Good morning,
The Padres have lost so much lately that regardless of what happened yesterday, they were going to remain up against it.
“This is a tough stretch for us,” Manny Machado said last night. “We put ourselves in a bad situation.”
What happens in the next three weeks is what matters.
Beginning with a four-game series against the Diamondbacks, three of the Padres’ next five series are against National League teams battling for a postseason spot. More importantly, the Padres just need to win.
And at least they were talking about their “bad situation” last night after a victory.
That had not happened in more than a week.
Winning had to start with a win.
You can read in my game story (here) about the Padres’ 5-2 victory last night — not only their lone win in the four-game series against the Dodgers but their only victory on the seven-game road trip to Chicago and Los Angeles and, beyond that, their first victory in nine games.
They needed to change the narrative, at least in their own minds. They needed something to bolster their confidence in what they said they believe and in what they had done.
The Padres arrived in Los Angeles talking about needing to play with more urgency. They did so in the first two games at Dodger Stadium, taking a 6-0 lead Thursday and a 3-0 lead Friday before losing both games and then getting shut out Saturday.
“We kept going, we kept playing good games,” Fernando Tatis Jr. said last night. “I feel like except for (Saturday), we came out of the gate hot. We put some runs on the board, but obviously they came back. So we can play as a team like this. We just gotta regroup, tune those fine areas, and we go from there. … We have been building momentum as an offense to get going. So it’s just a matter of just getting together the pitching and the offense at the same time.”
What the Padres have been doing the past four weeks on offense has been adequate. It can be better. But it is good enough to be playing winning baseball.
Problem is, now their pitching has hit a wall and possibly fallen off a cliff.
“Things are going like this, you’re in a losing streak like this,” Gavin Sheets said late Saturday night. “… You feel like when you hit, you don’t pitch, (and when you) throw the ball really well, you don’t hit. That’s the frustrating thing when you go on streaks like this.”
The Padres talked the past few days about knowing it had to turn.
“Eventually,” manager Craig Stammen said, “we’re not gonna stink every time.”
Stammen spoke before yesterday’s game about his job being to instill belief in his players.
Winning is the best way to reinforce the message.
“We came back from the Chicago series, and we asked for a little bit more competitive spirit,” Stammen said. “And they came out and scored six runs in the first two innings (Thursday), and then we lose that game, which is a big blow. We come back the next game, against Shohei Ohtani, one of the best pitchers in the league, and those guys took great at-bats against him, had a lead. Pitching let us down a little bit, and come back today … all those guys pitched great today and led us to a victory. So it just shows that this team has a fight in them. We showed it early in the season where we’re coming back late in games, and now we’re showing a little bit after some tough games and some tough losses. And I think that bodes well for the rest of the season.”
Well, at least the Padres will arrive at the ballpark this afternoon coming off a victory for the first time in nine days.
That does make the positives easier to believe in.
“Obviously we want to win ballgames,” Machado said. “But we did some pretty good stuff over the weekend, and we just couldn’t come up with it and come out with the dub. We hit the ball well, we got to some of their great pitching. And, ultimately, we just didn’t come out with some victories. But we got some positives, so carry that into these last seven games before the break, and hopefully end (on a) high note.”
Sears steps up
So, do we believe in JP Sears again after he shut out the Dodgers for five innings and didn’t allow a hit until there were two outs in the fifth?
As the game story explains, the Padres essentially had him mapped out to go twice through the order — if he could. He exceeded their expectations by spreading the 17 batters he faced over five innings.
But five innings without allowing a run is a winning start. (Teams are 44-10 when getting five scoreless innings from their starter this season.)
The Padres have gotten even five innings from a starter in just four of their past 11 games. Sears has two of those starts.
Him being a quasi-dependable starter would be significant. The Padres can’t trade for three starting pitchers. Some of the guys they have are going to have to pitch better.
Sears has had two good starts and one horrible one since being called up late last month.
He kept the Braves and Dodgers — both selective but aggressive lineups — guessing by locating his sweeper and changeup. Above all else in the two good starts, Sears threw strikes.
“Went out there and just really wanted to attack the zone,” Sears said. “They swing the bat a little bit; tried to take advantage of that. Tried to be as efficient as I could.”
Picking it up
We have talked a lot this season (including in this story) about Machado’s subpar numbers boiling down to him missing pitches he should punish and has routinely done damage on in the past.
His home run in yesterday’s seventh inning, which gave the Padres their final three runs and provided the winning margin, came on such a pitch.
Manny Machado clubs a 3-run homer on #SundayNightBaseball 💪 pic.twitter.com/LgBf4DTiTA
— MLB (@MLB) July 6, 2026
Machado let a slider Kyle Hurt laid in the top of the zone over the middle go by and then did the same on a thigh-high fastball on the outer third to fall behind 0-2 before he crushed a 98 mph fastball Hurt could hardly have placed more perfectly if he were pitching batting practice.
Evidently, that was fortunate for Machado.
“Crazy thing about that at-bat was I couldn’t even see the ball,” he said. “The shadows were tough. Those last, like, three or four innings were long. It’s a tough at-bat for everyone up there, not just myself. I missed the first two, couldn’t really pull the trigger on it. And then, last one I was the same. I’m just gonna swing at whatever comes my way. That’s a lucky one. Sometimes you do get lucky, and that was one of them.”
OK. Some hitters definitely struggle with the shadows.
But in the 24 games in which Machado’s offensive numbers have ticked up — particularly his slug — there is a significant improvement on how he has fared against fastballs in the strike zone.
Overall, Machado is batting .250/.362/.602 in his 24 games since June 9. He has raised his batting average to .189 and his OPS to .692.
His season average remains the lowest among 155 qualifying players. His OPS, which is the highest it has been since it was .718 on May 4, ranks 120th among qualifying batters.
Machado’s 18 home runs lead the Padres, and he has driven in the deciding run in four of their past six victories.
Yesterday’s homer was his 31st against the Dodgers, including the postseason. That is his most against any team and the third-most by any active player against the Dodgers (behind Paul Goldschmidt’s 37 and Nolan Arenado’s 33).
Miller back in action
Mason Miller has been plenty rested.
Still, the Padres did not want their closer to have to work extra on Sunday.
“The hardest part with him is just not trying to make him pitch and inning-and-a-third, inning-and-two-thirds very often,” Craig Stammen said before the game. “I was kind of raised in the way, from all my past pitching coaches and bullpen coaches, (that) the eighth inning guy gets the eighth inning and the ninth inning guy gets the ninth inning. You’ve just got to trust that those two guys are your best guys, and they don’t try to help each other out to save them for the entire season. But you have a weapon like Mason that is so much better … that you want to use him as much as possible.”
So what Adrian Morejón did yesterday, on a day he was battling flu symptoms, was a gigantic lift.
Morejón took over for Bradgley Rodriguez with one out and a man on first in the seventh inning. He kept leaving pitches up in the zone, and he allowed the inherited runner and one of his own to score before ending the seventh.
With Miller warming, Morejón went back out for the eighth and retired the Dodgers in order, finishing with a season-high 37 pitches.
“That allows Mason to be ready for tomorrow,” Stammen said. “( Morejón) had a high workload today. … Big, big pitching performance for Adrian. Wasn’t his best outing he’s ever done, but a big outing for our team.”
Miller retired the Dodgers in order in the ninth to earn his 22nd save, tied for most in the major leagues despite yesterday being the first save opportunity he had in 13 days.
Among the biggest signs of how poorly things have swung for the Padres: Miller has pitched 10 times since May 29.
The pitcher widely considered to be the best closer in the major leagues has gone from being on pace to work 81 games at the end of April to being on pace for 63 appearances.
Miller has pitched in just 12 of the Padres’ past 40 games. That is after he pitched 15 times in their first 30 games and 22 times in their first 48 games.
He pitched Saturday in the eighth inning of a game the Padres trailed by two runs.
Miller is not raising his hand to make excuses. He is working between games and before and after games trying to stay sharp. But the effects of not pitching in games appeared fairly obvious Saturday when he hit the first batter he faced and later allowed an RBI single on a poorly placed fastball.
“It’s not easy, for sure,” Miller said yesterday. “Because you get out there and you feel like you’re trying to get your feet under you a little bit. (Saturday), obviously my command wasn’t sharp. But stuff is fine, body feels good. But obviously it’s hard to go out there and feel really confident in your execution. The bullpen is one thing, but in the game is obviously another thing.”
His third pitch Saturday — and his third pitch in a game in five days — was a slider that hit Tommy Edman on the ankle as Edman stood in the left-handed batter’s box. After getting a groundout, Miller fired a 1-0 fastball to the bottom of the zone but over the middle of the plate that Freddie Freeman lined into center field for an RBI single.
“Put a guy on base and kind of made a brain-dead pitch to Freeman,” Mason Miller said. “… The mental side of things is part of it too. Physical is one thing, and then there is the mental approach — within yourself as well as your confidence, but also your execution of a pitch plan. And when you’re not super sharp (you) kind of get away from executing your plan and you’re just like, ‘What can I get back to to feel the things I need to feel.”
Just six of Miller’s past dozen appearances have come in save situations. He has entered a tie game three times, and Saturday was the second time in that span he pitched with the Padres trailing.
“I was just excited to get back in a game today after (Saturday),” he said. “Got the juices going (Saturday) a little bit. Not the outing I went into it hoping for. But I got another chance to compete. That’s all I’m looking for, is a chance to compete.”
Wasting no time
The third time was the easiest.
“I did not have to work for this one,” Stammen joked of his ejection yesterday. “It was nice of the umpire to just, you know, give me the heave-ho instead of making me work for it.”
Stammen, who rarely curses and considers good manners as a virtue, had to practically beg to be ejected on May 30 and June 13. Umpire Chris Conroy actually seemed amused by Stammen on June 13 and evidently had to tell him to do “a little more” to get run.)
Last night, it was over quick for Stammen, who was ejected after he went out to protest infield coach Ryan Goins’ ejection by home plate umpire Nick Mahrley.
Padres manager Craig Stammen and infield coach Ryan Goins are ejected in the top of the 1st#ForTheFaithful pic.twitter.com/jwc7c89w5r
— San Diego Strong (@PadresStrong) July 6, 2026
The circumstances of the ejections (which happened after the game’s third pitch and stemmed from the Padres’ issue with first base umpire Ben May’s calls on the game’s second pitch) are in my game story.
Stammen said he went out to “defend” Goins, who had been yelling from the dugout.
“I didn’t really have a point to argue when I went out there,” Stammen said. “I went out there … just to argue. (Mahrley) didn’t like it, so that’s how it went.”
Stammen said he did mention the check swing, which he figured Mahrley interpreted as him reasserting the call was bad.
“I did not feel it was warranted,” Stammen said. “But I’m not the one who gets to eject people. … I did not say any profanity, and then I was ejected. And then I did, unfortunately, let loose some profanity.”
Say what?
Machado will occasionally throw in a doozy of a line.
Yesterday was one of those occasions.
When talking about why he believes the Padres will rebound and finish strong, Machado declared that playing baseball was not a smart pursuit.
His intent was clear. It also had merit. But it was still a funny statement to be uttered by a guy who will make about a half-billion dollars in his career. His career playing baseball.
Here is the entirety of Machado’s quote:
“I mean, there’s still a lot of baseball to be played, and I think the best is still in front of us. I mean, that’s no question about it. I think, with the group that we have here, we still have confidence that we can turn things around. Obviously, you know there’s a lot of things that haven’t really been going our way. It’s baseball, man. That’s the beauty of it. And I’ve been a part of it, and it’s a beautiful game, and we’re all stupid to be playing it. We’re all stupid to be playing it, because it’s a life of struggle. You fail seven times, and you’re still a Hall of Famer. You’re struggling, you’re grinding. So, I mean, it just makes it better, you know. I think, you know, we’re dealing with some adversity right now. We got to deal with some injuries that we’ve been dealing with. Guys hopefully coming back, they’re going to help us and make a big impact. So we’ve just got to keep it close and keep playing our game. It’s not gonna be a full season. I think things will turn around.”
Campusano will play
Luis Campusano, who was activated Friday after spending eight weeks on the injured list with a fractured big toe, started behind the plate for the second straight game yesterday.
He will not catch for Walker Buehler tonight, but Campusano is the Padres’ primary catcher going forward.
Especially if he is doing what he did at the plate yesterday, when he was 1-for-2 with two walks, that will continue when Freddy Fermin returns from his head bruise.
“We saw that when (Campusano) went on the IL, we lost that element of his power potential and ability to do damage at the bottom of the lineup for us,” Stammen said. “We’ve missed that, and we’re gonna welcome that back. Hopefully, we can get him hot, and he’s not going to take a while to get hot.”
Campusano was batting .288 with a .958 OPS when he was sidelined in early May.
Taylor sits
Outfielder Samad Taylor has not started any of the past three games.
The Padres have wanted to get their left-handed batters in the lineup. And yesterday, there was also the matter of Taylor having struck out three times against Dodgers starter Emmet Sheehan a week earlier.
Stammen talked to Taylor yesterday afternoon and told him his sitting has been based on matchups.
Stammen said he told Taylor: “You keep doing what you’re doing, we love how you’re playing baseball,” You bring an element to our team that we don’t really have, and you’re gonna get your time. Don’t try to do too much, keep being the same guy.”
Taylor, who started 14 consecutive games and 21 of the previous 22 before this weekend, has had his left hand wrapped fairly heavily for games ever since jamming it sliding into second base on June 27. He has gone 5-for-18 since then and said it is not hindering him.
Tidbits
Tatis was 3-for-5 yesterday. It was his 26th multi-hit game and eighth game with at least three hits. Both of those lead the Padres. He was 9-for–31 with three doubles and two home runs on the trip.
Sung-Mun Song was 1-for-3 with a walk yesterday. He is batting .316 (12-for-38) and getting on base at a .395 clip over his past 17 games. Song also stole second base twice and is 9-for-11 on steal attempts this season.
Miguel Andujar, who was signed to a one-year, $4 million contract in large part because of his success (.990 OPS) against left-handed pitchers, is batting .269 with .719 OPS against lefties this season. Batting for Jake Cronenworth in the fifth inning yesterday, Andujar popped out to fall to 1-for-10 as a pinch-hitter. (Andujar is hitting .252 with a .692 OPS against righties.)
Sheets extended his hitting streak to a season-best six games. He is 6-for-20 with three walks during the streak.
If you missed it over the weekend, Tom Krasovic wrote (here) that the Padres should consider trading away Miller if the season goes far enough south in the coming weeks.
All right, that’s it for me.
Talk to you tomorrow.