Major League Baseball

Dodgers back to asserting dominance over Padres after playoff letdown

Updated May. 15, 2023 3:22 p.m. ET

LOS ANGELES — Their hats featured a lighter hue. Their cleats and socks included hints of pink. Other than their uniforms, Sunday's performance on Mother's Day looked typical for a first-place Dodgers team that continued steamrolling the Padres while tightening their grasp on the National League West.

A shutout win provided the dagger in a weekend sweep as the Dodgers captured their 11th straight regular-season series victory against the Padres going back to August 2021. They have not lost a season series to San Diego since 2010.

"We have a really good team," Mookie Betts said after homering in Sunday's 4-0 win. "We're just showing it."

While nothing the Dodgers do this May will erase what transpired last October, their regular-season dominance over the Padres persists in a way that did not seem destined to continue.

After San Diego prevailed in last year's division series showdown, the Dodgers took a step back in spending as the Padres kept adding, acquiring free-agent shortstop Xander Bogaerts and extending Manny Machado and Yu Darvish this offseason. The Padres' payroll vaulted to the third-highest in the sport.

"We have the people in the room that can take it to the next level and win the world championship," Padres chairman Peter Seidler declared this spring.

A 19-22 start to the 2023 season was not part of the plan.

"We've just got to keep fighting, stay confident and believe we're coming out of it," Padres manager Bob Melvin said after getting swept Sunday, striking a more positive tone than the one he had Thursday when he voiced his frustrations after a series defeat to the Twins.

The Padres find themselves in a much different place now than they did a week ago, when it seemed like the return of Fernando Tatís Jr. might have provided the jumpstart needed to kick them into gear.

They were 9-11 with a team OPS that ranked 22nd in baseball when Tatís was activated from his suspension on April 20. With Tatís back, the Padres won nine of their next 13 games, capped by a 5-2 win against the Dodgers in which Tatís homered twice off Clayton Kershaw. But the glee was short-lived, and the offensive woes persisted.

The revamped Padres lineup scored just three runs over the final two games of last weekend's series against Los Angeles. Then the Twins took two of three from San Diego in Minnesota, prompting Melvin's plea for better baseball.

Instead, an anemic Padres offense plated a total of four runs over three games this weekend at Dodger Stadium, getting quieter each day. After recording eight hits and going 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position Friday, the Padres mustered eight hits combined over the next two days while going 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position on Saturday and Sunday.

The return of Tatís has not yet fully ignited a Padres offense that currently sports the same OPS as the Kansas City Royals (.697).

"Five days ago, we were talking about us coming out of this thing, and then we haven't been able to sustain it," Melvin said. "Until we sustain it, we're not the team that we expect to be."

The struggles are even more staggering considering Juan Soto is back to his hard-hitting ways, now holding a team-best .886 OPS on the year. Bogaerts carried the Padres' offense early in the season but has a .162 batting average over his past 18 games. Machado, meanwhile, has yet to get going this year with a .654 OPS.

"Keep playing," Machado said. "That's all we can do. I think we're doing everything we can out there, and s---'s just not going our way. We're going through that stretch. It's all right. Just keep our head up and come out tomorrow. We might lose tomorrow. We might not. Who knows? But go out there and perform, keep playing our game, that's all we can do."

Machado maintained confidence that the rough stretch is nothing more than that — that the talent assembled will eventually win out.

"Everybody in here knows what we've got," he said.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers are putting what they've got on display. They've won 13 of 15 games and hold a three-game lead on the second-place Diamondbacks while boasting an NL-best 26-15 record. Their advantage over the third-place Padres has ballooned to seven games, with the two teams not meeting again until August.

They've weathered a concussion to Will Smith that held the Dodgers catcher out for 13 games, a back injury to J.D. Martinez that held the designated hitter out for 15 games and five players going on the paternity list throughout the early season.

And they've continued dominating their most dangerous foe. After this weekend's sweep, the Dodgers are now 19-6 against the Padres in the regular season since the start of last year.

"I think we're playing good baseball," manager Dave Roberts said. "I know that. We know we have a good ballclub. Like I said before, it's just good to play good baseball against a team like that, put some distance ahead of us and them."

Over the winter, Roberts lamented that the Dodgers seemed to lack the same intensity as the Padres during the NLDS. However, that same level-headedness also might help explain how the Dodgers won a franchise record 111 games last season and have captured the division 10 of the past 11 seasons.

Rather than hype this weekend's matchup with the Padres, they instead focused inward.

"There's a lot of keys to success," Roberts said. "I think one of them is putting more of an emphasis on your own ballclub and not getting distracted by other variables, other factors, other teams. I think, for me, it's been a hallmark of all of our ballclubs, and this year is no different."

This year is different, however, considering the roster construction. The Dodgers no longer have Trea Turner or Cody Bellinger or Justin Turner. They did not go into this season expecting to break a new wins record. Roberts did not guarantee a World Series, the way he did a year ago. He acknowledged the possibility of more volatility.

But he, along with his players, also expressed belief.

"We know we have a good ballclub," Roberts repeated. "I think the hallmark of our ballclub is a lot of unselfish guys but also guys that do a really good job of staying in the moment."

The new-look Padres, meanwhile, can't wait until this moment passes.

"I think at the end of the year, things will be a little bit different," Machado said. "We've just got to keep fighting through it."

Rowan Kavner covers the Dodgers and NL West for FOX Sports. He previously was the Dodgers’ editor of digital and print publications. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.

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