Good morning from Atlanta,
The headline on my game story from last night read, “Late rally not enough as Padres fall to Braves.”
No offense to the headline writer. The Padres did stage a comeback. But that was as misleading as the 7-6 final score.
They scored five runs in the ninth inning.
But that was as much of a mirage as their going 18-7 in April turned out to be.
“You start thinking that if we don’t allow a few of those runs, we’d have won,” Xander Bogaerts said in reference to the Braves’ six-run eighth inning. “But also, you’ve got to think that guy would not have been in the game if it wasn’t so (lopsided).”
That guy was Victor Mederos, a relief pitcher who made his 18th big-league appearance last night with the Braves up by six runs after they torched Wandy Peralta and dinked Randy Vásquez to death in the eighth.
Mederos walked Bogaerts with one out before the next four Padres batters hit for the cycle.
Jake Cronenworth doubled, Gavin Sheets singled and Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a triple to make it 7-4 and prompt Braves manager Walt Weiss to go to his closer.
Raisel Iglesias came in and Luis Rengifo turned on a 1-1 fastball over the inner third of the plate and sent it just beyond the tall wall in right field for a two-run homer that got the Padres to within a run.
With that burst, the Padres doubled their hit total from the first eight innings.
The rally, such as it was, was quickly extinguished when Iglesias struck out No.3 hitter Manny Machado and cleanup hitter Ty France.
“We got Iglesias in the game,” Jackson Merril said. “That’s part of the game. We’ve got one more game left in the series, and for him to get in the game today, it’s huge for him tomorrow. We’ll try to win another game.”
That was the positive to come from the ninth inning. Maybe the Padres keep today’s game close against Chris Sale, who has a 1.72 ERA over his past 15 starts, and are able to get to Iglesias today because he is not fully rested.
It does happen like that sometimes.
It just seems, after 101 games of evidence that suggests the Padres are not the kind of team that follows up on its promise, that it won’t be happening for them.
You can read how it all went down in my game story (here).
It was a losing day all around for the Padres. Four of the five teams ahead of them in the race for what certainly seems to be one available playoff spot, won. (The Pirates won and lost, as they had a doubleheader against the Yankees).
The grinder
It is stunning how many strikes Michael King can get when he can’t throw the ball where he wants and how good he can be when he is bad.
“It’s a talent to be able to do that — to not have your best stuff and still give your team a chance to win,” manager Craig Stammen said.
King walked the first three batters he faced last night, allowing a run on a groundout by the next batter and then didn’t allow a run the rest of his six innings.
It was not pretty. But it was a beautiful thing to watch if you appreciate someone with the resolve to find a way.
“He did not have much at the beginning,” Stammen said. Walked the first three batters of the game and then just gritted his teeth and gutted one out and gave us six innings. It was a pretty impressive outing, honestly, based on probably what he felt he had. Especially coming out walking the first three guys, it’s never a sign of a good outing. But he goes six innings, one run. It’s pretty amazing.”
King’s greatest talent this season has been an ability to make his best pitches when he has to in the midst of a game when he can’t make his best pitch consistently.
That is what he did last night.
He missed up and away on the final two balls to left-handed leadoff batter Drake Baldwin. He missed up and away on all four pitches to Ozzie Albies, a switch-hitter hitting from the left side. He missed everywhere except up and away to Matt Olson, who he walked after getting to a full count.
By that time, he was experimenting.
“Just visually was a little different for me,” he said. “Had to set my sights in a different area. I was just missing in the same spot. Made the adjustment and felt pretty good after that.”
Basically, he began overcorrecting.
“I don’t like thinking mechanically while I’m out there, and I think that the easiest way to get myself back in the zone is just to change sights,” he said. “So, I felt like I was throwing, like, at the left-handed hitter the whole time just to keep it on the plate and then kept that the whole way through.
“It was just like, all right, minimize as best as I possibly can. And in my head, I was like, ‘I’m not going to throw another armside pitch.’ I’d rather miss in. And then all of a sudden, I started locating way better when I was doing that.”
We have not seen 2024 Michael King very much this season. He would argue we have yet to see that version, because his sinker has been truly working maybe one game and his sweeper and changeup have taken turns failing him.
Yet, he has a 3.24 ERA (11th in the NL) and is allowing a .212 batting average (sixth). Last night was his 10th quality start (15th).
“Eventually, hopefully, he gets on a roll like we’ve seen Michael do,” Stammen said. “But in the end, the results are pretty darn good.”
Starting to roll
Padres starting pitchers have gone at least five innings while allowing two or fewer runs the past three games.
King followed Buehler (5⅔ innings, two runs) and JP Sears (five innings, two runs).
It is the first time that has happened since April 18 to 21 when Germán Márquez allowed two runs in 5⅔ innings and King threw five scoreless innings against the Angels and Vásquez blanked the Rockies for seven innings.
The only longer streak for Padres starters was April 6 to 10 when all five pitchers in the rotation went at least five innings and allowed two or fewer runs.
The Padres are 31-11 when their pitchers meet those thresholds. But their 42 starts that good are tied for 12th fewest in the major leagues.
Foresight, hindsight
Rengifo sort of ruined the argument later by homering off Iglesias, but it seemed a peculiar decision when Bogaerts and Cronenworth executed a double steal with two outs in the seventh inning.
After Merrill had tied the game 1-1 with a homer and Luis Campusano had grounded out, Bogaerts and Cronenworth singled before Sheets flied out.
That brought up Tatis, whose .406 batting average with runners in scoring position is second best in the major leagues. But on the first pitch to Tatis, Bogaerts and Cronenworth stole.
That opened up first base, which the Braves promptly awarded Tatis with an intentional walk to bring up Rengifo, who popped out to end the inning.
When I asked Rengifo if he knew he was going to be batting with the bases loaded as soon as he saw the double steal, Tatis piped in from his neighboring locker, “Everyone knew that.”
Rengifo agreed.
“Everyone knew that,” he said.
Not everyone.
Asked about his decision, Bogaerts replied to the suggestion it was going to “obviously” prompt an intentional walk, “You knew that? I didn’t know. If I knew that, I wouldn’t have done it. Walt Weiss did not give me a heads up.”
Bogaerts said he wanted to go with Sheets up but did not because Sheets bats from the left side.
“He throws one away,” Bogaerts said of pitcher Didier Fuentes, “and everyone says, ‘Oh, great baseball.’ That’s the way this game is. You’ve got to live with the good, live with the bad.”
Stammen had earlier confirmed it was Bogaerts’ decision.
“The players are on their own on that,” he said. “… I think we’re always trying to be aggressive on the bags. And who knows, they were probably going to pitch around Tatis in that situation anyway. The more guys we get on base. Rengifo is a major league hitter. Feel good about it. He had a home run off Raisel Iglesias tonight, so to say he can’t do that against Fuentes would not be ideal.”
Tidbits
Merrill’s home run was his fourth in four games. He had four in four twice in 2024.
Merrill also singled and has his batting average up to .225, the highest it has been since he was hitting .228 on May 10. His 24 multi-hit games are second most on the Padres behind Tatis’ 30.
France’s 0-for-5 night ended his hitting streak at nine games. He hit .455 (15-for-33) with five home runs and four doubles during the streak.
Cronenworth went 2-for-4 with a double last night and is batting .204 (33-for-162). It is the first time his average has been above .200 since the season’s fourth game. He is 17-for-61 (.279) since returning from a two-month stay on the concussion injured list.
Rengifo’s home run was his first in 228 plate appearances this season. (He began the season with the Brewers before being released in June.) That leaves just two players (Taylor Walls and Chandler Simpson, both on the Rays) with at least 200 plate appearances and no home runs in 2026.
Rengifo yesterday became the 10th Padres player to start a game in the second spot in the order. That is the second most players any team has used in that crucial spot. Six different Padres have been in the two-hole for at least six starts, most in the major leagues. The Padres are one of six teams to have gotten a sub-.700 OPS from their No.2 hitters. Rengifo was 1-for-5 yesterday.
Here is a really stupid thing I must correct: Anyone who has read the newsletter for a time has figured out I am prone to making simple math mistakes at 3 a.m. Yesterday, I did some reverse math. I wrote that Tatis’ home run on Tuesday was the longest of his career, three feet longer than his previous long. Nope. It was the second longest, three feet shorter than his career long. Maybe if I had read my own chart, which I put together and that ran in the same item, I would have noticed the discrepancy.
All right, that’s it for me. Early game today (9:15 a.m. PT) and then a flight to Miami.
Talk to you tomorrow.