Dodgers, Padres (kind of) declare truce with compliment fest during All-Star break

The Dodgers and Padres are rivals almost every day out of the year, but they're forced to call a truce and play on the same team for one day of the season. The All-Star Game is all for fun — if we ever saw a benches-clearing brawl in the Midsummer Classic, the resulting ejections and suspensions would be biblical — and division rivals and fans alike can forget how much they hate everyone else for one evening.

In at Atlanta, LA and San Diego's players did a full 180 from when we last saw them on a field together and instead were all smiles and compliments.

Former Dodger Manny Machado said of All-Star "legend pick" Clayton Kershaw, "He was the best. It was an honor to play behind him, watch him throw. ... What a competitor. He's a Hall of Famer for sure."

Will Smith, who arguably kicked the rivalry up a notch when he called Jurickson Profar "irrelevant" last year, admitted that Fernando Tatis Jr. is "giving 100 percent every time he goes out there, which is cool."

Tatis, in turn, brought a little bit of saltiness to the All-Star Game, when he admitted that Shohei Ohtani was the best player in baseball but referred to him as "17 for the blue team."

Dodgers and Padres called a truce and had a compliment-off during All-Star festivities

The Dodgers have two series and six games left to go against the Padres this season, and it would be more surprising if there aren't any fireworks than if there are. The last time they saw each other, multiple players were hit by pitches, warnings were doled out, and managers Dave Roberts and Mike Schildt were both ejected. (Schildt wasn't in attendance at the All-Star Game, but if he had been, it seems unlikely that he and Roberts would have joined in on the lovefest).

Dodgers-Padres is, once again, a plausible postseason matchup. If the postseason started tomorrow, the Dodgers would get a bye to the NLDS while the Padres would face the Phillies in the Wild Card, then see the Cubs in the NLDS, then get to the Dodgers (provided both clubs get that far).

It's nice to see them make peace for a day, though. If Braves fans could cheer on the Phillies' Kyle Schwarber in that tie-breaking Home Run Derby, then anything is possible.