This August will see the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres play their six remaining games of the 2025 MLB season, which could determine who wins the NL West. Plus, with the Padres active leading up to last week’s trade deadline, new arrivals like Mason Miller are being thrown right into the middle of this rivalry.
Miller was acquired to bolster San Diego’s bullpen and shorten the games for the starting pitchers. Furthermore, the Padres want to have their lockdown bullpen lead the charge to overtake the division from Los Angeles.
Before the two upcoming series—first at Dodger Stadium from August 15-17, then at Petco Park from August 22-24—Miller shared his thoughts on being part of the rivalry during his appearance on “Foul Territory” on Monday.
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“They told me right away, obviously, we don’t like those guys a whole lot,” Miller said. “I haven’t really had a rivalry to that extent. The A’s play the Mariners, play the Astros a lot, and a lot of close games, and we want to win those more than others—but not a rivalry to the sense of the Padres and the Dodgers.
“So I’m excited to experience that. Definitely going to be a lot of eye-opening experiences going forward, just with playing in front of all these fans and playing these big rivalry games that mean so much.”
“They told me right away that we don’t like those guys a whole lot.”
Mason Miller is PUMPED to be part of the Padres rivalry with the Dodgers. pic.twitter.com/ix6wSkexxb
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) August 4, 2025
It will be interesting to see how Miller adapts to playing in these highly competitive games between the two rivals. Going from the Athletics to this rivalry will be a different experience for Miller, who will want to show in these games that the Padres made the right choice by trading for him.
San Diego will want to win the NL West over the Dodgers, considering the deciding Game 5 from last year’s NLDS was at Dodger Stadium, with Los Angeles advancing to the NLCS. As a result, the Padres probably want to win the division to ensure that any deciding game in the postseason occurs at Petco Park.
