Good morning,
The opponent was not playoff caliber. But the game felt almost as close as one outside of October can feel. The crowd seemed ready for it.
David Morgan and Ethan Salas were too.
What those two young players did in the 10th inning last night — Morgan retiring all three batters he faced in the top half and then Salas walking off the Marlins — helped the Padres keep pace in their effort to try to earn some actual home playoff games.
The Padres came back, lost a lead and then won for the 12th time in 13 games to move into the second National League wild-card spot ahead of the Phillies, who lost last night.
Salas’ walk-off single came about a half-hour after the Diamondbacks walked off the Yankees in Arizona.
So the Padres cannot clinch a postseason berth today.
But with seven games remaining, any combination of Padres wins and Diamondbacks losses that add up to three clinches a playoff spot for the Padres.
As for swapping places with the Cubs and avoiding an NL Wild Card Series at Wrigley Field for the second straight year and instead hosting that series, the Padres need to win one more game than the Cubs.
If that happens, we got a reminder last night what Petco Park can be like when it is brimming with Padres fans for a game that matters.
The crowd was large and loud and engaged throughout. As magnificent as the turnout has consistently been for more than four years, there are times it still feels like a lot of people came for the beer or bobbleheads. That was not the case last night. The cheers were more sustained. More people stood for the entirety of big moments.
“Tonight was electric,” Samad Taylor said. “… Tonight was packed. It was loud. It was slammed. I can imagine what it’s like in San Diego when the playoffs are rolling. I know it’s going to be 10 times better. So we’ve got to keep the ball rolling, keep working.”
Salas, the man
Earlier this week, a young Padres player with his own healthy helping of swagger mused about Salas.
“He has that it factor inside him,” Jackson Merrill said.
We saw more evidence of that last night when Salas
Became the youngest player in at least 50 years with a pinch-hit walk-off hit.
Salas stood in the box with one out and a runner on third base. He was “caught off guard” by a sweeper he swung at awkwardly and then fouled off a 97 mph fastball off the plate.
Down 0-2, he grounded a 99 mph fastball at the bottom of the zone up the middle to score Jake Cronenworth from second base.
And then he celebrated like he had been there before.
What can’t this kid do? pic.twitter.com/lvYC2JWwyg
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) September 20, 2026
Teammates tore off his jersey top, and Salas strutted around with the panache of a shirtless Fernando Tatis Jr. As he walked back toward the Padres dugout, Salas looked up into the stands and raised his arms to implore those who remained and were already cheering wildly.
And at the end of his postgame interview on Padres.TV, asked by Bob Scanlan what he had to say to the fans, Salas leaned in and shouted, “Let’s f—ng go San Diego.”
You can read in Jeff Sanders’ game story (here) from the 7-6 victory about Salas’ heroics and how he had “been waiting” to drop an LFGSD.
Later, speaking in the clubhouse, he was asked if anyone had mentioned he might be fined for the on-air expletive.
“I don’t care,” he said with a smile.
It was not in the slightest bit obnoxious or cocky. It was, on the contrary, innocent and real.
He is having fun.
“Living the dream and winning games,” he said.
Much like the item in Friday’s newsletter about how only elite players do what Merrill has done for long stretches, the things Salas has done in the past week are the types of things special players do.
First, it is the rare player to be in the major leagues at 20 years old. Salas is the 16th player 20 or younger to debut in the past six seasons. He is the fifth youngest among those.
So there are only so many men (boys) who can make the kind of history Salas is.
And so far, a lot of what he is doing has links to a certain future Hall of Famer.
When Salas tripled this past Sunday in San Francisco he was the first player since Manny Machado on Aug. 9, 2012, to have his first MLB hit be a triple.
When Salas hit two home runs on Wednesday in Colorado, he became the fourth-youngest player to have his first two MLB homers come in the same game. Second on that list is Machado, who hit two homers on Aug. 12, 2012.
And last night, Salas became the youngest major leaguer with a walk-off hit since Machado hit a walk-off single on Sept. 13, 2012.
Salas spoke earlier this week about being dropped into in a playoff chase making his acclimation more straightforward. He reiterated last night that the approach in the major leagues is simple.
“I’m not worried about anything I do,” he said. “I just want to make sure I’m as prepared as possible and kind of stay away from the numbers and the personal stats. I just want to help put my two cents in just to help the team win. This part of the season, it’s not about anyone’s individual stats. It’s about the team.”
Settling back in
David Morgan was so good last year in his rookie season. He allowed it to be bad for him this year.
“Coming into this year, I put a lot of pressure on myself,” Morgan said last night. “The season I had my first year like was pretty dominant. Coming in this year, I think there were expectations on me that I tried to live up to instead of just being myself. I kind of tried to be even better than that. When I’m just myself, I’m a pretty damn good pitcher. So I think that’s just mentally being David Morgan, not trying to be a hero, and just be myself.”
Morgan began the season with the Padres, was sent down at the end of April, recalled near the beginning of June and optioned again at the end of that month. He was brought back up at the end of August.
Morgan has worked on being more fluid and straight to the plate, both in Triple-A and since returning. His past two outings, his four-seam fastball has been sizzling.
He averaged 98.4 mph last night and a career-high 99.1 mph on Thursday in Colorado, when he hit 100 mph for the first time this season.
After allowing three runs (two earned) in his first two appearances after being called up at the end of August, the run he allowed at Coors Field on Wednesday is the only one he has surrendered in his past nine outings (7⅔ innings).
Morgan was working last night because Mason Miller blew a save in the ninth inning.
“That’s opportunity and seizing the moment,” Miller said of Morgan. “… Not the year he necessarily hoped for coming into this year, but he’s throwing his best ball now, and we love that.”
Everything can be viewed now through the lens of what it might mean for the postseason.
And what Morgan continued to show last night is that he can be counted on.
“He has kind of solidified himself here of late in those righty lanes; he’s done very well in them, and we believe in him,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said. “If we want to play in the postseason, every inning is (high) leverage. It doesn’t really matter when these guys pitch; every inning is going to matter in the postseason. And so hopefully, this is preparation for that.”
Rough go
It is possible for the Padres to clinch a playoff berth by Tuesday in Los Angeles.
The Padres’ magic number is three, and both them and the Diamondbacks have four games before Friday. That means not even half the results in those eight games have to go the Padres’ way for them to have assured themselves a trip to the postseason before Casey Mize pitches again.
So depending on whether they are still also in the hunt for a home wild-card series by Friday and then how the postseason goes, last night could be the final meaningful start Mize makes for the Padres.
He just has not been one of their best three starting pitchers. Considering that Randy Vásquez, now in the bullpen, has a 1.95 ERA in five starts since the trade deadline, Mize hasn’t even been one of the Padres’ five best starters.
After allowing five runs in three innings last night, the 29-year-old right-hander has a 6.64 ERA in nine starts with the Padres.
“He hasn’t been who he was previously in the season,” Stammen said, referring to the fact Mize had a 2.70 ERA in 16 starts for the Tigers before being acquired at the trade deadline. “But he’s got a track record of being a very solid major league pitcher for a long time. … There are ups and downs throughout the season. And right now he’s just in a little down period. But we’ve got a week left in the season. He’s probably got one more start left. We value him as a big piece of our pitching staff.”
There should be no disputing that Mize and Robbie Ray helped change the trajectory of the Padres’ season.
Their mere arrival altered the outlook and the mindset.
Relief pitchers and others in the clubhouse have said that even though neither has been what they were earlier this season before becoming Padres, there is confidence when they take the mound.
At least some of that confidence is relative, in that the bullpen went through much of the season practically figuring the phone was going to ring before the fifth inning.
Mize has at least made it through five innings in five of his 10 starts. In his second and third starts for the Padres, he held the Brewers to two runs in six innings and shut out the Guardians for six innings.
But he has allowed at least three runs in four or fewer innings in half of his six starts since then.
“It’s just obvious that I’m not able to consistently put good ones together like I was early for the first two-thirds of the season or whatever,” Mize said last night. “This is a great team, and they deserve a lot better than what I’ve been giving them. But I’m giving everything I got, man. I’m laying it all out there every time, every pitch, and unfortunately it just hasn’t been good enough for myself or for this team. And I’m gonna keep doing that, keep freaking working at it and giving everything I got. But it needs to be better.”
Maybe it can’t be. His lack of command could be due to a groin injury he has pitched through much of the season and/or the ankle sprain he suffered walking down the dugout steps in his fourth start for the Padres.
“Um, I mean, I’m grinding,” he said when asked about his health. “That’s just kind of what I’ll say. But a lot of the guys in here are. I think that’s no secret. So it’s not an excuse for the way I’ve played. I wouldn’t take the ball if I wasn’t confident that I’m not injured. But it’s, you know, dealing with things. And I think that’s leading to a little bit of compensation (where) the ball is not coming out as hard and execution is off. And it just seems like it’s been inconsistent, where I put a couple good ones together or whatnot and then have another night like tonight.”
Bradgley bounces back
Maybe the best news of the night was that Bradgley Rodriguez returned to throwing nearly 100 mph.
Rodriguez had not topped 97.8 mph in either of his previous two starts, and the average on his four-seam fastball and sinker were both down about 2 mph in those games.
“I definitely feel much better than my last two outings,” Rodriguez said last night after striking out two of the three batters he faced and getting through the sixth inning on 12 pitches. “These four days were definitely ideal for me to rest.”
The rookie right-hander has pitched 69 innings in 65 games this season. Before not pitching Tuesday through Friday, he had not had four days off since Aug. 13-16.
On Sept. 12 in San Francisco, he allowed three runs (on two homers) without getting an out. The next night, he allowed a solo homer and a single in 1⅔ innings. He did not strike out a batter in either game, something that had happened just twice in his previous 25 appearances.
“The days off that these guys got here recently (were) huge for everybody,” Stammen said. “And I think Bradgley is probably the one that needed it the most, just because he hasn’t been pitching this late in the season for very long in his career, and he hasn’t pitched this much in his career. We’ve used him, and he’s been dominant. And he was his dominant self again tonight.”
Rodriguez has stepped up to essentially replace Jason Adam and Jeremiah Estrada, who have both spent the majority of the season on the injured list.
His fading as October looms would have been a big blow.
Rodriguez changed his routine this week.
“Because I go so hard during the season, I needed to learn how to step away from a couple things,” he said through interpreter Jorge Merlos. “So there was less going into the weight room. It was more mobility work. I felt like my legs were getting tight the last couple (games). A lot more mobility (work), so I could be under my feet and be able to pitch well.”
Miller fine
Miller’s night was an illustration of how an excellent outing can be ruined quickly.
Griffin Conine’s 427-foot game-tying home runs in the ninth inning might make it seem Miller was not pitching well. But that would be an inaccurate assessment.
Miller’s fastball was good last night. He just yanked one on the inner third and down to the left-handed-hitting Conine.
“That’s the one spot you see me get beat,” Miller said. “That down and in pitch to a lefty, bad spot to miss. I thought I threw the ball really well tonight. Really happy with 95% of the pitches I threw. That one, obviously, I want back. Fantastic swing. That’s the spot he’s looking to get one. I gave it to him. He capitalized.”
That 102.1 mph four-seamer, the second pitch to Conine, was the third-fastest pitch hit for a home run this season. The other two were given up by Brewers starter Jacob Misiorowski.
Miller had entered the game with runners at the corners and one out in the eighth inning and struck out the Marlins No.2 and No.3 hitters and then struck out cleanup batter Javier Sanoja to start the ninth before Conine launched a ball almost to the second deck of seats beyond right field.
Miller finished the ninth with a fly ball out and another strikeout.
He was able to look back on the six-reliever effort and see the good.
“It felt like a playoff game for us today, the way we played it,” he said. “Bullpen in the game early, being able to pick Casey up after a rough one. That speaks to the depth we have. Just a complete team effort, top to bottom. Guys picking each other up, and not necessarily having your best best outing for some of us. But it speaks to the group we have and the team and what we’re working towards as a whole. And at the end of the day, finishing with a win, that’s all that matters.”
Right time
There are few professions as scrutinized as an MLB manager.
The funny thing about that is that we never have all the information a manager has at his disposal when making a decision, and we don’t tend to notice half his mistakes or half the moves he gets right.
And sometimes, the best moves are the ones he doesn’t make.
Stammen last night considered using Salas as a pinch-hitter twice before actually doing so.
Both times he didn’t pull the trigger, it would have been for Salas to hit for Freddy Fermin. In the fifth inning, Stammen decided the fact that right-handed reliever Michael Petersen being almost as good against left-handed batters (.194 batting average) as right-handed batters (.176) made it a waste to expend Salas. In the seventh, again with two outs and the Padres up a run and Miller about to pitch, the determination was made to keep Fermin in the game for defense.
Fermin made outs both times, but Salas was still available in the big moment.
He hit for Jase Bowen against rookie righty Josh Ekness.
Said Stammen: “It ended up being the best matchup out of the three times.”
Musgrove update
Joe Musgrove continues to play catch but has not thrown off a mound, and there is no timeline for him to do so.
“He’s still trying to push for that opportunity to make it back,” Stammen said. “And that’s a good sign for the Padres.”
If Musgrove returns this year, it would be as a reliever and would likely only happen if the Padres advance well into the postseason.
He has not pitched in a major league game since shortly before his Tommy John surgery and flexor tendon repair in October 2024. His comeback was aborted this spring due largely to the fact he also has no cartilage in his elbow.
He began a rehab assignment on Aug. 3 and made four minor-league starts, the last of which was Aug. 27. His starts were excellent, but he could not recover in a timely manner and without discomfort.
What he is doing now is seeing how often and how much he can throw.
Said Stammen: “It’s all tied to how well he can recover and if he can pitch in a game and then be able to bounce back at some point.”
Adam update
If he is as healthy as they say, the Padres are almost certainly just going to activate Adam in the next week regardless of his results at Triple-A.
“It’s always tough to evaluate when pitchers are pitching in El Paso, especially Jason coming off the injured list and trying to find his stuff and recalibrate everything,” Stammen said yesterday afternoon. “You take it with a grain of salt.”
Stammen was speaking a day after the second consecutive rehab appearance in which Adam got shelled pitching in El Paso.
The veteran right-hander, whose 2.12 ERA since the start of the 2202 season is fourth-best among all major league relief pitchers, has been on the injured list since July 2 with a shoulder strain.
He is expected to join Rodriguez and Yuki Matsui in taking down crucial middle-to-late innings in the postseason. So they need him to pitch a couple times for them in the coming week.
Said Stammen: “We want to see him pitch against big-league hitters … and get him ready for playoff baseball.”
Tidbits
It was easy to forget after all that happened in the final inning-and-a-half, but the Padres trailed 5-1 at one point. Last night was the eighth time this season the Padres won a game in which they trailed by at least four runs, tying a franchise record set in 1974.
The Padres have scored at least seven runs in four straight games. One more would tie the team record reached four times, most recently in 2024.
The Padres have won five consecutive series, one shy of their season high set in April. They have a chance to finish off their 11th sweep of the season today. They had eight series sweeps last season.
For the fourth time in his past seven games, Ty France had three hits last night. France is batting .305 on the season. That would rank third in the National League if he had nine more plate appearances. He needs 32 more plate appearances in seven games to finish with the requisite 502 (3.1 per game) to be a qualifier.
Tatis’ 24th home run of the season extended his run-scoring streak to eight games, tied with nine other players (including Merrill) for sixth longest in the major leagues this season.
Tatis, who was also hit by a pitch last night, has a .424 on-base percentage during his 14-game on-base streak. He and Manny Machado have a team-high eight streaks at least that long since 2019, the season they both joined the Padres.
Tatis stole his 36th base of the season last night, most by a Padres player since Ha-Seong Kim stole 38 in 2023. It is the sixth-highest steals total by a Padres player since 2000.
Merrill extended his hitting streak to 10 games, the longest in his career over a single season. (He hit safely in the final two games of 2024 and first eight games of 2025.) His batting .455 (20-for-44) during this streak.
Among the 201 players with at least 200 plate appearances since the All-Star break, Tatis’ .991 OPS leads the major leagues, France (.968) ranks fifth and Merrill (.944) ranks seventh.
Samad Taylor hit his second home run of the season, had a sacrifice fly and walked. He is 12-for-29 (.414) with two doubles and a homer over his past 10 games. Taylor was batting .320 when he went on the injured list with an oblique strain in July. He had three hits in his first 17 at-bats after returning at the end of August. But he has his season average back up to .328.
Dustin Harris extended his career-high hitting streak to nine games with a double in the sixth inning. He is batting .389 (14-for-36) two doubles and two triples during the streak
Machado had his first multi-hit game (2-for-5) since Sept. 8, a span of eight games in which he went 4-for-36.
Jake Cronenworth was 1-for-4 with a walk last night and is batting .361 (13-for-36) during a nine-game hitting streak. He also stole two bases for the second time this season and second time in his career.
Cronenworth last night started at his third position in three days, this time at shortstop. Over the past nine games, Cronenworth has made four starts at his primary position of second base, three starts at first, one start at third and one at shortstop. He is one of four players in the major leagues to have made at least three starts at all four infield spots this season. He is one of five Padres to have ever done that.
The Padres’ 7-4 record (.636) in extra innings is tied for sixth-best in the major leagues.
The Padres have won their past seven one-run games and are 26-22 in one-run games this season.
All right, that’s it for me. Early game today (1:10 p.m. PT).
Talk to you tomorrow.