{"id":480554,"date":"2026-09-30T15:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T15:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/480554\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T15:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T15:18:13","slug":"preller-says-its-world-series-or-bust-before-perfect-game-1-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/480554\/","title":{"rendered":"Preller says it’s World Series or bust before perfect Game 1 win"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Padres<\/a>San Diego-native Joe Musgrove reacts after striking out the last Chicago Cubs batter in Game 1 of the National League Wild Card series at PETCO Park. (Photo by Gregory Bull\/Associated Press)<\/p>\n

For the Padres this postseason, it\u2019s win the World Series or bust.<\/p>\n

That ultimately has been the goal since A.J. Preller was hired as general manager in August of 2014. Through six full-time managers and three interim managers. Through two ownership groups and three control persons.<\/p>\n

Yet, they haven\u2019t been back to the big dance in 28 years and have never won it all, although the quest began anew on Tuesday night with a bang at Petco Park. The team orchestrated a resounding 8-0 win over the Cubs<\/a> to start a best-of-three National League Wild Card series.<\/p>\n

The Padres can quickly wrap it up on Wednesday night in Game 2 with Nick Pivetta on the mound against Kevin Gausman for the Cubs. It\u2019s just the first step. They would then move on to Milwaukee for a NL Division Series against the 103-win Brewers. The Padres need 13 victories total to capture the World Series.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s motivating,\u201d Preller told\u00a0Times of San Diego\u00a0in the hours prior to the game. \u201cWe\u2019ve been in this spot before. It\u2019s always exciting to play in the postseason. The idea that we haven\u2019t finished it off and been to the World Series, that\u2019s the ultimate goal. We\u2019ve tried to learn from those experiences before.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely motivating for everyone in the building to try and win that World Series and see what that looks like. Hopefully we\u2019ve learned from some of the successes and failures. We\u2019ll use that and hopefully it will show up positively this October.\u201d<\/p>\n

Game 1 turned out to be everything the Padres could have hoped. Michael King started and took a no-hitter into the seventh inning. Nico Hoerner broke it up when he punched a slow grounder to third base that Manny Machado couldn\u2019t handle. King struck out the next two batters to end his 97-pitch stint with seven strikeouts. He walked three and efficiently recorded his ninth quality start in his last 10 dating back to Aug. 8 to earn the win.<\/p>\n

Fernando Tatis and Machado opened the first inning with homers on the first four Matthew Boyd pitches. Xander Bogaerts added another long bolt in the fourth and that was all the run support King needed.<\/p>\n

The game ended with the re-emergence of fan-favorite Joe Musgrove, who was a surprise addition to the Wild Card roster earlier in the day. Musgrove came on to pitch the ninth to a raucous reception of the 47,084 in the ballpark, striking out two Cubs and pitching out of a bases-loaded situation of his own making. It was his first appearance in almost exactly two years and his voyage through Tommy John surgery and an endless recovery.<\/p>\n

He called his first relief appearance since 2021 an out-of-body experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still can\u2019t really put it together,\u201d he said afterwards. \u201cManaging the nerves, the energy, the stadium. It was different for me. I was just so excited to get back on the mound.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

The Padres under Preller have had their chances, but this may be their best yet. They\u2019ve been to the playoffs four times since 2020 under four different managers: Jayce Tingler, Bob Melvin, Mike Shildt and Craig Stammen.<\/p>\n

Under Melvin in 2022 they defeated the Dodgers in a four-game National League Division Series, but bowed to the Phillies in a five-game NL Championship Series. It was the first time they ventured that far since 1998 when, under Bruce Bochy, they beat the Braves in the NLCS, but were swept by the Yankees in the World Series.<\/p>\n

In 2024, under Shildt they again defeated the Braves at Petco winning the first two games of the best-of-three Wild Card Series. Leading the Dodgers 2-1 in a best-of-five NLDS, they wound up losing the series in five games going scoreless in the final 24 innings.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers beat the Yankees in the World Series and the Padres went home, as usual.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought they had their best team in 2024,\u201d Cubs general manager Jed Hoyer, who once was a baseball executive with the Padres, said on the field before Tuesday night\u2019s game. \u201cBut then they stopped hitting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year under Shildt, they went three and out against the Cubs at Wrigley Field in the Wild Card round. Shortly thereafter, Shildt was gone just like Tingler and Melvin before him.<\/p>\n

Frustrating?<\/p>\n

\u201cI know for all of us it\u2019s about winning the World Series and setting that goal,\u201d Preller said. \u201cYou feel good about the fact we\u2019ve played in the playoffs and that\u2019s not easy to do. But I wouldn\u2019t say frustrating as much as we know we still have work to do. We haven\u2019t accomplished what we set out to do. But we have another chance to do it now.\u201d<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s ownership. The Padres went to the World Series and lost to the Tigers in 1984 under the guidance of Joan Kroc and her husband, Ray, the McDonald\u2019s founder, who died earlier that year. The Krocs in 1974 saved the franchise from moving to Washington with a $12 million purchase.<\/p>\n

Under John Moores the Padres had their most overall success winning their division four times and the 1998 NL pennant. The Padres haven\u2019t won the NL West since 2006.<\/p>\n

Moores sold the team to the Seidler and O\u2019Malley families in 2012 for $800 million. When Peter Seidler took over control of the team he began spending money turning the Padres into a perennial playoff contender. He passed away in 2023. By the grace of the 10-to-12 team Wild Card format, the Padres have had opportunities, but the Dodgers have won the division 13 of the last 14 years.<\/p>\n

Little more than a month ago, Jose E. Feliciano and his wife Kwanza Jones bought the team at a valuation of $3.9 billion. The Dodgers won the division again for the fifth season in a row and the Padres finished nine games behind them. Only a 17-3 finish salvaged a Wild Card berth.<\/p>\n

Has anything changed under the new owners?<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean everybody is different. I\u2019ve worked under different structures over the years,\u201d Preller said. \u201cEverybody has their own personalities and leadership styles. With Kwanza and Jose they\u2019re starting to get settled in. They\u2019re starting to talk more and more on the baseball side.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat everyone\u2019s had in common I\u2019ve had the fortune to work for is that they want to win. It\u2019s very clear from Kwanza and Jose that they\u2019re going to win. They\u2019ve made that clear to me and everybody. We\u2019re hoping to deliver.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year, if not sooner.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Diego-native Joe Musgrove reacts after striking out the last Chicago Cubs batter in Game 1 of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[5671,7866,2674,44043,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-480554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-a-j-preller","tag-joe-musgrove","tag-padres","tag-petco-park","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}