What Went Wrong: Padres Come Up Short in NLDS Thriller

The San Diego Padres have a knack for making things interesting. This year was no different. The Padres had another amazing season that saw them go toe-to-toe with the Los Angeles Dodgers for the National League West, but while the Dodgers did go on to win the West, the Padres did snag one of the National League's three Wild Card spots. The Padres snagged the 1st Wild Card position, giving them homefield in their series against an Atlanta Braves team that persevered despite being ravaged with injuries.

The Padres took care of Atlanta in just two games, and that set up a meeting between themselves and the Dodgers. Oh boy. The Padres have been owning the Dodgers lately. Two years ago, San Diego upset the Dodgers in the NLDS, and this year, the Padres went 8-5 vs LA. So yeah, it's safe to say that the Padres do have the Dodgers' number as of late.

Game One did go the Dodgers' way, and saw Shohei Ohtani homer in his very first MLB postseason game. However, the Padres blasted the Dodgers in a heated Game Two that saw Dodgers fans act immensely ornery and classless, and that fired the Padres up. A 10-2 victory in that game, and a 6-5 win in Game Three that saw all six Padres run scored in the 2nd inning. It looked like deja vu all over again. It definitely looked like the Padres would get the best of the Dodgers yet again.

Despite this, a funny thing happened. The Padres bats totally went cold after that second inning. Shutout the rest of the way. Shutout in Game Four, and blanked again in Game Five. The bats went cold in a warm climate, and that resulted in the Padres' season coming to an end. So yes, the team running out of runs was exactly what went wrong. The funny thing? Even with the offense dying at the end, the numbers were still amazing.

The Padres hit 11 home runs in seven postseason games. Four of them were hit by Fernando Tatis, Jr.; he is just absolutely amazing. Tatis had 11 hits in this year's postseason, and regarding the team's HR total, Kyle Higashioka hit three, as John Sterling called them when Higgy was a Yankee, "home run strokas." Xander Bogaerts, Manny Machado, Jackson Merrill, and David Peralta each homered once in this year's postseason. So yeah, the Padres were definitely crushing it and getting the hits. It was the last two games against LA that they were snakebit and couldn't buy a single hit. In fact, the Padres only had two hits in Game Five vs the Dodgers.

Overall, this was a classic case of the better team winning. Absolutely no shame there.

So the Dodgers are back in the NLCS for the first time since 2021, so North America's two largest sports markets will represent three-quarters of this year's Final Four. Very interesting. As for the Padres, they'll be back. Why wouldn't they? The lineup's deep. The rotation's deep. This team does know how to beat the Dodgers, at least that's been the case in the last few years. So yeah, we should see the Padres in many postseasons for the next few years. But will any of those chances finally result in their first championship in franchise history? They may need another piece or two for that to finally come to fruition.

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