Win or go home tonight
We got our first Game 5 of the 2024 playoffs tonight as the San Diego Padres take on their rivals the Los Angeles Dodgers with a trip to the NlCS and a date with the Mets on the line. Stakes literally could not be any higher for these two high-priced teams.
The Dodgers will turn to their second-biggest investment from this past offseason as Japanese right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto for their do-or-die contest tonight. He got lit up in Game 1 against these same Padres so all things being equal it’s not a matchup that favors him. If he can at least improve upon his Game 1 performance though the other stars on the Dodgers team are plenty capable of picking him up. They’re going to need to make noise anyway if they want to move to the next round but a strong start from their $300MM arm would go a along way.
San Diego meanwhile will counter with their own Japanese ace Yu Darvish. Darvish enters this game with plenty of postseason experience under his belt but tonight’s game has to be up there among his most important assignments. It all comes down to this everyone. First pitch is set for 5:08 so hurry home after work to catch first pitch. This game promises to be epic!