The San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers have a long and tense history as rivals. The NL West rivalry reached a boiling point last season when the pair squared off in the NLDS, which the Dodgers won.
However, this season, the Padres aren’t even on the Dodgers radar, at least according to Max Muncy.
The Dodgers infielder appeared on Foul Territory earlier this week. In his appearance, he discussed the rift that exists — or doesn’t exist — between the Dodgers and Padres, seemingly dissing San Diego while propping up another NL West counterpart.
“The Padres bring everything that is in a rivalry, but you only have one rival,” Muncy said. “I don't like when people say you have 'rivals.' I just think if you have a rival, it's your, you know, your counterpart, and that's always going to be the [San Francisco] Giants. For the Dodgers, at least.”
“It’s always going to be the Red Sox for the Yankees,” he added. “People always make the argument that the Astros and Yankees had a good rivalry going and it's like, that's true, but you only have one rival. And so, for me, like I said, the Padres bring everything that a rivalry brings. For me, your rival is just one team. You don't have multiple teams as your rival.”
It should be noted that Muncy has his own personal history with the Giants, more specifically his tilt with Madison Bumgarner back in 2019 in which Muncy admired a long home run into McCovey Cove, prompting Bumgarner to yell “Don’t watch the ball, run!” Muncy then responded by telling Bumgarner to “get it out of the ocean,” referring to the home run ball.
Muncy’s statement isn’t exactly wrong, as the Dodgers lead the Giants in the NL West by just 0.5 games. However, the Padres are right there, trailing the Dodgers by just one game as the trio of teams are engulfed in the tightest division race in the sport.