The Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres met in the National League Division Series for the third time in five years, bringing their rivalry to another level.
The Dodgers came back to win Game 1 on Saturday before the Padres responded in a major way on Sunday night. Fernando Tatis Jr. homered off of Jack Flaherty while Jurickson Profar robbed a home run from former Red Sox outfielder and current Dodgers star Mookie Betts.
The rivalry peaked in the seventh inning when fans threw a baseball toward Profar in left field, leading to an extended delay after previous confrontations between players such as Flaherty and Manny Machado. The Padres huddled in the dugout at the end of the inning with an impassioned speech from Machado.
That did the job for San Diego as Jackson Merrill and former Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts swatted back-to-back home runs to stretch the lead for the Padres. The Bogaerts long ball marked his sixth career postseason home run and his first since Game 4 of the 2021 American League Championship Series against the Houston Astros.
Bogaerts, who won a pair of championships with the Red Sox, brought plenty of postseason experience when he signed a massive free agent contract with the Padres before the 2023 season. He showed up in Game 1 with a pair of hits and RBIs against the Dodgers.
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The Padres split the series and head home to San Diego with a chance to repeat history where they eliminated Los Angeles in four games and clinched at Petco Park in 2022.
Featured image via Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Imagn Images
