Last October, the San Diego Padres came within one game of knocking the Los Angeles Dodgers out of the playoffs early -- one game. San Diego manager Mike Shildt thinks of that division series race often, but not with regret, or bitterness, or frustration; he is not fixated on crossroad moments in the losses in the final two games of the best-of-five series.
What is embedded in Shildt's memory, he recalled in a conversation earlier this week, is how the Padres players responded in Game 2, when fans pitched garbage at them at Dodger Stadium.