It was a disastrous road trip.
The San Diego Padres had an opportunity to put some distance between themselves and the trailing Arizona Diamondbacks. Instead they played poorly, losing five out of six games, and are now a half game back in the Wild Card chase.
It was a team-wide failure, for sure. Poor pitching, offense and defense derailed any hope of coming home with a little cushion in the standings. Since going 21-7 from July to late August, the Friars have won two of their last nine games. They
have multiple one-run losses, showing no killer instinct or urgency, over that stretch.
The Friars now have seven series left in the season, beginning this weekend with the New York Yankees. New York will be followed by three against the Washington Nationals for a six-game home stand.
After an off day, they hit the road again for three against division rival San Francisco Giants and four versus the Colorado Rockies. Those two teams have losing records but this team is seven games under .500 on the road.
They are also 27-36 versus over .500 teams. Four of the coming seven series are against teams that currently have winning records. After the road series against the Giants and Rockies, the last road games are the three against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sept. 22-24. There are 12 at home and 10 on the road.
This is go time for the Padres. If they don’t put the throttle down in all phases of the game, the season will end without any playoff games. It seems obvious that this team is not currently playing like a championship team. Cleaning things up in all parts of the game will have to happen quickly if they have any hope of going anywhere past the end of the regular season.
Joe Musgrove and Nick Pivetta updates
President of baseball operations A.J.Preller was on the flagship radio station (97.3 TheFan) this morning and provided an update on the status of the two Padres pitchers. Musgrove hasn’t pitched since his rehab start with the Triple-A El Paso Chihuahuas on Aug. 27. His arm has not rebounded well from his start, experiencing soreness that has kept him from being able to pitch in a game since then. Preller said he is throwing but there is no timeline for his next appearance. Preller also said that Musgrove is sufficiently built up to help the team if it is determined he is healthy enough to pitch.
Nick Pivetta completed a rehab assignment with El Paso on Aug. 30. Preller stated he is in San Diego this weekend for evaluation and could be with the Padres “sooner rather than later.”
It would be a big lift to the team if either one of them could add innings to this pitching staff, either as a starter or out of the bullpen.
Casey Mize
Preller also discussed the difficulties Mize has had since arriving with the team. He has had six starts since the trade deadline. In three of those games he has allowed two or fewer runs. In the other three, he has had big innings, giving up eight, four, and four runs respectively. Overall, he has a 6.67 ERA in 27 innings pitched.
Preller reported there is no injury issue and the issue has been identified as part mechanics and part sequencing. Pitching coach Ruben Niebla is working with Mize to correct those issues so that he can return to the dominant starter he was before being traded.
Offensive offense
Over the last nine games that resulted in two wins, the Padres hit .153 with runners in scoring position. That was a 12-for-78 futility which could explain the five one-run losses over that stretch.
Another issue was all the bunting. There is a place for bunting in the game but the Padres seem too reliant on sacrificing an out to move a runner. It implies that the hitters have no confidence in their ability to swing away for a hit. The last nine games featured four bunts that resulted in pop-up outs. Jake Cronenworth had two of them, Samad Taylor had one and Sung-Mun Song had the other.
Sung-Mun Song on the bench
Song has been particularly ineffective offensively and should only be in the game for defensive purposes to protect a lead. It is too late in the season to be trying to get him going with the bat.
In 65 games and 121 at-bats, Song is hitting .190/.293/.248 with four doubles and a home run. He has also made some bad baserunning decisions and squares to bunt in some puzzling situations.
Manny Machado is a concern
The Padres stated at the beginning of the season their intention to get more rest for aging veteran Manny Machado. That hasn’t really worked out and we are seeing an injured and tired Machado as the season nears the end.
Battling through the worst season of his career, Machado has had more DH days than in the past but few days off. He and manager Craig Stammen acknowledged that he has worked through the season with multiple injuries.
Machado is known for his desire to post through the year. It is an admirable trait and reportedly he is widely respected in the clubhouse for his desire to play every day. There are diminishing returns with that approach as a player ages and becomes less effective. We might be seeing that time has arrived for Machado.
Ethan Salas arrives
The Padres might not have originally intended to promote top prospect Ethan Salas this year. It can be argued that they didn’t need him until Luis Rengifo injured his knee against Tampa Bay and will now be out for the rest of the year.
The roster expansion in MLB on Sept. 1 allows all 30 teams to expand their roster by one pitcher and one position player. Before Rengifo and lefty Gavin Sheets were both placed on the injured list, the Padres didn’t need another left-handed bat. Once those two were injured, Salas was the logical choice.
Salas had a great recovery from the back injury that kept him out of most of the 2025 season. Playing in 96 games between both Double-A San Antonio and Triple-A El Paso, Salas hit .296/.374/.448 with 19 doubles, two triples and 10 home runs with 61 RBI. He had 17 stolen bases in 25 attempts.
Even more impressive are his defensive stats. His 33% caught stealing with El Paso also featured throws consistently hitting low to mid-80’s mph and pop times in the 1.86 to 1.89 seconds. The MLB average for pop time is 2.0 seconds and caught stealing percentages are 21-29%.
At 20-years-old, Salas will continue to add muscle and will add to his power numbers as he matures. He lends a bit more excitement to the end of the 2026 season for the Padres.
Roster changes
Rengifo is lost for the rest of the season after requiring surgery for his torn ACL.
RHP Jhony Brito was the other player brought up for the Sept. 1 roster expansion. He started and relieved this season for El Paso.
Outfielder Samad Taylor returned to the Padres when Sheets was placed on the injured list after aggravating the plantar fasciitis that he has been battling for weeks. It is being labeled as a left foot sprain.
Infielder Sung-Mun Song was recalled from El Paso when Rengifo went on the IL.
