Padres put Dodgers on notice after walk-off win, huge trade deadline

The San Diego Padres ended up making waves at the trade deadline, although not exactly the ones fans expected. After hearing for weeks that AJ Preller was shopping at the top of the starting pitching trade market, including for Garrett Crochet, the front office instead pivoted to completely overhauling the bullpen by making a huge trade for Tanner Scott and Bryan Hoeing with the Marlins in addition to acquiring Jason Adam from the Rays.

The Padres' new super-bullpen could be a huge boon for San Diego in the coming months, but the team had an immediate test as they began a two-game set against the Dodgers. Given that San Diego is just a handful of games back in the NL West, now is as good a time as any to make a statement against one of their biggest rivals.

Luckily, that is exactly what happened. While the Padres' new bullpen additions didn't contribute this time, a late rally spearheaded by homers from Manny Machado and Jackson Merrill in the ninth inning followed by a walk-off single from Donovan Solano gave San Diego a huge win.

Padres make sure the Dodgers notice their relevance in come-from-behind win

This game had almost everything the Padres could have asked for. After a rare off night from knuckleballer Matt Waldron, San Diego got a pair of homers from Manny Machado, who San Diego desperately needs to get going especially with Fernando Tatis Jr. still on the shelf. Jackson Merrill continued to make his NL Rookie of the Year case with the game-tying homer in the ninth. As for the bullpen without the Padres' new additions, they threw six scoreless innings to keep the team in the game.

More importantly, Tuesday's win gave the Padres a 6-3 record against the Dodgers in 2024. If the Padres win on Wednesday, that would clinch the season series with LA and have them owning the tiebreaker against the Dodgers by season's end.

With the Dodgers pitching staff looking very vulnerable at the moment due to their ongoing injury issues, this series is a chance for the Padres to set the tone for what is left of the 2024 season. LA certainly isn't going to go down without a fight as they are (sadly) quite good, but putting them on their back foot with two months to go in the season could bode well for San Diego's stretch run.

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