It's probably over for the Padres
The San Diego Padres have not been able to pull themselves out of their tailspin and now it's probably too late.
The San Diego Padres are no longer in a position to keep playing if the season ended today. They have lost their 2nd wild card spot to the Cincinnati Reds, whom the Padres now trail by a full game.
The Padres are 19-25 since June. This stretch of July-through-August was supposed to be the easiest part of their schedule. This was when they was supposed to catch up to the Dodgers and Giants, making a run at the NL West crown. Instead, the team has fallen flat on its face again and again while falling to some of the worst teams in all of baseball.
The starting pitching is a trainwreck, the offense seems lifeless, and (as happens during terrible stretches like this) there are reports of clubhouse dysfunction and mutiny.
Any hopes of the Padres turning it around and making a run through the most difficult part of their schedule to regain that spot are probably best described as wishcasting.
In their remaining games, the Padres play against…
the Giants 10 times. They are 4-5 against them so far this year. The Giants have won 7 of their last 10 games (the Padres have won 2 of their last 10 games).
the Dodgers 9 more times. In case you’re unaware, the Dodgers have won 9 of their last 10 games and are red-hot after acquiring Max Scherzer and Trea Turner.
the Braves 3.5 more times. The Padres are 1-1 against the Braves, with half a game left to be played in their first series, but this is a different team than the one we saw a month ago. The Braves made their deadline deals early and got good players at discount rates, so of course they have also won 9 of their last 10 games and have gone from maybe out of the playoffs to likely NL East champions.
the Astros 3 more times. Houston is on cruise-control right now because their lead in the AL West is big enough to allow them to do so, but they are definitely a better team than San Diego right now. I’m sure they’re looking to even the season series that is currently tilted 2-1 in the Padres favor.
This is, without actually meaning quite as much, the start of the playoffs for a Padres team that desperately needs a break.
Despite being good in the early parts of the season, the Padres have never really figured out how to even be decent on the road. Their 27-32 record away from Petco isn’t exactly surprising.
They’re also, for a large amount of reasons that we won’t get into right now, just 17-20 in one-run games. And, perhaps most importantly, they’re just 28-26 against NL West foes.
Outside of some blips here and there (sweeps against the Dodgers, Reds, Mariners, Cardinals and Rangers), this has been a team hovering around .500 for most of the season.
Now, with the starting pitching in shambles and Fernando Tatis Jr. struggling offensively (batting .136 with 1 HR in the last 6 games), they’re even worse than that. There’s no way they are capable of handling what is coming when the Dodgers walk into Petco Park tomorrow.
I’ll keep watching, because sports (and baseball, specifically) has a way of making you look stupid and doing the opposite of what makes sense, but my hope for seeing playoff games at Petco Park this October is all but gone. Now it’s all about learning and trying to figure out where it all went wrong so that another exciting Padres season doesn’t end so disastrously next year.
Where it all went wrong was Preller insistence on hiring inexperienced managers time and time again. This time it was his best buddy Tingleballs who was hired and now we find out he can’t manage a team full of studs, they just don’t respect him . He hired a pitching a pitching coach with a long history of damaging pitching arms and voila you have an under achieving team . No mystery here !!!!