Padres' Manny Machado Gets Honest About Losing to Dodgers in NLDS

The San Diego Padres haven't forgotten the 2024 National League Division Series loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Padres led the best-of-five NLDS 2-1, with Game 4 set to be played in front of their passionate fans at Petco Park. However, their offense suddenly went cold. After scoring 21 runs in the first 20 innings of the series, they were held scoreless for the final 24 innings.

Losing two in a row left a bad taste in their mouths, especially third baseman Manny Machado.

“I hate losing, I really do," Machado told USA TODAY Sports. “We had them. We had them. But we came up short. When you lose to the champions, it stings. You see them win it all, it’s like, 'Damn, it could have been us right?’

“You soak it in, and after that, you got to flip the switch. You got no choice. But that’s the beauty of baseball. The stuff gets harder every year. That’s why I love this game so much, it keeps you hungry."

The Padres felt like they had the series won and the two teams in the series were arguably the best two teams in baseball at that point.

“I can tell you it was rough," Padres manager Mike Shildt said, “real rough. It left a really bad taste and a real emptiness because there was so much invested. That feeling will never go away.

“We can win the next two or three World Series, and it’ll still be there. But I’m glad it’s there for me, and I’m glad it’s there for our group.

“We were right there. We had them. I don’t want to dwell on it to the point where it overtakes me or us, but there’s an edge that’s there now and a hungriness for us to compete."

San Diego and Los Angeles only met once during Cactus League play and won't meet again until a three-game series starts on June 9 at Petco Park.

Both teams are expected to be in the hunt for the postseason and one of them will have to be a Wild Card team which sets them up to potentially meet again in order for one of them to win the World Series.

For more Padres news, head over to Padres on SI.