It’s ridiculous to think that 32 games into the 2023 regular season and 130 still to go that this weekend’s three-game series with the NL West second-place San Diego Padres for the NL West first-place Los Angeles Dodgers is the biggest series of the season thus far, but the simple truth is that it is.

Now that you’ve finished laughing hysterically, allow my to explain.

With only 19.7530864% of the 2023 regular season officially in the books for Dodgers manager Dave Roberts‘ team, Padres manager Bob Melvin‘s team trails them by a mere 1.5 games in the NL West. In other words, by the end of Sunday’s nationally televised 4:10 PM PT series finale at Petco Park, the Dodgers could find themselves a respectable 4.5 games up on the Friars … or a game and a half behind them.

“It’s good to know that we’re playing our best baseball at this point right now,” Roberts said, following his team’s 10-6 win over the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday before Thursday’s off day.

Then again, it’s hard not to hear the voice of beloved Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda echoing in our heads:

“You don’t want to be in first place after the the first game of the season, you want tb be in first place after the last game of the season.”

Play Ball!

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