The Padres and Dodgers have quickly developed an intense and heated rivalry, and given MLB’s unbalanced scheduling that means both teams will see each other plenty throughout the season.
That includes a series this weekend at Dodger Stadium, with the Padres taking wins in the first two games heading into today. Last night Fernando Tatis Jr. went deep twice, and he followed it up tonight by launching one off of Dodgers starter (and total knob) Trevor Bauer.
FERNANDO TATIS JR. HAS DONE IT AGAIN pic.twitter.com/8y9KMtRqMx
— MLB (@MLB) April 25, 2021
Tatis, though, took it a step farther by mocking Bauer as he rounded first:
omg a king https://t.co/xl4YgDcGML
— katie dzwierzynski (@kdzwierzynski) April 25, 2021
did he just cover his eye rounding first base or… https://t.co/O5SQlv9a2c
— keithlaw (@keithlaw) April 25, 2021
That’s a solid tweaking of Bauer, who pitched with one eye closed against San Diego during spring training. Of course, Bauer is on the record supporting Tatis bringing flair to the game (a rare likable moment for Bauer!), though that was before they were divisional rivals.
Hey @tatis_jr listen up:
1) Keep swinging 3-0 if you want to, no matter what the game situation is
2) Keep hitting homers, no matter what the situation is
3) Keep bringing energy and flash to baseball and making it fun
4) The only thing you did wrong was apologize. Stop that.— Trevor Bauer (トレバー・バウアー) (@BauerOutage) August 18, 2020
The Padres were off to a relatively slow start to the season, and a Dodgers sweep this weekend may have really been damaging for San Diego’s NL West hopes. If the Padres hold on to win tonight, though, taking at least three games against LA, it’s only going to increase the importance of future meetings between these two teams, who genuinely don’t seem to like each other.
That’s a good thing!
