunate situation involving Dodgers fans throwing things on the field early in the series. When emotions run high, the losses simply hurt more especially given how well San Diego had been playing before that.

Making matters worse, the Dodgers just handily took down the Mets in the NLCS to make the World Series, which makes it very easy to think that the Padres were tantalizingly close to doing so themselves.

For the Padres, the 2024 NLDS against the Dodgers feels like more of a missed opportunity

It is important to give credit where credit is due. The Dodgers were clearly the better team in the NLCS. The Mets were able to put together a couple of wins thanks a pair of spectacular pitching meltdowns, but LA was the stronger team 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 feels like the Padres would have demolished the Mets. Yes, yes ... the New York media was hard-selling how this Mets team was built different and had some "magic" or something. Those types of runs do happen, but talent wins the day almost every time and, like the Dodgers, San Diego would have had a clear advantage in talent there.

In some ways, these sorts of results are what make the playoffs such a unique experience. A team can win 100+ games and look untouchable, but one bad week from them or one great week from their opponent can turn the World Series picture completely upside-down. That certainly won't make Padres fans feel better as they were on the wrong end of the luck spectrum in 2024, but it is what makes the postseason so entertaining.

Still, having to watch the Dodgers, who San Diego had dead to rights a week or so ago, take on the Yankees in the World Series is going to hurt. The Yankees have a ton of talent especially now that Giancarlo Stanton has regained his former form all of a sudden, and while there is no guarantee that the Padres could have beaten them, it just would have been nice to find out if they could.

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