Good morning,
It is becoming as painfully monotonous to answer questions about the offense as it is to ask questions about the offense.
But Manny Machado got up from where he was sitting across the clubhouse and trudged over to stand in front of his locker and face another round of those questions after another game in which the Padres offense wasn’t very good.
Because that’s what the face of the franchise does and because it facilitated the media departing and Machado getting back to the impromptu gathering of players who were once again trying to figure out how to get right at the plate.
As he had a night before, Machado first referred to his own failings, even on a night in which he belted a two-run homer that got the Padres back in the game.
He lamented his groundout with a runner on second base in the eighth inning, which turned out to be the Padres’ last gasp in a 4-3 loss.
“Had some opportunities,” Machado said. “Didn’t cash in on them. Back -to-back days, those are tough not to cash in.”
Machado also stranded six runners and went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position in Monday’s 3-0 loss, which he blamed entirely on himself.
You can read in my game story (here) from last night about the Padres’ failed comeback from four runs down after Randy Vásquez gave up all of the Phillies’ runs after recording the first two outs in each of the first three innings.
While Machado acknowledged frustration and dissatisfaction, his assessment of the Padres after their 54th game — the one-third mark in a 162-game season — was a familiar refrain.
“I think we’re in a great spot,” he said. “We’re right where we need to be, and we’re not even firing (on) all cylinders. At the end of the day, at the end of the year, it’s about winning ballgames … making it into the postseason and getting deep into the postseason. And that’s all that really matters. You’re not really going to look at these tough stretches that we’ve been having. We’re winning ball games, and we’re not even playing good baseball, so it’s a positive sign. I think everybody in here knows it. It’s not going to sustain all year, and we’re going to have to step up, and we’re going to do it. I think we’re inching closer to that.”
Don’t be mad at Machado because what he said last night were different words saying the same thing.
What else are the Padres supposed to say?
“I wish I had a response for that, but I really don’t know, to be honest with you,” Ramón Laureano said to a question about turning things around. “I think you just gotta continue to play the game. Just continue to play the game, and things will come. You’re always a pitch away, a drill away, a thought away, a conversation away from opening up whatever struggles as a team. But not as a team; as an offense, really.”
Yeah, it’s the offense. The offense is what is wrong with the Padres. Maybe if the offense got going, we could worry about the starting pitching. But right now, the reason the Padres are not better is because their offense could hardly be worse.
They have an awful lot of veteran players who have been awfully good at hitting and have spent much of this season being awful at hitting.
They are working. No one could be around the team and see the number of players in the cage and on the field early in the afternoon and question that.
They care. After virtually every loss, there are clusters of players huddled in front of lockers going over at-bats, talking about what went wrong and what almost went right.
No one on the outside wants to hear it. Results are what matter.
And no one should be all that buoyed by the fact the Padres are eight games over .500 and in possession of a playoff spot exactly one third of the way through the season.
The Padres will not be in playoff position on Sept. 27 if they don’t hit a lot better.
No team has made the playoffs with fewer than 83 victories since MLB went to a six-team postseason field in each league in 2022. And no playoff team in that span has had an OPS lower than .670.
There have been just 11 teams since 1961 to win at least 83 games and have an OPS as low as the Padres’ current .655 mark, and the last team to do it was in 1989.
Machado was asked if he had faith this Padres team could be an aberration and keep winning without hitting.
“That’s very, very doubtful,” he said. “We can’t sustain it. That’s number one. Number two, I have confidence in everybody in this room that we’re going to be right where we need to be when we need to be. I hope it comes sooner than later. We all do. And I know definitely the fans do as well. But I know everybody in his room is confident in their stuff, and we’re gonna get out of (this), and we’re gonna push forward and learn from all these games.”
Pretty good
The reason Laureano was justified to amend his quote above is because the Padres have actually been playing good baseball everywhere except when standing in the batter’s box.
The bullpen, for instance, has a 1.07 ERA over the past 13 games (50⅓ innings).
And the defense has ranged between highly dependable and fairly spectacular most of the season.
Last night, the Padres had a chance to come back in part because of plays made by Jackson Merrill (video), Fernando Tatis Jr. (video), Ty France (here) and Xander Bogaerts (here).
Down early
Padres starting pitchers have allowed a home run to one of the first three batters in five of the past seven games.
They have allowed at least one run in six of the past seven games. Since all of those games have been during this homestand, that means the Padres have trailed before coming to bat in six of their past seven games.
While they came back to tie two of the games 2-2 in the first inning, they have lost five of those six games.
Teams that score first are winning at a .664 clip this season and have historically won at least 67% of the time. The Padres are 18-5 when scoring first this season and 13-18 when their opponent scores first.
Also, the Padres were down 4-0 last night. Teams have come back from four-run deficits a total of just 38 times this season.
Falling behind big was never a recipe for success, even though the Padres have been pretty good at whipping up such victories.
They still lead the major leagues with five victories in games in which they trailed by four runs or more. But the most recent of those was May 5, and they are 0-6 in such games since then.
Fightin’ the Phils
The Padres have now lost seven of their past eight series against the Phillies, dating back to 2022. That does not include that year’s National League Championship Series.
It would probably benefit them greatly to figure out how to turn that around soon.
After today’s series finale, the teams play three more games next week in Philadelphia.
And the Phillies, who are 19-8 since beginning the season 9-19, sure seem like a team the Padres will be battling for a playoff spot.
One of many teams.
Tidbits
You can read in Jeff Sanders’ game preview (here) about Freddy Fermin’s struggles and what the Padres’ primary catcher had to say about his season so far.
Wandy Peralta worked a scoreless eighth inning last night and has not allowed a run in 12 innings over nine appearances this month.
Adrian Morejón extended his scoreless streak to 6⅔ innings over seven appearances by working a scoreless ninth.
The first two batters in an inning were 1-for-12 against Vásquez last night. All the other batters in an inning were 6-for-11 with three home runs and a walk.
Tatis went 1-for-4 to extend his on-base streak to 10 games. He is batting .306 and getting on base at a .441 clip during the streak.
Tatis also hit two weak ground balls last night. Of his 150 balls in play this season, 19 (13%) have been hit on the ground at 67 mph or slower. Last season, he hit 23 grounders (5%) that softly in 467 balls in play.
Merrill was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts last night. He is batting .091 (5-for-55) with 20 strikeouts over his past 16 games.
Machado’s home run last night had a launch angle of 19 degrees, his lowest since 2024. However, it was the 39th homer of his career hit at 19 degrees or lower, second most in MLB since Statcast began tracking such data in 2015. Giancarlo Stanton has his 48 homers that low.
The exit velocity on Machado’s homer was 108 mph, one of three balls the Padres put in play at 100 mph or harder. They hit just two balls that hard on Monday and are averaging just 5.2 balls in play at 100 mph over their past 26 games. They averaged seven balls hit that hard in their first 28 games.
Bogaerts’ infield single was his 10th of the season, tied with Tatis and the Mariners’ Julio Rodriguez for fourth-most in the majors. It was Bogaerts’ 255th infield hit since 2014, most in the majors in that span.
Bogaerts also stole his ninth base of the season. He is one of four players with at least nine steals to have not been caught.
Bryce Harper homered and walked twice last night to extend his on-base streak against the Padres to 21 games. That dates to June 25, 2022. He is .254/.398/.549 in those games. That is almost as good as teammate Kyle Schwarber’s .270/.400/.730 line against the Padres in that span. Schwarber was 1-for-5 last night.
A loss today would make the Padres 16-16 at home this season. They are 12-13 when Petco Park is sold out in 2026.
All right, that’s it for me. Early game today (1:10 p.m. PT) and then a flight to Washington, D.C.
Talk to you tomorrow.