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Some MLB managers are very secretive, withholding information like starting pitchers until the very last moment to, they hope, gain a competitive advantage over their opponent. San Diego Padres manager Mike Shildt has decided to take the opposite approach entering an NLDS win-or-go-home Game 5 vs. the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Instead of keeping his starting pitcher as a secret, Shildt came out and announced Yu Darvish as the starter. He explained his decision to do, invoking legendary Green Bay Packers head coach Vince Lombardi in the process.
“Padres manager Mike Shildt on revealing his starting pitcher and starting lineup with no gamesmanship: ‘Everybody operates their own club the way they operate it. We're more like Vince Lombardi, power sweep, here it is. Yu Darvish is going to start, here's our lineup,'” Shildt said, via USA Today's Bob Nightengale.
Mike Shildt, Padres face Dodgers in do-or-die Game 5
Shildt will manage one of the biggest games of his career tonight. The first-year Padres manager has been a part of three win-or-go-home games before, the last of which coincidentally also against the Dodgers.
Back in 2021, when Shildt was the manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, the Dodgers eliminated St. Louis in the NL Wild Card, which was still just a single game. Shildt's Cardinals scored the first run of the ballgame but allowed a game-tying run in the fourth inning before surrendering a Chris Taylor walk-off two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Shildt was also on the losing end of a do-or-die game against the Padres; in 2020, the Cardinals fell 4-0 in Game 3 of the NL Wild Card to San Diego. The only win-or-go-home game Shildt has won to this point in his managerial career is Game 5 of the 2019 NLDS vs. the Atlanta Braves. Unlike some of the other games of which he has ended up on the losing end, Shildt did not have to sweat much at all back in 2019, as the Cardinals scored 10 runs in the top of the first inning and ended up blowing out the Braves 13-1 to advance to the NLCS.
Tonight's Game 5 is not expected to be a repeat of that game, although the Padres did hang 10 runs on Los Angeles in Darvish's last start in Dodgers Stadium back in Game 2.
After being shut out by the Dodgers' bullpen in Game 4, San Diego will have to get its bats going again. The Padres scored at least five runs in each of the first three games of the series and had scored no fewer than four runs during this playoff run before Wednesday's 8-0 home defeat.
Game 5 between the Padres and Dodgers is set to begin at 5:08 p.m. ET. The winner will advance to play the New York Mets in the NLCS.
