Good morning,
Don’t worry.
The Padres have hit a skid. A small one.
They have lost three of their past four games and no longer have the best record in the major leagues since the All-Star break.
But they are still in possession of the National League’s second wild-card spot, two games up on the Braves and 4½ games up on the Mets.
The last team to lose a cushion of more than four games with 31 games remaining in the season was the 2014 Brewers. The only other time in the past 16 seasons it has happened was to the 2011 Braves.
Both those teams were horrible over the final 31 games.
Granted, maybe today is not the best day to talk about things that rarely happen.
The Padres, you see, lost last night in part because of someting you might never see again, as Manny Machado had a fairly routine line drive go off his glove for a costly error.
“He was a human for a moment,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “The guy is one of the best third basemen to ever play the game. Sometimes you’ve got to prove you’re human. We’ll take 27 balls in a row hit to Manny Machado.”
The out he didn’t make last night allowed the top of the fourth inning to continue. Two batters later, Francisco Lindor hit a grand slam.
You can read in my game story (here) about what Machado said and how starting pitcher Michael King took the blame for the 7-1 loss.
Yeah, stuff happens.
And there must be some concern about what is happening with the Padres.
King probably needs to be better early in games than he has been in three of his past four starts. Jurickson Profar probably needs to hit better than the .200/.259/.320 he has over the past 13 games. Machado probably needs to stop missing so many good pitches and chasing so many unfavorable ones. The Padres definitely need the players they expect back soon (Ha-Seong Kim and Fernando Tatis Jr.) to come back so it is not Bryce Johnson and Mason McCoy batting back-to-back in too many more starting lineups.
But these Padres have earned the benfit of the doubt. They do not in any way, shape or form appear to be the 2021 crew that lost 34 of its final 46 games and plummeted from 17 games above .500 to four games below.
The Padres are 73-58. Even going 16-15 the rest of the way would give them 89 victories. The last team with that many wins to not make the postseason was — oh, that was just three years ago when the 91-win Blue Jays and 90-win Mariners fell short in 2021.
But don’t worry, it rarely happens.
Tidbits
- You can read (here) Jeff Sanders’ game preview from yesterday for updates on Yu Darvish, Wandy Peralta and Tatis. It is expected that Darvish, who will face hitters this morning at Petco Park, will travel with the team on its road trip to St. Louis and Tampa to continue his ramp-up while Tatis will go to Arizona to face minor-league pitchers.
- Sanders reported last night that the Padres will recall right-handed reliever Lake Bachar today. His first appearance will be his MLB debut. The corresponding move would presumably involve Logan Gillaspie, who cannnot simply be optioned because he already has been optioned five times this season. He will have to be placed on waivers, which opens him up to other teams claiming him.
- Jake Cronenworth did not start last night for the third time in the past six games a left-hander has been on the mound for the opposing team. He had started 23 of the Padres’ previous 24 games against lefties. Cronenworth is batting .203/.275/.258 against left-handers this seaon. It will be interesting to see what Shildt does today, as the Padres face another left-hander in Jose Quintana, against whom Cronenworth struck out twice in June. Shildt has also given Luis Arraez the occasional rest against lefties. Arraez is batting .266/.309/.322 against left-handers and .324/.351/.408 against righties.
- Catcher Kyle Higashioka was 2-for-4 for a second straight night and is batting .273 (18-for-66) over his past 21 games.
- The Padres outhit the Mets last night, 6-5. But the Mets got six runs on three homers. The Padres are 8-26 when getting six or fewer hits. The Padres also committed two errors. They are 4-10 when making two or more errors. They are 0-4 when getting six or fewer hits and committing two or more errors.
All right, that’s it for me. Clunker of a game and an early flight makes for the shortest newsletter of the year.
No newsletter tomorrow since I am flying today. Jeff Sanders will cover today’s game, and we will have the usual coverage on our Padres page.
Talk to you Tuesday after the series opener tomorrow in St. Louis.