Los Angeles Dodgers: Big hits needed in first series against Padres

For the first time this season, the Los Angeles Dodgers will square off against the San Diego Padres, who have had a surprisingly good start to 2019.

When the Los Angeles Dodgers play the San Diego Padres it is usually regarded as a throwaway series for the Dodgers in which they should at least take the series. While that does not happen every time, the Dodgers have dominated the Padres this decade.

However, this year it is different as the Padres have started the season off surprisingly well and are only one and a half games behind the Dodgers for first place in the National League West.

Everyone knew that the Padres could become something special after signing Manny Machado. The team has one of, if not the, best farm systems in baseball and added a young superstar to the mix. There was no question that the team was set up for success, it just did not seem possible this early.

The year is still early though and eventually, the grind of the big league season will probably take a toll on the young guys and things will start to even out. Even after the hot start, I can only see the Padres falling in the 80-84 win range, nothing more.

The Padres have nearly half as many games against teams that are above .500 (12) than the Dodgers (21), however, the team does have a solid 8-4 record in those games. But still, the first month of the season has not been as difficult for the Padres.

Either way, this series will be telling as it will show how close these two teams are. This does not mean that whoever wins this series is definitively the better team.

However, if the Dodgers blow them out of the water then it will be obvious that San Diego is not quite on the same level. If San Diego blows the Dodgers out of the water, they will have arrived.

Regardless, the Los Angeles Dodgers are going to need some big hits in this series and will hopefully pour the offense on. Here is our Friday selection for our Los Angeles Dodgers Beat the Streak series.

Jason’s pick (Current streak: 4): Corey Seager

Corey Seager has not been himself to start the 2019 campaign and it is apparent that he is just trying to get back into the groove of things after missing almost an entire year with Tommy John Surgery. It is not the easiest thing to do to come back after almost a year off and pick right back off where he left off.

Picking Seager for today’s game might seem ridiculously foolish as the Dodgers are coming up against Eric Lauer, a southpaw that has held the current crop of Dodger hitters to a .211 batting average.

The lefty on lefty matchup is not promising but there are two reasons for going with Seager. First of all, he had a day to rest and is due for a base hit, those are trivial things that may or may not actually impact his performance.

The second is that Seager has no at-bats against Lauer in his career. While that might seem like it is a bad thing, perhaps Lauer just tries to feel Seager out in the first at-bat and leaves something over the heart of the plate for Seager to drive into the gap.

That is the logic at least. Seager has not been the most reliable selection this year but I am confident in him tonight.