In the run-up to this week’s National League Division Series, it was the quietest player on the Dodgers roster who delivered the most profound speech. This series, soft-spoken veteran Chris Taylor told his teammates in a hitter’s meeting before Game 1 on Saturday , would be all about intensity. “Every time we play these guys, they always have high intensity and a lot of energy,” Taylor said of the San Diego Padres, recounting the message of his address to a reporter a day later.
So, he implored the club, “We need to match that.” Entering Game 3 on Tuesday, the bar to do so had reached the stratosphere. Over the previous 48 hours, the psychological dynamic of this rivalry matchup dramatically shifted.
Dodgers fans threw objects at Padres players during Game 2, prompting one of their relievers to suggest moving a potential Game 5 out of Chavez Ravine. That same night, San Diego third baseman Manny Machado zipped a baseball toward manager Dave Roberts in the Dodgers dugout, causing a two-day news cycle that ratched up Monday following critical comments from Roberts and a Major League Baseball review of video of the incident. In the hours before Game 3, pregame news conferences for both teams featured more talk about mindset and motivation than game plans and strategy.
And by first pitch at Petco Park, it all led to one question: Which team would handle their raw emotions better, and effectively channel them over the rest of this best-of-five series? The answer came n.
