The San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers do not like each other, and it feels as if the rivalry is only growing stronger by the day. Suspensions were handed out after a series full of drama less than a month ago, and now, Padres fans found another reason to be mad at Dave Roberts and the Dodgers.
Dave using all three extremely overworked Padres relievers in an exhibition game. pic.twitter.com/VBfUQCNg09
— rich (@rich_roberts) July 16, 2025
Roberts went out of his way to ensure every single pitcher in the NL, including three overworked Padres relievers, appeared in the All-Star Game. His intentions might've been in the right place, as it's an honor to pitch in the Midsummer Classic, but Padres fans certainly don't believe that's the case. To be honest, it's hard to blame them.
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Padres relievers are overworked, and it showed
The Padres' bullpen is as good as any. They ended the first half ranked second in the majors in bullpen ERA (3.20) and tied for second in bullpen fWAR (5.0). Their bullpen is particularly strong in the back-end. It shows, based on the number of appearances that the Padres' All-Star relievers have.
Jason Adam and Adrian Morejon are tied for second in the majors with 47 appearances. Robert Suarez has 43 appearances. All three of these relievers are on pace for roughly 70 appearances, a number only 23 relievers in total reached last season.
Yet, despite the heavy first-half usage, Roberts was so set on using all three of Adam, Morejon, and Suarez. He even went as far as to use Suarez in the ninth inning over Edwin Diaz, a possible NL Reliever of the Year favorite. Given their heavy workload, it isn't hard to wonder why these three relievers combined to allow four runs while recording two outs.
Dodgers players didn't receive same treatment from Dave Roberts
Padres fans likely wouldn't have batted an eye had Roberts managed the Dodgers the same way, but that wasn't the case. Clayton Kershaw didn't get a chance to finish his inning, instead, Roberts used Jason Adam to record his third out. Yoshinobu Yamamoto wasn't active. Freddie Freeman was the only NL starter to not record two plate appearances.
Roberts didn't seem to care one bit about getting Padres players any sort of rest ahead of the second half and pulled his Dodgers players earlier than most. Again, there's nothing wrong with Roberts using the players he has at his disposal, but it does feel like he went out of his way to rest his own players while using Padres pitchers.
All Padres fans can hope now is that this reliever trio gets enough rest in the two days they have before the second half begins. Beating the Dodgers in the NL West would give the fanssome sweet revenge after watchign Roberts' antics.