The Padres are attempting to prevent a Petco Park Dodgers takeover.
Tickets for Games 3 and Games 4 of the NLDS in San Diego were limited to individuals certain regions and notably excluded the five counties in the greater Los Angeles area.
Petco Park and Dodger Stadium are roughly 125 miles apart in Southern California, providing fans of both teams an approximately two-hour trip to take in road games.
“Petco Park is located in San Diego. Sales to this event will be restricted to residents of San Diego County, southern Orange county, western Arizona, Las Vegas and the surrounding area, and all of Baja California. Residency will be based on credit card billing address,” the message states for those attempting to buy tickets through the team site and re-directed to ticketmaster.com. “Orders by residents outside San Diego County, southern Orange county, western Arizona, Las Vegas and the surrounding area, and all of Baja California will be canceled without notice and refunds given.”
This is the second time in three years the Padres have instituted such a measure, previously doing so in 2022 when the teams clashed in the NLDS, per the San Diego Union Tribune.
The Padres won that series in four games, including both games at Petco Park.
Dodgers fans are known for being a traveling bunch, with fans even making an impression at Yankee Stadium earlier this year during the three-game series in The Bronx.
There are currently no tickets available via Ticketmaster, and the Union Tribune noted that less than 1,000 had been available for public consumption.
The Padres are hoping for a home-field advantage when the series shifts to San Diego on Tuesday for Game 3 and then a potential Game 4 on Thursday in the best-of-five series.
Getting fans to the park has not been a problem for the team this year with the Padres setting their record for attendance this season with more than 3.3 million fans frequenting the stadium.
San Diego then welcomed a record crowd for each of its two wins against the Braves in the Wild Card series, setting new marks with 47,647 on Tuesday and then 47,705 on Wednesday.
“Pitching in front of them is something that I absolutely love doing,” ex-Yankee Michael King said after the Game 1 win, per the Union Tribune. “I’m really happy we had home field for the wild card, because I think it’s a tough place to play as an opponent.”
The Padres are hoping for a similar outcome as two years ago, although they may have to do so without starter Joe Musgrove after he exited Wednesday’s win with right elbow tightness. San Diego went 8-5 against the Dodgers in the regular season.
Dylan Cease opposes Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 1, while Yu Darvish will face Jack Flaherty in Game 2 before the series shifts to San Diego.