Good morning from San Francisco,
Inside the main room of the visitors clubhouse at Oracle Park, where a dozen players sat in front of their lockers watching televisions affixed to the wall, there was almost no reaction when Jo Adell bounced a single into left field to give off the Angels a walk-off victory over the Dodgers last night.
“I wasn’t watching the game,” Jake Cronenworth joked later.
He was. Most of the Padres players and staff were.
From the training room and the dining room and the weight room, there were brief cheers.
But it was more of an acknowledgment of the position they have gotten themselves into than any sort celebration that they are tied for first place in the National League West with just more than a quarter of the season to play.
And it does deserve to be acknowledged that they have made up nine games on the Dodgers since July 3.
“We’ve been battling our butts off all year to put ourselves in this position,” Cronenworth said. “Now we play them six times in the next 10 days. It’s going to be a great battle.”
My game story (here) from last night’s 5-1 victory over the Giants talks about the exciting portion of the season the Padres are in and how they wore down Robbie Ray to win their fourth consecutive game and fifth consecutive series.
For the better part of the season, there was a lot of talk about how the Padres started out 14-3 and then were nothing better than middling for most of the next three months.
Now they have won 13 of their past 16 games to get to a season-best 16 games over .500 and to their best standing in the NL West this late in any of the past 15 seasons.
No QS code
When the Padres faced Logan Webb and Robbie Ray the first week of June, Webb shut them out over eight innings and Ray held them to two runs in seven innings.
After scoring four runs in 6⅓ innings against Webb on Monday, the Padres scored four times in six innings against Ray last night.
The Padres took the left-hander, who entered the game with the NL’s seventh-best ERA, to a full count eight times last night and made him throw 113 pitches.
They took the lead for good in the second inning when Ramón Laureano led off with a single on the ninth pitch of his at-bat and Jose Iglesias hit the next pitch off the top of and then over the wall in left field.
The Padres got to 4-1 when Laureano led off the fourth inning with a double, stole third base and scored on a single Cronenworth hit on the eighth pitch of his at-bat.
“I don’t know how many games in a row,” manager Mike Shildt said. “… Tough pitchers, but man, tough at-bats, relentless at-bats. Just really, really pleased with the guys. They’re taking quality at-bats all the way through the lineup. Not giving anything away.”
It has been four consecutive games of the Padres wearing down a good starter.
Webb and Ray were among 29 pitchers in a span of 57 games between May 12 and July 13 that turned in quality starts against the Padres.
In 24 games since then, opposing pitchers have made just three quality starts against the Padres.
Bottom’s up
The Padres might finally be the complete offense they sought to be and sometimes claimed to be.
“We just have a deeper lineup,” Manny Machado said yesterday afternoon. “We’ve had glimpses of being good as a whole. We just didn’t do it for a while. Now we’re starting to do it.”
Iglesias batted seventh last night, one spot in front of Cronenworth.
The Padres’ three-run seventh inning on Monday, which decided their 4-1 victory, was built entirely by the bottom three spots in the batting order. (Gavin Sheets doubled. Cronenworth hit an RBI single. Freddy Fermin hit a two-run homer.)
A day earlier, in the fifth inning, the deciding run in a 6-2 victory over the Red Sox came when Cronenworth, the No.8 hitter, doubled and scored on lead-off batter Fernando Tatis Jr.’s two-out single. Two innings earlier, Fermin singled with two outs and scored when No.2 batter Luis Arraez doubled.
In every one of the 11 games since the trade deadline, the bottom three hitters in the Padres’ order have combined to get on base at least twice. It has been at least three times in the past 10 games.
All together, those spots are batting .264 with a .360 on-base percentage over the past 11 games.
“Obviously, the new additions we have make it a lot deeper for pitchers to maneuver,” Machado said. “Now they have to go through all nine guys. So it’s a lot more stressful for them.”
Laureano, the new left fielder, has hit seventh in six of those 11 games. Fermin, the new catcher, has hit ninth in eight of the 11 games. Jake Cronenworth has hit seventh or eighth in all 11.
“It’s important,” said Iglesias, who has batted seventh once and eighth three times over the past 11 games. “We can’t just leave it to these guys – the first five hitters. We’ve all got to contribute from one to nine. We know it’s a whole team effort.”
Tatis is slugging 135 points higher in wins than losses. Machado slugs 169 points higher in wins. Xander Bogaerts slugs 344 points higher in wins.
The Padres are 29-18 since Bogaerts got hot in mid-June. They are 35-21 when Machado and Tatis both get at least one hit this season. They are 12-3 when Jackson Merrill has at least two hits.
There can be little doubt the Padres are better off when their best hitters — the ones at the top of their lineup — are producing.
But the past 11 games have illustrated how the Padres are at their best.
The bottom three spots in the order are hitting 50 points better than those three spots did in the first 109 games. Their on-base percentage is 73 points higher. They have driven in 20 runs, which is nearly a run more per game than before Aug. 1.
It is a small sample size, to be sure. But the goal A.J. Preller set for the trade deadline was to eliminate his team’s “weak links,” and that quest could not have yielded a much better result through 11 games.
“It completes the team, right?” Shildt said. “It doesn’t put so much stress on one through whatever number you want to go through — six, seven — when you’re getting contributions. … It definitely lengthens the lineup and turns it over, and it allows the other guys not to feel like they got to carry the world.”
Swinging away
After Machado reached base on a wind-blown, two-out bloop single in the first inning, Bogaerts launched the first pitch he saw from Ray off the base of the wall in left field for a double.
Machado got to third on the hit and scored before another pitch was made, as Ray’s spike got stuck in the dirt and he stalled in his wind-up before he could make a pitch to Merrill.
The run was fortunate. But it was also due in part to something new from Bogaerts.
Earlier in the season, he just wasn’t feeling good for more than an at-bat or two or three at a time. His swing and/or his stance and/or his approach was changing from game to game, if not at-bat to at-bat.
He did not trust himself. He did not feel good.
That began to change toward the second week of June, and since June 19 he ranks fifth in the major leagues with a .328 batting average and 17th with a .908 OPS.
And shortly after that, he changed something else. He started swinging more often at the first pitch of at-bats.
“I am just in a better position to be able to swing at the first pitch,” he said. “Before I wanted to, but I can’t. I can’t pull the trigger. I’m in a good position enough to hit it (now).”
Merrill’s drives
Merrill lined a thigh-high fastball to the warning track, where it bounced up and off the wall for a double in the sixth inning.
His next time up, he sent a fastball at the top of the zone off his bat at 105 mph a projected 391 feet and over the wall about 20 feet to the left of where his double had bounced.
Jackson Merrill lines a solo shot to the left field seats! pic.twitter.com/UancrLLrLL
— MLB (@MLB) August 13, 2025
To go the other way with authority is not something every hitter can do.
“When Jackson is doing that, clearly he’s in a really good spot,” Shildt said. “That ball was driven. When we see Jackson do that, watch out.”
Merrill has looked better and more confident at the plate since late last month. The results have not reflected that. But Shildt, Merrill and hitting coach Victor Rodriguez have repeatedly said in recent days that was only a matter of time.
“That’s me,” Merrill said. “Just using the whole ball field, not trying to pull everything. Short to the ball, especially on heaters up. Been my weakness all year. So it’s been good to kind of evaluate that and just kind of fix it.”
Last night’s home run was Merrill’s first in 39 at-bats and his second in 97 at-bats.
But he is 5-for-8 with two doubles and the homer over the past two games and is batting .277 with five doubles, two triples and two homers in his past 21 games.
He hit .194 with a .568 OPS in the 51 games before that. During that stretch, his .243 batting average on balls in play was 10th lowest in the major leagues among qualifying batters.
“Baseball is going my way again, which is good,” said Merrill, who has a .328 BABIP over his past 21 games. “I’m just trusting the process now. Not looking for results or anything. Just trust the process. You could come tomorrow and line out three times. Just, (stuff) happens.”
His act
Jose Iglesias’ first home run with the Padres came on the day his Petco Park concert was announced.
Iglesias, whose stage name is Candelita, will perform with the Mexican band La Adictiva at Gallagher Square on Sept. 25. Tickets go on sale 10 a.m. tomorrow (here).
The concert is scheduled for the off day before the Padres’ final series of the regular season.
Before yesterday’s game, Iglesias spoke about his love of music and performing.
“I’ve just used the music as a bridge to deliver a message, good vibes,” he said. “… I’m extremely excited for the support (and) how many people connect with the energy and the honesty of my work.”
Iglesias, whose single “OMG” rose to No.1 on Billboard’s Latin Digital Songs sales chart last summer, takes vocal classes once a week and is learning piano.
“It helps me tremendously,” he said of his music. “Everybody knows baseball is a negative game, right? And sometimes you’ve got to get your mind off of it.”
Asked how he will prepare for the concert given that it is in the middle of a pennant race, he said, “You don’t. I mean, you go connect with people and you have fun. That’s how you deliver a message — with good energy and a smile on your face.”
Tidbits
The Padres are averaging 5.25 runs per game during their 13-3 stretch. That is tied for fifth most in the major leagues in that span (since July 26). Their average of 3.25 runs over their previous 62 games was lowest in MLB.
Jason Adam was awarded his eighth win for his 1⅔ scoreless innings last night. That is second most among all MLB relievers behind teammate Adrian Morejón’s nine.
Cronenworth extended his on-base streak to 17 games, two shy of his career best. He was 1-for-4 yesterday and has a .414 on-base percentage during the streak.
Iglesias’ homer gave him eight game-deciding RBIs this season, tied with Merrill for third on the team behind Machado (11) and Arraez (nine).
Laureano was 2-for-3 with a walk. He is batting .293 (12-for-41) with a .356 on-base percentage with the Padres. His .906 OPS since June 19 is 18th highest in MLB, one spot behind Bogaerts.
All right, that’s it for me. Early game today (12:45 p.m. PT).
Talk to you tomorrow.