Dodgers need to use national media disrespect as motivation to beat Padres

The Dodgers lost Game 2 of the NLDS to the Padres on Sunday night in ugly, ugly fashion, not just because of the box score, but because of what unfolded in the outfield. Jurickson Profar, Fernando Tatis Jr., and Manny Machado certainly did everything they could to rile up fans, but it also wasn't a good look for those who forced the game to a stop for 15 minutes because of balls and trash being thrown onto the field. (Don't do that, guys. Seriously.)

In any case, the rivalry is red-hot heading to Petco Park, where we're almost certain that Padres fans will prove their players wrong about San Diegans being above that kind of behavior, and the Dodgers will have to regroup after losing Game 2 in a truly embarrassing postseason stumble.

Even before the start of the series, multiple national media outlets predicted a DS win for the Padres. For ESPN, 22 out of 27 polled insiders and experts took San Diego over LA; for Fox Sports, both writers Deesha Thosar and Rowan Kavner also put their money on the Padres.

Through two games, the Dodgers now have a myriad of reasons to beat the Padres. Shutting up Profar, Tatis, and Machado is a good enough one as it is, but the Dodgers also have the media to prove wrong.

ESPN, Fox Sports both chose the Padres over the Dodgers in NLDS matchup

The Dodgers have certainly never thought of themselves as underdogs. Their best-in-baseball regular season record didn't make them seem like underdogs, either. However, long-existing cracks in LA's armor have made themselves evident again, and they reveal a truth that the Dodgers just have to accept and then fight back against: the Padres are more complete and more dangerous.

Mookie Betts' postseason hitting slump has continued into this season. Freddie Freeman was pulled from Sunday's game because of his ankle. Pitching was bad from top to bottom on Sunday, and neither Yoshinobu Yamamoto nor Jack Flaherty have given the team the kind of starts that can get them through the CS or the World Series. Shohei Ohtani and Teoscar Hernández are the only two batters who have been able to display any kind of clutch hitting, and Ohtani completely lost steam in Game 2.

The stakes were already sky high, but with all of the drama on Sunday night, they're astronomical now. The Dodgers have at least two more games to prove that they're not all bark and no bite. If they need to get angry, they should get angry — at the Padres, at their fans, at the media. A little bit more fire is what this team is missing and what San Diego has in spades.