But let\u2019s get right to the bottom line.<\/p>\n
The Padres lost a half-game in the standings yesterday.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/standings_df3a1c.png\")
<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t worse because the lowly Giants split a doubleheader with the Diamondbacks and have split the four games they have played this weekend.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s the thing. There is no predicting this sport.<\/p>\n
This is probably going to continue as a rollercoaster for a while.<\/p>\n
The Padres were two games out on Aug. 7 and a game up five days later.<\/p>\n
That was after a sweep of the Brewers, who have the best record in the major leagues.<\/p>\n
The Padres head to Cincinnati tonight, where they will play three games against a team that is eight games under .500 while the Diamondbacks will host the Phillies, who are 16 games above .500.<\/p>\n
The Padres could as easily be swept by the Reds as the Diamondbacks could sweep the Phillies. Baseball is cuckoo that way.<\/p>\n
That is the point.<\/p>\n
Could the Padres losing five of their past six games signal the beginning of a spiral? Absolutely.<\/p>\n
Just like their losing eight straight from June 27 through July 4 or dropping five of seven coming out of the All-Star break could have been the beginning of the end.<\/p>\n
This is going to be difficult.<\/p>\n
The Padres still play the Yankees and Dodgers, have four games at silly Coors Field and finish with three games against the Diamondbacks.<\/p>\n
But if the Padres play like they did most of the past two days against the team with MLB\u2019s second-best record, they will be in the race.<\/p>\n
Tough break<\/p>\n
Rengifo is one of the great stories of this Padres season.<\/p>\n
He signed a minor-league contract with the Padres after being released by the Brewers and was called up in early July.<\/p>\n
Surprisingly to pretty much everyone but him, after hitting .205 with a .534 OPS<\/a> in 57 games for the Brewers, Rengifo went on to hit .291 with a .784 OPS in 38 games for the Padres. He played at second and third base and started 21 games in left field, a position at which he had started five times in his previous seven big-league seasons.<\/p>\n Along the way were several big hits, as he became the team\u2019s new spark plug, picking up for Samad Taylor, who was the original spark plug until he went down with an oblique injury.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a good player,\u201d Xander Bogaerts said of Rengifo yesterday. \u201cHe just had a tough time with Milwaukee. He\u2019s had really good seasons, you know, and I think, he was kind of playing like a version of himself once he got here. I mean, I don\u2019t know if he felt comfortable or change of scenery, whatever you want to name it. But he\u2019s been huge. I mean, to be where we are right now, he has a lot to do with that for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n That is pretty much exactly the story.<\/p>\n Rengifo did credit the Padres\u2019 confidence in him, their need for him to play every day and comfortability of the clubhouse for his resurgence.<\/p>\n It was also always clear he loved the game and did not think his excelling here was anything special.<\/p>\n \u201cIn my head, I felt comfortable to play ball and knew I could get back to the big leagues,\u201d Rengifo said before a game last week. \u201cI knew what I could do. You wonder. It\u2019s hard when you are a free agent after (being released). I didn\u2019t do the job in Milwaukee. I understand they had to make a decision. The Padres gave me the opportunity to be back in the big leagues. The guys welcomed me here and make me feel good.\u201d<\/p>\n The Padres announced Rengifo\u2019s injury as a sprained right knee. A sprain is a tear of a ligament. Now they will wait for imaging to find out the degree of that sprain and which ligament(s) he tore.<\/p>\n Taylor was removed from Triple-A El Paso\u2019s game on Saturday night and figures to be the replacement for Rengifo.<\/p>\n (Over)Work in progress<\/p>\n Manny Machado needs a break.<\/p>\n But yesterday is why we also have to understand the Padres are in a tough spot when it comes to figuring out how to get him that rest.<\/p>\n I posted a story (here<\/a>) yesterday shortly before Machado drove in two runs with a single in the seventh inning. He had already hit one single, and he would go on to lead off the ninth inning with a walk that gave the Padres the potential tying run on base.<\/p>\n The man is still dangerous when he\u2019s banged up and running on fumes.<\/p>\n Machado is a fascinating study. He believes whatever talent and savvy he brings is secondary to his ability to be on the field game after game.<\/p>\n Yesterday\u2019s story dove into what is practically Machado\u2019s obsession with durability and had some candid quotes from manager Craig Stammen about how he wished he had handled Machado\u2019s workload better earlier in the season.<\/p>\n France\u2019s fight<\/p>\n Ty France is having an excellent season.<\/p>\n It is not just that he is batting .287 with an .865 OPS and yesterday hit his 19th home run, which is one off his career high, and that yesterday was his eighth home run that tied a game or gave the Padres a lead. (He has four others that got them within a run.)<\/p>\n It is that he is achieving those numbers with at-bats like the one yesterday that resulted in him sending a sinker the other way and over the right field wall to give the Padres a 3-2 lead in the sixth inning.<\/p>\n France began the at-bat against Nick Martinez by pulling a fastball foul. Then he watched a sinker just off the plate before getting badly fooled and being unable to stop his swing on a changeup to fall behind 1-2.<\/p>\n That is where the count stayed, as France was late and fouled off\u00a0 a four-seam fastball up in the zone and on the inner third and late again while fouling off a sinker down in the zone and on the inner third.<\/p>\n Then he sent a sinker up and on the outer third just inside the foul pole and just over the wall.<\/p>\n \u201cI know he likes to mix and use all of his pitches,\u201d France said. \u201cSo when I got to two strikes, it was just kind of trying to shorten up and put something in play. He left the fastball up and just put a good swing on it. \u2026 I think the couple foul balls in their dugout (on the first base side) showed I was a little late on the fastball. So \u2026\u00a0 that was a good pitch he made. And like I said, when I got to two strikes, it was just trying to battle.\u201d<\/p>\n By the way, the 20 home runs France hit during his All-Star season of 2022 were achieved in 613 plate appearances. He has been to the plate just 400 times in 2026.<\/p>\n Not terrible<\/p>\n The Padres scoring 10 runs in two games is not the way you expected them to lose the first two games of this series.<\/p>\n The offense was coming off three games against the Pirates, in which they faced arguably the toughest 1-2-3 starting pitching punch they had seen in a series this season. And they arrived here with dates against three starters who all ranked among the best in the American League in numerous categories.<\/p>\n The Padres have not been great the past two days. But they have produced at a level that would have been sufficient in many games. They got a bit lucky and made the most of their four hits on Friday. They fought back to take the lead twice yesterday, only to see the lead lost in the next half-inning both times.<\/p>\n They scored four runs (three earned) in 5\u2154 innings against Shane McClanahan in Friday\u2019s 9-4 loss. McClanahan had his ERA bumped up from 3.10 to 3.19.<\/p>\n Then came Martinez and his 2.93 ERA. The Padres scored three runs off him, all in the sixth inning.<\/p>\n \u201cI would say OK,\u201d Stammen said when asked to assess the offense in the first two games of the series. \u201cI mean, against great pitching, you\u2019re not going to score every inning, so you try to get as much as you can. \u2026 Got three runs on the board against (Martines). We had four against McClanahan. So you put that in a vacuum, yeah, I\u2019ll take that right now, and then play the rest of the game with our bullpen.\u201d<\/p>\n Now comes what is likely the biggest challenge of the weekend.<\/p>\n