In one month, thousands will be screaming “Beat LA” in a chant that will reverberate Petco Park’s stands and echo off the Gaslamp District’s walls.
Military personnel will be in full dress, and Padres players will don digital camouflage uniforms to honor them.
The lineups will be stacked with regulars, and the scorecards will matter.
For now, this will have to do.
In the two divisional rivals’ first meeting of the year, the Padres prevailed over the Los Angeles Dodgers, slamming a struggling Jonathon Broxton to claim an 8-2 spring training win in Glendale, Ariz.
The Padres torched Broxton for four runs off three hits in the sixth. The Dodgers right-hander retired none of the five hitters he faced, hitting one batter, walking another and allowing a lead-off home run to Jarrett Hoffpauir.
Cedric Hunter hit a three-run homer in the sixth after Broxton was chased, and Anthony Rizzo was 4-for-5 with an RBI and two stolen bases to lead San Diego.
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The two teams will next meet when it counts on Apr. 8-10. The series will be part of the Padres' first homestand of the season.
