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View Winners → Sports Oct 14, 2022
Courtesy Mat Weller
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The National League Division Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres shifts to San Diego Friday after the teams split two games at Dodger Stadium.
Right-hander Tony Gonsolin is set to start for the Dodgers in what would be his second major league appearance since Aug. 24. The 2022 All-Star Game selection was on the injured list from Aug. 26 through Oct. 3 because of a right forearm strain.
“Certainly there’s going to be some restrictions on Tony,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said in a Zoom call Thursday. “I don’t know what they are right now. I know that he’s built up, upwards to 75 pitches. We’ll see how it goes with his stuff and effectiveness.”
Gonsolin pitched two shutout innings in a rehabilitation start for the Oklahoma City Dodgers, the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate, Sept. 27 and allowed one run and three hits in a two-inning start against the Colorado Rockies Oct. 3.
Gonsolin was 16-1 during the regular season for a major league-best .947 winning percentage with a 2.14 ERA. He was 2-0 with a 0.71 ERA against the Padres, with 14 strikeouts and one walk. Both appearances against San Diego came at Dodger Stadium.
Gonsolin is 4-0 lifetime against the Padres with a 1.45 ERA.
Blake Snell is set to start for San Diego. The left-hander is 2-1 with a 1.27 ERA in his five starts since Sept. 16, including allowing two runs and four hits in 3 1/3 innings in the Padres’ 7-3 loss to the New York Mets in Game 2 of a wild-card series Saturday.
Snell was 8-10 with a 3.38 ERA in the regular season, including an 0-1 record with a 6.00 ERA in two starts against the Dodgers.
“I really like facing these guys because I know how good they are,” said Snell, who is 1-1 with a 2.86 ERA in eight starts lifetime against the Dodgers.
San Diego was 9-15 in Snell’s 24 regular-season starts. He did not make a major league appearance until May 18 because of a left abductor strain. The Dodgers were 19-5 in Gonsolin’s 24 regular-season starts.
The game will be the first postseason game at Petco Park with fans since 2006.
“I expect it to be pretty insane, which I’m really excited about,” Snell said. “I know when we beat New York, I saw the fans were going crazy, so I’m really excited to see what they’ve got, see what they bring, and hopefully we get a couple wins and can see them go even crazier.”
Snell said everyone he knows in the San Diego has asked him for a ticket, “so I stop replying. Sorry.”
Said San Diego manager Bob Melvin: “I can’t say enough about the fan base and what they’ve done this year. I don’t know how they can surpass as far as enthusiasm what they’ve done during the season, but I wouldn’t put it past them.”
The Padres’ only postseason games at Petco Park since 2006 before Friday were three wild-card series games against the St. Louis Cardinals in 2020 that fans were not permitted to attend in an attempt to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
The Dodgers won six of nine games against the Padres at Petco Park and 14 of 19 overall.
The game is set to begin at 5:37 p.m. and will be televised by FS1.
The Padres tied the best-of-five series at one game a piece with a 5-3 victory Wednesday with Manny Machado and Jake Cronenworth each hitting solo home runs and driving in two runs and three relievers shutting out the Dodgers over the final four innings.
