SAN DIEGO _ In a playful mood in July 2019 at Dodger Stadium, Manny Machado decided to give as good as he got when a front-row heckler set his sights on the Padres' newly minted $300 million man as he walked into the on-deck circle.
Congrats ... You've got 10 straight Octobers off ... You could have had it all in L.A.
Alternating windmills with the bat in each hand, Machado, surprisingly, turned to the Dodgers fan.
"Bet you my contract," he said, "that we'll win the World Series before you guys do."
A bold if certainly not binding proposition as Machado settled into his new home in San Diego.
While Machado had no idea his Padres would be standing directly in the Dodgers' path a year later in this week's NLDS matchup, albeit with two important arms potentially tied behind their back, the head-to-head meeting is quite a handful for even the winningest product in Padres history.
That's because the 2020 Dodgers, like the Padres in this COVID-19-shortened season, won at a far higher clip than any other team in their 137-year history.
Not only was their .717 winning percentage 35 points better than the efforts of the 1953 Brooklyn Dodgers and the 1899 Brooklyn Superbas, that rate extrapolated over a 162-game season would add up to a 116-win season, or 10 more victories than last year's franchise-record product.
What a 43-17 mark meant this year was a six-game cushion in claiming an eighth straight NL West title even with the Padres posting the second-best record in the NL.
The Dodgers built that lead by pacing the majors with a plus-136-run differential, 52 runs better than the Padres, the next-best team.
They paired a former MVP (Mookie Betts) with their reigning MVP (Cody Bellinger). Their old Cy Young winner (Clayton Kershaw) returned to form to make up for an injury-riddled year from the current up-and-comer (Walker Buehler). Their old Achilles' heel (the bullpen) became a strength this year. The nucleus has remained largely intact since the Dodgers have become perennial World Series contenders under the current regime.
As the heckler put it last summer, Machado _ who played the second half of 2018 with the Dodgers _ could have won five World Series in 10 years in L.A.
"Why haven't you even won one?" Machado retorted.
Good question.
