The San Diego Padres walked into Dodger Stadium this past weekend in a position few could have predicted back in May. They climbed from a nine-game deficit to a five-game winning streak after making key acquisitions at the trade deadline. Just like that, for the first time in nearly 15 years, they notched first place in the standings this late in the season. However, that lasted for only 48 hours or so.

Following a narrow 5-4 defeat on Sunday afternoon, the Padres found themselves swept in a three-game set against their sworn rivals. Now, they’re two games behind the Dodgers, who are leading with 71 wins. Across 27 innings over three games, the Padres could only stack the lead in one of them.

Yet, there are 38 games left in the season, of which three are against the Dodgers. If you ask Dodgers’ nemesis and Padres’ Dominican star– Fernando Tatis Jr., he believes the NL race is far from finished.

“We’re still aiming to win the division. We’re going to face them next week. A lot of baseball left. And with this team, we can do anything,” he said.

Catcher Freddy Fermin chimed in too, voicing what many in San Diego still believe: “This isn’t over yet. We have several games left and games left against the Dodgers.”

After this three-game series in Los Angeles, the division rivals meet again next weekend at Petco Park. It will be their final clash of the regular season.

Clearly, the upcoming series looms especially large! If you remember Dodgers-Padres’ June ‘bad blood series,’ it was all about hit by pitches, heated exchanges, ejections and manager confrontations. That’s where the league got the best active rivalry in baseball, given that the Yankees and Red Sox haven’t shown much hostility as of recent, claimed ESPN’s analyst, Tim Kurkjian, back in May this year.

Moreover, Saturday’s loss in particular marked one of the Padres’ “ugliest losses of this season,” as MLB puts it.

• Dylan Cease walked six batters.
• Three baserunners were caught stealing three times in the opening two innings.
• Rookie Jackson Merrill marked his first error of the season after dropping a fly ball that allowed two runners to score.

Still, according to Tatis Jr. and Fermin, the NL West race is far from finished.

Padres look to regroup ahead of final clash

The Padres had won 14 of their last 17 games. It seems to be boosted by their aggressive trade deadline moves. Instead of building on their first-place NL West surge, the Padres dropped all three games at Dodger Stadium and now stand at 69 wins.

Fernando Tatis Jr. admitted it too that the Padres weren’t at their best this time. “Obviously, we didn’t play our best… we just could’ve played better,” he said after the sweep.

During Sunday’s game, the Padres rallied from 4-0 to tie the game in the eighth inning. That tie lasted only for three pitches in the bottom of the inning. However, the final blow came from the Dodgers star Mookie Betts. He launched a go-ahead homer off Robert Suarez that sealed the Padres’ loss.

Their starting rotation faltered poorly throughout the series. Yu Darvish ended up giving up four runs in the first inning during the last game. It included a three-run shot by Freddie Freeman and also the solo homer that came from Andy Pages. In fact, during Friday’s game, the Padres lost Michael King to the injured list.

Hopefully, Padres know what to do this week before going against the Dodgers.