The Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres are far from the longest-standing rivals in baseball, but in recent years, they have become among the most intense.

Manager Dave Roberts spoke on the rivals down south and what has created so much tension in recent seasons.

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“I think it’s become a rivalry because the stakes have been higher, which we’ve seen in the last few years,” Roberts said.

“I just have a hard time believing something could be a rivalry when there’s no stakes. And I think that with the talent that they’ve accrued, and the way they’ve played over the last few years, the stakes have gotten higher. And that’s a compliment to the organization, to those guys. And I can see that now.”

For all the extracurriculars, name-calling, and highly-touted ball games, the two franchises only met in October for the first time in 2020. That meeting has marked the beginning of a new, drama-filled saga for the divisional opponents, but it has surely lived up to expectations.

With the Dodgers winning the first postseason meeting by way of a 3-0 sweep in the 2020 NLDS, it was just the first stop on the way to a dominant World Series run for L.A. After the Dodgers met their primary divisional rival (and one with bad blood dating back to the late 1800s) in the San Francisco Giants in 2021, losing in the NLCS only made L.A. push harder the following season.

The 2022 NLDS once again featured the Dodgers and Padres, with L.A. coming off a gargantuan 111-win season, but San Diego now had Juan Soto, Yu Darvish, Blake Snell, and enough star power to take them down in four games.

The most recent meetup in the 2024 NLDS featured a 2-1 series lead from San Diego, but it was soon followed by 24 scoreless innings from the Friars to allow the Dodgers to dominate and move through October to the eighth World Series in franchise history.

The two teams are now battling for the NL West— something the Padres haven’t won in nearly 20 years. To do that, though, they’ll have to go through the reigning champs, who proved Monday night they’re not going anywhere.

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Photo Credit: Kiyoshi Mio-USA TODAY Sports

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