It’s been said so many times in the past six months than it now almost goes without saying – the once perennial NL West cellar-dwelling San Diego Padres are now not only a legitimate threat to be contenders within the division, they recently became a very real threat to win it outright.

The off-season acquisitions by new Padres general manager A.J. Preller are without question the most impressive in all of baseball – bar none. Picking up Matt Kemp, Wil Myers, James Shields, Justin Upton and Derek Norris instantly transformed a normally doormat Padres team into a very very good team. But last weekend’s addition of uber-closer Craig Kimbrel effectively made the Friars the team to beat in the NL West. And don’t think for one second that the rest of the Padres players and their manager Bud Black don’t know it.

“What he’s done in his career, the last four years, speaks for itself,” said Black after Kimbrel who, but for a complete meltdown by the Dodgers bullpen in the eighth inning, would have picked up his first save in his first opportunity with his new team. “He’s a legitimate ninth-inning guy. A four-time All-Star, a big arm, an impact bullpen guy. He makes us better.”

Not only did Kimbrel strike out the side in the bottom of the ninth in Tuesday night’s 7-3 shellacking of the Dodgers, he flat out humiliated them on only 16 pitches – most of them his trademark (and unhittable) sinking 97-MPH four-seam fastball.

Closer extraordinaire Craig Kimbrel, who’s unusual pre-delivery (appropriately) resembles a vulture on a limb, made quick work of the Dodgers in his Padres debut on Tuesday night. As he has done many times in his four-year career, he struck out the side in order. (Video Capture courtesy of SportsNet LA)

The Dodgers have now faced the 26-year-old Huntsville, Alabama native a total of 13 times during which the 56 Dodgers who have faced him are hitting a collective .160, with 30 of them having been struck out. He has given up only one earned run in his 14 innings against the Dodgers for a minuscule .064 ERA while allowing only eight hits (one a double) and walking only six for an excellent K/BB ratio of 4.50.

With only two of 19 scheduled games against the Padres in the books, the Dodgers can expect to see a lot of Kimbrel in 2015 – which brings up that rethinking thing. The best way to get to Craig Kimbrel is to leave him sitting in the Padres bullpen. In other words, avoid entering the ninth inning trailing the Padres by three runs or less. Granted, that is very unlikely to happen with 17 games remaining against their Southern California division rivals, but it’s the only surefire way to keep from having to face him.

The good news is that the Dodgers will not face the Padres at all during the months of July or August.

The bad news is that the final three games of the regular season – the three games that will, in all likelihood, determine who wins the NL West – are against the Padres; and that’s a scary proposition with the best closer in the game lurking in the Padres bullpen.