the Padres beat the Blue Jays 5-4 to enter the All-Star break at .500 with their first series victory in the past five.<\/a><\/p>\nConsecutive one-run victories over Toronto (45-51) enabled the Padres (48-48) to gain ground in a six-team race for the final wild card playoff spot as A.J. Preller weighs whether to sell or buy entering the Aug. 3 trade deadline.<\/p>\n
Machado has come on.<\/p>\n
As part of a 10-for-25 surge, he hit a three-run home run eight days ago in Dodger Stadium to help end the team\u2019s eight-game losing streak and lined two key hits Sunday as the Padres overcame 1-0 and 4-3 deficits at home.<\/p>\n
\u201cManny being Manny, that simple,\u201d Fernando Tatis Jr. said. \u201cI\u2019ve said it before, when he goes, we go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Machado\u2019s three hits lifted his batting average above .200 for the first time since May 8, another stark reminder of the extreme challenges Padres stars have faced in the season\u2019s first half.<\/p>\n
Nick Pivetta, the starter on opening day, hasn\u2019t pitched since an elbow injury halted him in April.<\/p>\n
Jackson Merrill struggled worse than he ever had as a hitter, and Tatis fell into the longest home run drought of his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a roller coaster for sure,\u201d Machado said. \u201cWe learned a lot as a group. But it pulled us together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Machado got help from several others on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The group including rookie Jase Bowen (key stolen base), manager Craig Stammen (subbing Bowen to run for Machado at second base), Xander Bogaerts (key single and stolen base), Ty France (sacrifice fly that stood as the winner), Gavin Sheets (eight-pitch walk), closer Mason Miller (striking out Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to clinch it) and Jake Cronenworth (run-scoring single.)<\/p>\n
Machado lauded rookie infielder Sung-Mun Song.<\/p>\n
He said the South Korean\u2019s at-bat quality has soared with increased playing time and his actions at third base have impressed him, making it easier for Stammen to have Machado fill a DH role or not start.<\/p>\n
When the Padres return from the break, they\u2019ll go to Kansas City before stops in Atlanta and Miami.<\/p>\n
Six home games against losing teams \u2013 the Rockies and Giants \u2013 will take them into the All-Star break.<\/p>\n
FanGraphs analytics gave the Padres just a 12.2% chance entering Sunday to win a wild card playoff berth.<\/p>\n
In the table for the last spot, Miami (52-45) leads them by 3 1\/2 games despite having MLB\u2019s smallest luxury-tax payroll. Behind the Marlins and ahead of the Padres are St. Louis (50-45), Pittsburgh (50-47) and an Arizona team (49-47) that just swept the Dodgers in L.A.<\/p>\n
Preller should have a much clearer picture when the Padres leave Miami on July 26.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to get off to a hot start,\u201d said Machado, the team leader with 19 home runs.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause at the end of the day,\u201d he added, \u201cour goal is to bring a championship to the city of San Diego. For us to do that, we\u2019ve got to get off to a hot start. It doesn\u2019t matter what the trade deadline brings or comes with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Preller said Saturday he could end up buying or selling.<\/p>\n
Tatis said there\u2019s no point in players mulling what moves Prellers might make.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s A.J. Who knows?\u201d he said. \u201cAlso, the (incoming) owner is going to play a big part of it here.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s A.J. Anything can be in play,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The Padres can\u2019t expect Pivetta or Joe Musgrove back before August, if then.<\/p>\n
The starting rotation\u2019s poor first half has taxed a bullpen that shut down Jason Adam last week, perhaps until August, and continues to ask more of Adrian Morej\u00f3n, who was 13th in innings pitched by a reliever before allowing a go-ahead run Sunday as part of a two-inning outing.<\/p>\n
This is a team with a minus-43 run differential.<\/p>\n
Down below, media analysts who include former evaluators with the Blue Jays and Braves, rank San Diego\u2019s farm system as last of 30 systems.<\/p>\n
But for all the challenges dating to opening day, when Tigers ace Tarik Skubal shut them down, the Padres stand today on level ground.<\/p>\n
Behind them now, mercifully, is a stretch of 17 games in 17 days that ended Sunday. Within that stretch, several players stayed in the lineup despite sickness or other physical issues.<\/p>\n
Machado, when asked what he\u2019s been \u201cplaying with\u201d physically that has curtailed his baserunning, leading Stammen to have Bowen run for him, gave a dry reply.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat haven\u2019t I?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Tatis, who looked worn out at the end of two games in L.A., was asked what he\u2019ll do during the All-Star break.<\/p>\n
He replied in monotone.<\/p>\n
\u201cRest. Sleep. Be far from humanity for a couple of days.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a rough ride.<\/p>\n
Reinforcements will be needed.<\/p>\n
But to persuade Preller to get them, improvement on the field will be needed. And ASAP.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manny Machado has found his best hitting groove of the season, giving a desperate Padres team a summer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":750395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2378],"tags":[5,377,2554,853,4,18,185,3546,282,70,2553],"class_list":["post-750394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto-blue-jays","tag-baseball","tag-blue-jays","tag-bluejays","tag-latest-headlines","tag-mlb","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-sdut","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-blue-jays","tag-torontobluejays"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116911122925572472","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=750394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/750395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}