Good morning,

The Padres are fun again.

They might be frustrating to their fans, and mounting injuries may yet conspire to undermine their plans. But they are exciting to watch more nights than not. They give themselves a chance to win more nights than not.

Last night, it was a fighting chance.

You can read Jeff Sanders’ game story (here) from last night’s 9-7 victory, which began with the benches clearing in the first inning after Nationals catcher Keibert Ruiz and Jurickson Profar exchanged words and was decided by Profar’s grand slam.

At several points throughout the night, a crowd of more than 40,000 was as electrified as at any point this season or last.

After the game, the Nationals’ Jesse Winker said this:

“The fans are passionate about their team. It’s their only team in the city, I believe. They sell out every night.”

Those in attendance seemed to loom large in Manny Machado’s mind, too.

“We gave them a pretty good show today,” he said.

It was just Friday that I wrote in the newsletter that their victory that night was “either further foreshadowing of the doom that awaits the increasingly fragile Padres or another reminder of how unstoppable the regularly resilient Padres are.”

Well, they have won three of four since then and six of seven over the past week. And they have done it with flair.

It is becoming clear what one of the main differences is between last year and this.

It is Profar.

He has earned the “MVP” chants that have been bestowed on him at Petco Park by putting up these numbers:

Those are big-time stats. And they tell an incomplete story of Profar’s worth to the Padres.

“Yeah, I mean, the numbers are huge,” manager Mike Shildt said. “We’re at where we’re at because of that. But we’re also in a good place overall, with a lot of obstacles … because of the way he goes about his business, his residual value of how he brings people along with him from a competitive spirit, from a preparation. Some days are better than others with his leg. He’s (a) competitor warrior, plays the game the right way. “He brings value in what he does — hits the Grand Slam — but he also brings value in, ‘You know what, I’m just gonna go out and be a good teammate.’ And he’s gonna bring people around him up. And that’s what winning players do.”

I have written multiple times — and did so again (here) last week — about how much Profar values leadership and how important that was to the Padres bringing him back on a $1 million contract. He is among a small group of people with the gravitas to influence Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr.

“He’s been one of the best teammates I’ve ever had in my career,” Machado said last night. “… There’s no bigger competitor. This guy loves to win. He wants to win. He hates to lose. He hates to lose. He does not like to lose. He brings that edge to this team.”

Profar’s remarkable season took off in earnest over a nine-day stretch in early April.

• April 6: His first-inning grand slam provided the only runs in a 4-0 victory over the Giants
• April 10: He hit a go-ahead double in the fourth inning, and his two-run homer in the sixth inning put the Cubs away in a 10-2 victory
• April 14: The day after Profar took umbrage at an inside pitch and Dodgers catcher Will Smith called him “irrelevant” in a postgame interview, Profar’s bases-loaded double in the seventh inning broke a 3-3 tie and gave the Padres a 6-3 victory and series win in Los Angeles.

You couldn’t help but think the past two nights about how wrong Smith was and how much Profar revels in being relevant (and in the center of whatever it is that will get his team going).

“Every time they poke that bear, that bear comes in swinging,” Machado said. “So keep poking him all they want, because he carries us big time when they do.”

Brouhaha

The heatedness that ensued from the bottom of the first inning on last night actually began on the final play of Monday night’s game when Profar’s single gave the Padres a walk-off victory and he raced from first base toward the third base line to celebrate, gesturing to fans while the Nationals watched and seethed.

There were reports Monday night that the Nationals felt Profar’s celebration was directed at them. Profar had been knocked down by a high-and-tight fastball three pitches before his game-winning hit and also said afterward he felt disrespected the Nationals had intentionally walked Luis Arraez to get to him.

As Profar stood in the batter’s box preparing for his first plate appearance last night, Ruiz engaged him in conversation.

“I just feel like it wasn’t great, what he did yesterday wasn’t great,” Ruiz said after the game. “I feel that myself, and I just wanted to let him know.’

After a few seconds, Ruiz began pointing and touched Profar’s shoulder.

This is the exchange between Keibert Ruiz and Jurickson Profar that led to the benches emptying.

Profar was then hit by a pitch.

(Via: @EVT_JClark)pic.twitter.com/TSsH0FzHJC

— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) June 26, 2024

“That, I take exception,” Profar said later. “You can talk, but you can’t touch.”

Still, Profar backed away, as Machado ran in to push back Ruiz and was followed by virtually every player, coach and supporting staff member on both teams.

Benches cleared between the Nationals and Padres in the first inning after words were exchanged between Manny Machado, Jurickson Profar and Keibert Ruiz

Profar was then hit by the next pitch and Mike Shildt was ejected pic.twitter.com/rfWzV2UKXQ

— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) June 26, 2024

“I gotta be smart,” Profar said. “I don’t want to get suspended or thrown out of the game. It wouldn’t be good for our team. We lost Fernando (to injury). I can’t get thrown out. I have to take that and respond the way I respond.”

The fracas that ensued did not involve anything more than some yelling and players being shepherded. No one was ejected, but crew chief Adam Hamari warned both benches, which ostensibly meant a pitcher throwing at a batter would result in that pitcher and his manager being ejected.

But when the Nationals’ MacKenzie Gore drilled Profar in the foot with a 98 mph fastball on the next pitch, Profar took off for first base and there was no ejection — that is, until Shildt was tossed for arguing that Gore should have been tossed.

“It’s a real head scratcher,” Shildt said of how he was the one ejected.

Like every Padres player questioned, Shildt said he did not think Gore hit Profar on purpose.

“It’s a tough situation for everybody involved,” he said before protesting that it being a 98 mph fastball on the next pitch nonetheless merited Gore’s ejection.

Hamari said after the game that umpires must discern intent in order to eject a pitcher, and they determined there was no intent by Gore to hit Profar.

Shildt was much more pleased, anyway, by what happened next.

Manny’s moment

On the first pitch he saw from Gore, Machado launched a towering 393-foot homer to left field.

“Just seeing how that whole inning was turning out,” Machado said when asked how he approached that at-bat. “(Gore) took time off. He wasn’t commanding his pitches as well as he has. So just trying to be aggressive and trying to put up a few on the board and get a rally going. I was able to hit one out of the park, which was great and gave us the lead early and gave us that energy.”

HOW ‘BOUT THEM APPLES?!

🔥: https://t.co/gyd80CEbUT pic.twitter.com/WscQxUpwKr

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) June 26, 2024

Machado watched the ball sail as he slowly walked halfway up the line before tossing his bat, gesturing to the dugout and then taking off on his jog around the bases.

As Machado neared home plate, Tatis walked from the far end of the dugout onto the field and toward home plate, waving for his teammates to join him. By the time Machado arrived, he was surrounded on the warning track by 20 men.

“You wake up a team like that, it’s a dangerous thing to do,” Tyler Wade said. “It shows tonight. It brought our energy a little more. … Big players do big-time things in big situations. You got Manny doing his thing, Pro doing his thing. That’s how you have somebody’s back. It’s not about talking. It’s about, ‘I’m going to get my boy’s back right here.’ I think that’s what got everybody else more going.”

Jackson Merrill had another quote about what Machado did that was in Sanders’ game story.

You can also read more from Profar in that story, including on his grand slam in the sixth inning, which was his team-leading eighth game-deciding RBI and earned him this distinction:

Getting back

Reliever Jeremiah Estrada is just starting to put some weight back on.

He is at 212 pounds, down 15 pounds from where he was when he developed flu-like symptoms on June 11. He has recently resumed eating semi-regularly but is still limited to white rice and bread.

But he has told coaches he is available most days and has pitched seven times since getting sick. He did so again last night, for the second night in a row, working a scoreless eighth inning.

“My mindset is winners find a way to win,” Estrada said yesterday afternoon. “I want to do what I can to help the team.”

During this stretch, Estrada has allowed at least one run in four of his seven outings and a total of eight runs on 10 hits.

“I’ve been doing my best,” he said. “It’s been a bumpy road lately. … I’ve had a couple outings where some pitches have been hit. Some pitches have been left in the zone.”

Estrada, whose ERA has risen from 0.86 to 3.29 since he got sick, is clearly thinner and seems less energetic at times. But his fastball has maintained its velocity, and he has struck out 13 batters in 5⅓ innings over the seven games since getting sick.

“It’s a different burst when I go out and pitch,” he said. “… I’d take a bullet for this team. If I’m going to die anywhere, it’s going to be on that mound.”

Estrada said this illness “is nothing compared to” the two weeks he spent in the hospital with COVID in 2019.

“Yeah, I’ve spent like four hours throwing up,” he said. “But I threw up for 24 hours when I had COVID.”

Better, brief

Adam Mazur, who spent the weekend in El Paso before being recalled from Triple-A when elbow inflammation kept Yu Darvish from making his scheduled start last night, went five innings and got his first major league win.

He shut out the Nationals for two innings at the start of his outing and two innings at the end of his outing.

He allowed four runs in the middle inning on two singles, a double, a triple and a home run.

He walked one batter and took just 55 pitches to get through five innings. He threw 38 strikes. This was a significant improvement, considering he walked 16 batters in 17⅓ innings in his first four starts.

“I feel like I made some good pitches,” Mazur said. “… Just (kept) pounding the zone and didn’t shy away from them.”

But the Padres lifting him when they did indicates their level of trust in the rookie.

And that is not something they hope to abide for long in 2024. Mazur may end up being a pitcher in the major leagues for a long time. And they will continue to help him attempt  to improve as quickly as possible and will also take measures like they did last night as long as they must.

But, especially with Darvish and Joe Musgrove (elbow) sidelined, the Padres cannot have to count regularly on Mazur and his 7.25 ERA.

The trade deadline is five weeks from yesterday. The Padres are in high gear trying to land a starting pitcher (or two).

They are looking virtually everywhere and talking to virtually everyone.

Atop their list is White Sox left-hander Garrett Crochet.

However, the ask is high. Extremely high.

It isn’t known exactly what could get the deal done, except that the White Sox have talked about  prospects the Padres consider untouchable. So that would presumably mean a package that includes catcher Ethan Salas or shortstop Leodalis De Vries. The Sox set the tone for the talks when, early in the process, they were asking for Merrill.

Solano strikes again

Donovan Solano drove in two runs with a fifth-inning single last night, giving the Padres a 5-4 lead.

And he did it in an at-bat that might just be the perfect representation of what he has done this season.

Solano had two singles in two-strike counts last night, and his .311 batting average with two strikes is second-highest in the major leagues among batters with more than 15 at-bats in that circumstance.

The go-ahead hit in the fifth was particularly remarkable.

Solano took the first pitch from Gore, which sailed over the plate but well above the strike zone and was called a strike. He then had a swing that certainly looked as if he checked it ruled a strike on appeal.

“I told myself, ‘Don’t think about those things,’” Solano recounted. “I waited for a slow pitch, because in the at-bat before, he threw me a two-strike fastball, and I hit it. And that was the pitch. I got a curveball. I tried to hit it to the second baseman.”

He did just that, slapping a pitch on the outside corner the other way on the ground just beyond the reach of the diving Luis García Jr. as two runners raced home.

Said hitting coach Victor Rodriguez: “He really knows what he is doing.”

Turn it up 🔊 #VotePadres: https://t.co/gyd80CEbUT pic.twitter.com/8BcqpXM9Dc

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) June 26, 2024

Tidbits

• Ha-Seong Kim dribbled a ball down the third base line and beat the throw to first base for an infield single in the sixth inning last night. That followed a walk in fourth inning. Over the past 20 games, Kim has batted just .202 batting but managed a respectable .338 on-base percentage that is the product of 13 hits and 13 walks. For the season, he is batting .223 with a .334 OBP.
• Jake Cronenworth was 1-for-3 with a walk and a run scored last night. He has scored 10 times in the past six games.
• Bryce Johnson’s bunt single last night was the Padres’ 15th of the season, more than any other MLB team.
• From bat to fan’s hands, Profar’s grand slam was in the air just 3.69 seconds, the fastest one of his home runs has left the park since Statcast began measuring such things in 2015. The ball never got more than 47 feet off the ground, the third-lowest homer by a Padres player this season behind one by Machado (42 feet) and one by Tatis (46). Here is video of Profar’s grand slam.
• The Padres won a game in which their pitchers struck out just one batter for the first time in six seasons. Closer Robert Suarez had the lone strikeout in the ninth inning.
• Shildt’s fourth ejection ties him with the Yankees’ Aaron Boone for most in the majors this season.
• Xander Bogaerts stayed behind in San Diego to rehab his fractured shoulder the past two road trips. His getting closer to taking batting practice and doing full baseball activity has come at a good time. He will be on the road trip that begins after today’s game — a trip that begins with three games in Boston, where Bogaerts played from 2013 through ‘22.
• Former Padres shortstop CJ Abrams was 3-for-3 with two walks and is 6-for-8 in the two games in the series. After each of his first two singles last night, which came in his first two at-bats, he was eliminated on the bases. He was picked off first by Mazur in the first inning and after rounding first base in the third inning, he was returning to the bag following a single to right field and stopped short when a throw from Johnson came in behind him and Luis Arraez applied the tag.

The Padres caught CJ Abrams SLEEPING pic.twitter.com/DLEEfUdEFA

— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) June 26, 2024

All right, that’s it for me. Early game (1:10 p.m. PT) today and then an overnight flight to Boston.

Talk to you tomorrow.