There is no game like baseball. The season is long and at times arduous and the postseason is short, but painful. As the saying goes, “There can only be one winner.” Only one team, one fanbase, will be happy at the end of the season and that is true in every sport. For fans of the San Diego Padres, you have to wonder when it will be our turn to be the last team standing.
As I write this, a few hours after seeing the season come to an end for the Padres, there is a mix of emotions. At times I am sad
that our team could not figure it out at the plate. Some of the best players in the game, Fernando Tatis Jr., Luis Arraez and Manny Machado, combined to go 0-for-11 in a do-or-die, win-or-go-home decisive Game 3 and disappeared. They disappeared on their teammates, the fans and the City of San Diego.
I am sad that Ramon Laureano, the left field, right-handed, trade deadline acquisition who was supposed to balance out the lineup, fractured his finger and was unavailable in the most important series of the season. I, like many of the Friar Faithful, am left to wonder, “What could have been?” Maybe he balances out the lineup. Maybe his competitive nature refuses to let the team perform at the plate as it did throughout the National League Wild Card Series. Or maybe he continues to struggle and slump as we saw at the end of the regular season. We will never know.
I am sad that Yu Darvish, who turned in a dominant seven-inning performance against the Los Angeles Dodgers in a 2024 elimination game, appeared to be overmatched and ineffective in his appearance, Thursday. One-plus inning of work and two earned runs… that’s not the Yu Darvish any of us expected to see. I did not need a repeat of last year against the Dodgers, I expected a Dylan Cease Game 2-type performance. Three-plus innings, no runs allowed and let the best bullpen in baseball take over.
After the sadness, of course, comes the anger and frustration. How many times did Dansby Swanson steal a hit or in the case of Ryan O’Hearn, an RBI? How can an umpire make that call, you know the one, in the top of the ninth Game 3 setting when it was so clearly a ball. Obviously, the missed call was not the reason the Padres lost the game, but man, it really makes you wonder what could have happened if the pressure was ramped up just a bit more with another runner on base via a free pass? I will admit there is also some frustration with the decision making. San Diego skipper Mike Shildt seemed defiant in constructing his lineup. He rolled out the same one three days in a row. It’s your team, they’re your players, but the phrase, “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it,” usually applies to when things are going well.
I eventually come full-circle and get back to the point where I can appreciate the fact that the Padres made the playoffs. At least we aren’t the New York Mets, spent all that money and missed the tournament. At least we have a team that competes year in and year out and we aren’t the Pittsburgh Pirates or the Colorado Rockies. There were a lot of highs this season, of course there were lows, but I enjoyed seeing a Mason Miller Immaculate Inning, a Tatis Jr. home run robbery, a Machado 2,000th hit, and a playoff appearance, no matter how short.
There is hope for next season. Much of the infield returns, with the exception of first base, and all of the outfield returns. The bullpen will largely remain intact, but starting pitching will need to be addressed. If the Padres can find another Nick Pivetta or two, we could easily be watching San Diego in the postseason next year. What’s done is done, and this season is done. Instead of dwelling on the past and what could have been, I will set my sights on the future, and I will await the return of Padres baseball in 2026.
