Preller intended for the Padres to be buyers all along. What the team accomplished the last week-and-a-half was cementing that conviction.<\/p>\n
Moreover, the Padres put themselves in a better place.<\/p>\n
On July 23, they were four games out of playoff position with four teams between them and the final National League postseason spot. They are now a game out of playoff position and the first team on the outside looking in.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/standings_bc62c0.png\")
<\/p>\n
And tonight they begin a four-game series against one of the teams directly in front of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a half-game anymore; it\u2019s a full game,\u201d said Jake Cronenworth, meaning that every win or loss carries with it a bigger swing in the standings when playing a team head-to-head. \u201cWere playing really well right now. They\u2019re playing really well right now. It\u2019s going to be a great series.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Padres have for the first time this season altered their rotation to line up a starter against a particular opponent. Michael King was pushed back a day from his scheduled start yesterday so he could go tonight. And the biggest reason is that he has mostly dominated the Diamondbacks.<\/p>\n
\u201cPart of it was (the Giants) have a lot of lefties, and we wanted some lefties to pitch against them today,\u201d Padres manager Craig Stammen said. \u201cThe other part was separating Walker (Buehler) and Michael so they\u2019re not back-to-back, so we can spread this pitching out a little bit. And then, yeah, we\u2019re facing the Diamondbacks. We\u2019re chasing them. He\u2019s our best pitcher. It\u2019d be nice to have our best pitcher pitching against them. He would\u2019ve missed them otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/kingvsAZ.png\")
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\u00a0<\/p>\n
For all the focus on the trade deadline \u2014 and today is important for how Preller\u2019s moves can fill holes \u2014 there are actual games to be played.<\/p>\n
Lots of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve still got two months of baseball left,\u201d Jackson Merrill said. \u201cIt\u2019s not like it\u2019s the last weekend of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pitching in<\/p>\n
The Padres won yesterday by doing something they hope to have to not do much more.<\/p>\n
Their pitching Frankenstein is mostly working swimmingly. But even when such a game goes well, the reasons why it is unsustainable are evident.<\/p>\n
They have announced their starters tomorrow and Wednesday as \u201cTBD.\u201d That means two more kitchen-sink games unless the starting pitcher they are virtually certain to acquire today is ready to go.<\/p>\n
While team sources have almost exclusively talked about making just one starting pitcher addition, it is possible the Padres get two new starting pitchers. Even if they don\u2019t, they could turn to Randy V\u00e1squez and\/or Germ\u00e1n M\u00e1rquez for traditional starts for a stretch this month.<\/p>\n
And the anticipated return of Joe Musgrove and Nick Pivetta later in August should eradicate these all-staff games altogether.<\/p>\n
Jeff Sanders spoke to Musgrove yesterday about his return (and others\u2019) as it relates to the Padres competing with the Dodgers. There are some interesting quotes from Musgrove in that story (here<\/a>).<\/p>\n But if we can just appreciate for a moment what the Padres have done.<\/p>\n It will almost certainly take the starting rotation \u2014 with actual starting pitchers throughout \u2014 performing well going forward if the Padres are to make the postseason. But if they do get to October, they will look back at this period as a big reason why.<\/p>\n Five of their past eight victories have come in expanded bullpen games.<\/p>\n In those games, the Padres starters-turned-relievers have largely responded to their new roles, which have maximized their strengths and, in some cases, changed their outlooks.<\/p>\n Kyle Hart started yesterday and extended his scoreless innings streak to 9\u2154 innings by getting the first nine outs. Griffin Canning settled down after allowing a home run to the first batter he faced to retire six of the next seven batters he faced.<\/p>\n In between their multi-inning efforts was JP Sears\u2019 rough inning, which might also have been the most impressive inning of the day.<\/p>\n Stammen called Sears the \u201cplayer of the game\u201d for what he did in allowing a run on two hits, a walk and a hit batter in the fourth inning, throwing 28 pitches just three days after throwing 67 pitches in the series opener against the Giants.<\/p>\n \u201cMorej\u00f3n coming back in for one-and-a-third again was also very impressive,\u201d Stammen said. \u201cBut a lot of kudos to JP for taking the ball and being willing to put his career on the line for the sake of the team.\u201d<\/p>\n Sears did not see it that way.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I can pitch, I can pitch,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2026 You don\u2019t worry about that as much as a competitor. You care more about the results because at the end of the day that\u2019s really all you care about.\u201d<\/p>\n It is remarkable to consider Sears has been a starter his entire career. That means that no matter how many pitches he has thrown in an outing, he has had at least four days rest before pitching in a game again.<\/p>\n The only other time he had pitched after having fewer than four days off was in the second game of his career, on April 16, 2022, when\u00a0 he was asked to work one inning (18 pitches) after throwing 11 pitches in one inning in his MLB debut three days earlier.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, I hadn\u2019t pitched like that in a while,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I felt fully ready for this. \u2026 I just think this is part of being in the position that I\u2019m in. If I need to pitch, I\u2019m ready to go. If I\u2019m not, if I don\u2019t feel good, then I\u2019m going to be honest about it.\u201d<\/p>\n However, it seemed clear as Sears threw a lot of pitches to spots he did not intend that he was not sharp.<\/p>\n Sears was the first of the Padres\u2019 erstwhile starters brought back on short rest during this experiment.<\/p>\n They have a series of assessments they apply in determining when a pitcher is ready to pitch again. They include a simple eye test, an examination of the metrics and a Ruben Niebla-developed algorithm that measures stress on the pitchers based on their recent workload. Stammen and Niebla also rely on their conversations with the pitchers on the day of a game.<\/p>\n The process is more complicated with what they are doing now, putting their starting pitchers in different roles. And they complicated it by swapping King\u2019s start days.<\/p>\n Stammen seemed dubious after yesterday\u2019s game that Sears had truly been ready to go.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a caveat with all of this, and that is some experimentation with how quick guys can recover and come back,\u201d Stammen said. \u201cSometimes they say they can, and whether that\u2019s, \u2018Yeah, I could throw,\u2019 but \u2018Will you be effective?\u2019 That\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to figure out.<\/p>\n \u201cJP is a tough dude, and he can bounce back really quickly. We\u2019ve got to figure out what that optimal recovery time is. I think today we all saw that he was just a little not himself, not at his peak performance. We\u2019ve got to be honest with each other. I\u2019ve got to do a better job communicating and make sure I\u2019m putting him in a situation where he can have success, not where he\u2019s just grinding through it to survive. It\u2019s a little different. These guys can throw every day, but there\u2019s a difference between throwing a bullpen out in the bullpen and pitching against the middle of the Giants\u2019 order.\u201d<\/p>\n More Morej\u00f3n<\/p>\n No reliever is working more than Morej\u00f3n, who got the final four outs yesterday and reached 60 innings pitched this season in just his 52nd appearance.<\/p>\n Only the Brewers\u2019 Aaron Ashby has a higher innings-to-appearances ratio, having pitched 58\u2153 innings in 50 games.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is rather amazing, the workload that he\u2019s handling and the effectiveness he has on the back end of that,\u201d Stammen said of his prized left-hander.<\/p>\n Morej\u00f3n will be unavailable today after working 1\u2153 innings for the second day in a row.<\/p>\n He entered Saturday\u2019s game with a runner on third and got the final out of the sixth inning before striking out all three batters he faced in the seventh. He entered in the same situation yesterday, except in the eighth inning, and stranded the runner at third before getting two strikeouts and a groundout in the ninth.<\/p>\n It is impossible to say without knowing what the return would be. But it seems insane to think the Padres would be serious about contending for a championship if they were to trade Morej\u00f3n today.<\/p>\n (There was a report yesterday that the Padres turned down a trade with the Yankees involving Morej\u00f3n, though a team source said the details of that report were inaccurate.)<\/p>\n I voted for Morej\u00f3n for team MVP last season. My justification was in an article I wrote (here<\/a>) in spring training.<\/p>\n While his overall numbers have not been quite what they were last year, there is an argument to be made that Morej\u00f3n has been more crucial to the Padres\u2019 success in 2026.<\/p>\n Jason Adam has been out almost half the season between two stays on the injured list, and Jeremiah Estrada has been down for a total of 67 games between his two IL stints. That is a big part of why Morej\u00f3n has gotten four outs or more in 20 of his appearances and gone two full innings seven times, once more of both than he did all last season.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just that\u2019s basically my job,\u201d he said through interpreter Pedro Guti\u00e9rrez. \u201cIt\u2019s what I\u2019m here to do. I\u2019m just happy to be trusted in those situations. The team trusts me to be in it in crucial moments of the game. I was able to come through once again today.\u201d<\/p>\n Morej\u00f3n was asked about the trade speculation the past few weeks, which has arisen because he is due a huge payday as a free agent after the season and there was a time the Padres might have been sellers. He reiterated yesterday he wants to remain with the Padres and would like to sign with them in free agency.<\/p>\n In a story (here<\/a>) Annie Heilbrunn wrote last week, with quotes from Miller,\u00a0 Morej\u00f3n and Ty France about having the trade talk hover over them, it was abundantly clear how special the Padres are to Morej\u00f3n, who signed with them in 2016 after defecting from Cuba.<\/p>\n Stammen was asked yesterday if he could imagine not having Morej\u00f3n in the bullpen?<\/p>\n His only hesitation was the second it took him to smile before he said, \u201cI cannot.\u201d<\/p>\n Unique understanding<\/p>\n Morej\u00f3n knew as soon as Miller was called on to get five outs at the end of Saturday\u2019s game that he would be pitching again Sunday if the game was close.<\/p>\n \u201cI started preparing right after the game,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Morej\u00f3n has an additional resource this season when figuring out how to prepare and assess his readiness.<\/p>\n Stammen is one of 11 pitchers since 2018 to have made at least 67 appearances and pitched at least 79 innings in a season. He did it three times (2018, \u201819 and \u201821) for the Padres.<\/p>\n \u201cI lived it, and we have that commonality that we can talk about a little bit, where you\u2019re a well-used reliever and you still have to find a way to be effective,\u201d Stammen said. \u201cHe\u2019s got much better stuff than I ever did, but we can share that common ground and talk through it. Hopefully I have a good idea of when he does need a break and when I can push him a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n Swinging away<\/p>\n This is what Merrill believes:<\/p>\n \u201cI can hit anything.\u201d<\/p>\n He said that a couple hours after reaching up to hit a 93 mph fastball at shoulder level, well above the strike zone, 420 feet to right-center field for a two-run homer in yesterday\u2019s second inning.<\/p>\n A lil’ Merrill Madness. pic.twitter.com\/MPUJyjs7UZ<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 San Diego Padres (@Padres) August 2, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Merrill pounced so aggressively, it was as if Giants pitcher Landon Roupp had yelled out he was going to throw the pitch exactly where he did.<\/p>\n \u201cI watched the game,\u201d Merrill said. \u201cI saw him do it to somebody else, so I was just expecting something up. Especially after yesterday, I missed a lot of heaters up.\u201d<\/p>\n And no one has to tell Merrill to swing.<\/p>\n Especially when his swing is right, he has the ability to do damage on pitches a lot of other players cannot.<\/p>\n He appears to have, along with the Padres hitting coaches, made himself right.<\/p>\n I wrote in last Monday\u2019s newsletter<\/a> about the changes Merrill has made.<\/p>\n While Merrill did not continue to slug during the six-game homestand the way he had on the previous road trip, he was still 8-for-23 (.348) with a double and a home run.<\/p>\n He is batting .317 with a .900 OPS in 107 plate appearances over the past month. That has his batting average up 18 points (to .237) and his OPS up 53 points (to .687) since July 3.<\/p>\n Tidbits<\/p>\n Gavin Sheets started for the first time in four games yesterday and then departed Petco Park in a protective walking boot. He is dealing with plantar fasciitis in his right foot, and the boot allows him to rest the affected area on the bottom of his foot. Sheets played in right field and was 1-for-2 with a walk before being lifted for a pinch-runner after his single in the fifth inning. BASABE DOES IT AGAIN \ud83e\udd29 pic.twitter.com\/VUlUFPiTtg<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) August 2, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n All right, that\u2019s it for me. It\u2019s trade deadline day. Oh, and a game tonight that could end with the Padres in playoff position.<\/p>\n And, yes, I wrote 2,500 words again. I can\u2019t help myself once I get going.<\/p>\n Talk to you tomorrow.<\/p>\n \t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/morejon.png\")
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\nManny Machado was 1-for-15 with a double, a walk and one RBI in the four games against the Giants. He entered the series having hit .326 with a 1.029 OPS over his previous 33 games.
\nFrance was 2-for-4 yesterday and now ranks third on the team with 27 multi-hit games behind only Fernando Tatis Jr. (31) and Merrill (28). France has started 37 fewer games than Tatis and 36 fewer than Merrill.
\nFrance has at least one hit in 18 of his 20 games since July 6 and leads the major leagues with a .413 batting average (31-for-75) in that span.
\nYesterday was Hart\u2019s fourth time this season serving as an opener. He has allowed one run in 8\u2154\u00a0 innings in that role.
\nWith one victory in their remaining three-game set next month in San Francisco, the Padres will win the season series against the Giants for the sixth time in seven years. Their 60-37 record against them in that time is their eighth-best winning percentage (.619) against any team and their best against any NL West opponent. But in some ways, the dominance has been by the slimmest of margins. The teams have played 34 one-run games, with the Giants winning 18 of those.
\nLuis Rengifo went 1-for-3 yesterday and for the second straight game was hit by a pitch and walked. He is batting .362 (17-for-47) with a .483 on-base percentage in 15 games with the Padres.
\nMerrill also stole a base yesterday. His fourth game this season with a home run and a stolen base puts him one away from tying the franchise record held by 10 players. The last to accomplish it was Fernando Tatis Jr. in 2021.
\nMerrill has 16 home runs and 22 stolen bases. The Yankees\u2019 Jazz Chisholm (16 and 30) and Cubs\u2019 Pete Crow-Armstrong (26 and 24) are the only players with at least that many of both.
\nMore Merrill? Yes. He almost had his fifth home run robbery of the season. He actually did have it, and then the wall jarred it loose. Said Merrill, who ran 112 feet to catch up to Osleivis Basabe\u2019s drive: \u201cThat would have been cool. I went the whole way for it.\u201d<\/p>\n