The Los Angeles Dodgers bested the San Diego Padres by a score of 7-2 on Friday night thanks in large measure to the early damage they did against Yu Darvish. The Dodgers tied a franchise record by hitting three home runs in the first inning off the Padres' veteran right-hander:
That onslaught included Freddie Freeman's 10th homer of the season and Justin Turner's 150th as a Dodger. Darvish's counterpart, Tyler Anderson, fared much better, as he allowed one run in 6 1/3 innings with six strikeouts and two walks. Saturday's win pushes the Dodgers lead in the NL West to 4 1/2 games over San Diego, and they'll go for the four-game sweep on Sunday.
This continues a recent trend of Dodger dominance over their Southern California rivals. The Dodgers this season are now 5-1 against the Padres, and in those games they've outscored them by a count of 33-10. Overall, the Dodgers have won 14 of the last 15 head-to-head contests.
Peer a bit more deeply, and you'll find that this has been going on for some time. Indeed, the Dodgers have won their season series against the Padres every year since 2010. Yes, that's 11 straight years of winning the season series over the Padres, and the Dodgers are well on their way to making it 12 in 2022. Here's how that run breaks down:
Year
Dodgers' record vs. Padres
2021
12-7
2020
6-4
2019
13-6
2018
14-5
2017
13-6
2016
11-8
2015
14-5
2014
12-7
2013
11-8
2012
11-7
2011
13-5
Throw in their 5-1 mark against the Padres this season, and the Dodgers since the start of the 2011 season are 124-62 against them. In other words, they've won exactly two of every three head-to-head games versus the Pads. To put that in context, that's a 108-win pace across 162 games. Also, these numbers don't include L.A.'s three-game sweep of the Padres in the 2020 NLDS. Sure, the Dodgers' recent run of dominance overlaps much of this, but they've been dominant against the Padres even by the Dodgers' usual standards of dominance.
As you probably figured out already, this streak is likely going to extend at least another year. The Padres will have to go 9-4 against the Dodgers over their remaining head-to-head games this year in order to take the 2022 season series. While San Diego is has been a very good team thus far -- and will be even better once Fernando Tatis Jr. returns from injury -- that's not likely to happen.
It's fair to call Dodgers-Padres a rivalry, but it's been a wholly one-sided one for more than a decade.
