The San Diego Padres confronted the Los Angeles Dodgers within the Nationwide League Division Sequence, a rivalry matchup that was arguably extra entertaining than the Fall Traditional. The NLDS featured drama, enjoyable, and back-and-forth baseball within the 5 video games performed, however the Dodgers finally escaped with a win.
Supervisor Mike Shildt used the phrase “surprised” to explain San Diego’s closing 24 innings of the season. Lower than just a few weeks later, the NL West rivals had been as soon as once more pitted in opposition to one another for the Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki.
On Friday, Sasaki introduced he was signing with the Dodgers. Sasaki’s determination is one other gorgeous loss for a corporation that has had little success this winter. To make issues worse, the Padres didn’t make the ultimate two. The Sasaki sweepstakes got here all the way down to the Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays.
In November, Padres pitcher Yu Darvish expressed his disappointment with a number of Japanese stars equivalent to Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani becoming a member of the Dodgers as a substitute of his membership. Darvish hoped Sasaki would spearhead the change by teaming up with him in San Diego.
At a vacation celebration earlier this winter, Darvish commented on the Sasaki sweepstakes, a storyline that has dominated the headlines for the reason that begin of the offseason.
“I believe it’s a great factor if he had been to return to San Diego,” Darvish said via interpreter Shingo Horie. “Only for myself personally, if it does occur, yeah, it’s a fantastic factor for me as effectively. However we’ll see how issues shake out.
“I don’t suppose there’s a lot that I can do. He is aware of what he desires, he’ll make his determination, and I’m positive there’s going to be a few conferences arising for him. And that may give him a possibility to see what organizations are like. I’m positive he’s going to make his determination, and we’ll all be respectful of that.”
As Darvish stated, all there’s left to do is respect Sasaki’s determination and transfer on. There are nonetheless a number of selections that should be made earlier than spring coaching begins, however the lack of Sasaki is one other punch to the morale of a corporation confronted with monetary uncertainty and an possession lawsuit.
