Good morning from Baltimore,
Not to make too much of it, but that might have been the biggest win of the season.
To be sure, the results over the course of the nine-game trip that begins here tomorrow will determine the lasting impact of yesterday’s 5-4 victory over the Reds.
Baseball isn’t football. June is a long way from September or even August.
This was one game. The Padres have 95 remaining in the regular season.
But the how and when of this victory felt important.
You can read how it went down — prominently, the deciding moment everyone had been waiting for — and what the Padres said about it all in my game story (here).
Any victory for a team light on them lately is significant.
But the Padres did especially well to come from behind to win with a number of big hits late a day after losing a game in which they failed an almost unfathomable number of times to get a big hit.
You may recall in yesterday morning’s newsletter that Gavin Sheets said yesterday afternoon’s game would indicate a lot about the Padres.
This is what he said after yesterday’s game: “I thought we could come out here and do one of two things: lay an egg or come out and fight and put together a huge win, huge series win.”
Sheets’ one-out double in the eighth inning, which drove in a run to get the Padres to 4-3, was one of the moments that would have made Mike Shildt for sure break out a “Grit Squad” declaration.
So was Samad Taylor’s two-out single in the eighth, which tied the game. And certainly, so was Fernando Tatis Jr.’s walk-off home run in the ninth.
Sheets and Taylor had been hitless before their eighth-inning hits. Tatis was 1-for-3 with an RBI single but had left a runner at second base with an inning-ending fly ball in the seventh.
This was a character victory.
It had been a while since they had one of those.
Doesn’t mean it wasn’t in there.
“We’ve had good fight the whole year,” manager Craig Stammen said. “Like, there’s nothing I can say that we can do more as far as that aspect goes. Dugout has stayed lively, even in the days where it just doesn’t seem like we’ll ever get a hit with runners in scoring position. It makes the days when you stay positive and stay after it, the days that it does come through, makes them a little bit better.”
That gets to the heart of what yesterday’s victory (and many others like it) says about this Padres team.
It can be nearly impossible to stick your head above the current of negativity when a team is going as bad as the Padres have been for nearly three weeks and see that the season might not be careening toward a cliff.
(It might be careening toward a cliff. But it might not be.)
Just as when this newsletter was full of warnings about the offense when the Padres were winning in April, it is important to find perspective in the recent darkness.
The offensive underachieving by the team’s stars has been reminiscent of 2023. And that is a scary thing for Padres fans.
But it should be comforting to remember the Padres grew from that experience, and this team is nothing like that team in a significant way.
Yesterday was the Padres’ 11th victory this season in a game they trailed by multiple runs. They came back to win eight such games in 2023.
It was their ninth victory earned in their final offensive half-inning. They had 11 such victories in ‘23.
It was their 16th victory in which they took the lead for good in the seventh inning or later. They had 15 such victories in ‘23.
The Padres have been boring to watch lately. Duh. Said no marketing slogan ever: “Come watch us struggle to score.”
It remains imperative that Manny Machado and Jackson Merrill hit at an expected level. Even if that happens, the Padres probably need an additional capable left-handed bat. We know they have holes in their rotation that must be filled. They might need another high-leverage arm in the bullpen.
But this is a team with the ability to fight.
“We did it in the first month of the season,” Tatis said. “We were just grinding, going through days. Obviously, the second month got a little bit of us as a group, and it was not easy. But we keep building that momentum. We know we have it. We have been in tough places, and we’re finding a way to get out of this.”
Big man
Taylor has hit in all four of his starts for the Padres and has driven in at least one run in the past three games. In all, he is 5-for-13 with a double, three walks, five RBIs and two stolen bases in those four games.
He expects nothing less of himself.
That is how a man playing major league baseball at 5-foot-8 and 160 pounds has to think.
This is a guy who has played nearly 900 minor-league games over 10 seasons, previously had three cups (two of them sips) of coffee in the major leagues, signed a minor-league deal with the Padres before spring training and was called up on June 3.
He entered the season batting .205 (15-for-73) in 38 big-league games for the Royals (2023) and Mariners (‘24 and 25).
Nearly as impressive as his game-tying RBIs the past two days is how Taylor carries himself. (And the two cannot be extricated from each other.)
He had the audacity to challenge two strike calls in a single at-bat on Monday night, in his second start for the Padres. He was right on the first and wrong on the second, leaving the Padres without any ABS challenges with four innings remaining.
He has the confidence to walk up and down the Padres dugout at various points during games clapping his hands and encouraging teammates. Those teammates include Manny Machado, Xander Bogaerts and Tatis — men with exponentially more MLB service time and zeroes in their bank accounts but no more swagger than Taylor.
“As long as you have heart, heart is gonna take you everywhere,” Taylor said. “You’ve just gotta believe. I’ve got a big, big, big heart. I’m not gonna never, ever, ever give up, never give in. I’m gonna give them my all every day. … You could look at my career. Over the last three years, I could have easily chalked it up, and kicked my feet up and walked away. But my ultimate goal was to get to the big leagues, stay in the big leagues, and do what I can to help a team win. I’m here now, and I’m blessed, and you can’t ask for nothing better.
“Everyone here — from Craig to (A.J.) Preller to everybody on staff — they have the confidence in me and the trust. That’s big. The last three stints in the big leagues in (big) situations, I’d probably have been pinch-hit for. It’s been a different mindset. I just try to stay as level-headed as I can, because I know how quick it can turn. Just stay level-headed and see where we’re at.”
How two?
Stammen’s thought as he has watched the two balls Tatis has sent sizzling over the outfield wall on a line this season has been the same thought many of us have had.
“It’s a wonder that he hasn’t just ran into a few more,” Stamen said. “We see other guys hit home runs and seems like they’re just running into balls. But it’s not that easy to hit a home run in the major leagues. We take it for granted with some of these guys, and it’s just nice to see Fernando sneak one over the wall today.”
FERNANDO TATIS JR. WALK-OFF HOME RUN 😤 pic.twitter.com/LFc2Lm4vQG
— MLB (@MLB) June 10, 2026
Tatis’ home run yesterday had an exit velocity of 106.3 mph. His home run May 30 in Washington was rocketed at 114 mph.
Even as his rate of doing so slowed significantly in May, Tatis still has put 42 balls in play at 105 mph or harder this season. That is 10th most in the major leagues. Of the 14 other players with at least 40 balls in play that hard, just one has fewer than 11 home runs and none have fewer than eight.
“I’ve been hitting the ball hard since the beginning of the year,” Tatis said. “But, man, finally got the results. That’s why we play this game, why we grind those bad days, why we go through those. These days make all those days better.”
Tatis leads the major leagues in batting average (.383) and is 22nd in OPS (.944) in 20 games since May 19.
Leading stuff
The Padres are 21-7 when scoring first. That .750 winning percentage is fifth best in the major leagues.
Problem is that the 28 games in which they have scored first is the third-lowest total in MLB.
Far more often than not, teams that score first never trail in that game.
But players and coaches believe scoring first — even a 1-0 lead in the first inning like the Padres had yesterday — sets a tone and builds a foundation.
So it can help to score first even if a team loses that lead. Yesterday was the sixth game the Padres have won in which they scored first but lost the lead.
Teams that score first have won between 66% and 68.5% of games every season since 2018. Since 2000, teams that score first have won 66.6% of the time.
When the Padres took that first-inning lead yesterday, it was just the sixth game in which they held a lead over their past 16 games.
That advantage lasted until the Reds scored twice in the fourth inning. Now, including their game-ending lead, the Padres have led at the end of just 20 of the past 141 innings (16 games) they have played.
Stammen steps in
A brief clip from the end of the Padres.TV telecast showed Stammen interacting with a fan following Tuesday’s game.
Broadcast got a quick shot of the Padres dugout chirping back at this fan https://t.co/KvG4B3lZZx pic.twitter.com/and27u65uY
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) June 10, 2026
According to Stammen and others who witnessed it, the interaction was only slightly longer than the clip showing Stammen talking while looking toward the stands behind the Padres’ dugout. The clip did not contain any audio.
Stammen said he told the fan what he said was not appropriate.
The fan was yelling at Machado, and Stammen said he stepped in because he saw Machado stop as he exited the dugout. It is not uncommon for fans to yell at players, but Stammen said this was different and he intervened because he didn’t want Machado to be drawn into any sort of confrontation.
The fan who claimed to have been the one who yelled posted about it afterward on X. That account had been deleted as of yesterday afternoon.
Tidbits
Will Wagner built on the strong first game we talked about in yesterday’s newsletter by going 2-for-2 with a walk yesterday. You can read in Jeff Sanders’ notebook (here) about what Wagner has done and what Stammen said about it. Wagner is providing such good at-bats from the left side that it would be shocking to see him sent down when Xander Bogaerts returns from paternity leave. The Padres had a season-high five players in the starting lineup that hit from the left side the past two days. That included switch-hitter Bryce Johnson.
Jackson Merrill has two hits each of the past two games and is batting .255 (13-for-51) over his past 13 games. That is a trend upward from the .194 he was batting in 51 games before that. Notably, he has hit 16 balls to the opposite field in the past 13 games compared to 36 balls hit that direction before that.
Less than 1% (707) of the nearly 95,000 home runs hit since Statcast began recording launch angle in 2015 have been hit as low as the 18 degrees Tatis hit his homer yesterday.
I missed a milestone on Tuesday. It was Tatis’ 29th game starting at second base, making him the team’s most frequent second baseman this season. Jake Cronenworth made 28 starts there before going on the injured list with a concussion.
Here is a milestone we could not possibly let slip past us: The Padres had 11 hits yesterday after getting 12 on Tuesday. It is the first time they have had double-digit hits in back-to-back games since April 26 and 27. They had at least 10 hits in just three of the 37 games from April 28 through Monday.
Ron Marinaccio has stranded all 10 runners he has inherited this season.
Rookie Sung-Mun Song got a single on a 98.2 mph fastball, the second-fastest pitch he has put in play. The 110.4 exit velocity on the line drive off first baseman Nathaniel Lowe’s glove was the hardest he has put a ball in play.
Machado doubled for the second consecutive game. It is just the second time this season he has had extra-base hits in successive games and the first time he has done it since April 26 and 27.
Spencer Steer hit his eighth home run in 18 career games (70 at-bats) against the Padres yesterday. His rate of one homer every 8.75 at-bats is highest among the 123 active players with at least 70 at-bats against the Padres.
All right, that’s it for me.
No game today, so no newsletter tomorrow. I will have a story on our Padres page shortly about the reasons behind Machado’s struggles, what he says about them and what he is doing about them.
The next Padres Daily will arrive in your inbox on Saturday morning following the opener of the series against the Orioles.
Talk to you then.