Shohei Ohtani taking shot at Padres right before Dodgers' series loss was perfect

The San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers have forged quite the rivalry in recent years. Up until last offseason (and even that is debatable given San Diego's late moves this year), the Padres and Dodgers have been the most active teams in pushing for a title in the NL West, and tensions have run high at times between the two teams.

As a result, last weekend's series between the Padres and Dodgers was appointment-level sports at its best.

The crowd was raucous and that did not escape the notice of the Dodgers' biggest star, Shohei Ohtani. However, in talking about the sellout crowds in San Diego, Ohtani also decided to take a shot at Padres' fans in the process.

Little did he know, he'd be regretting that hours late when the Pads secured a 4-0 victory on Sunday to secure the series victory.

Shohei Ohtani was asked his impression of sellout crowds at Petco Park the past 2 nights: "Overall just very passionate fans here in San Diego. But I also do see that there are a lot of #Dodgers fans. So it’s hard to determine who’s home and who’s away."
— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) May 12, 2024

Sure, Ohtani was probably just gassing up the Dodgers fans in attendance and probably wasn't taking too big of a shot at San Diego, it made the Padres winning yet another series over the Dodgers even more delicious.

Shohei Ohtani's shot at Padres fans did not age well as Dodgers lose again

It always feels great to see some trash talk not go quite as planned for the other team, especially when it's the Dodgers. LA's Will Smith famously called Jurickson Profar "irrelevant" earlier in the season and Profar has since been on a tear for the Padres. Just as another update there, Profar had a pair of hits in this series while Smith went 0-for-10 with a couple walks.

The Padres have now won five of their eight games against the Dodgers this year despite the fact San Diego had to trim their roster over the offseason while LA went absolutely bonkers in free agency. Funny enough, Ohtani's comments were made right before he had to sit out the rubber game on Sunday with back soreness.

Apparently $700 million still can't buy a guy's health when his team needs him most. However, the real test will be where these two teams stand at the end of the season, but the early returns are that it may be closer than most neutral observers thought coming into 2024.

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