Padres takeaways: Swept away, Xander Bogaerts’ power outage, bullpen flowers

Sports

add

SAN DIEGO — The Padres, once 11-0 at home, were swept at Petco Park on Sunday. A 4-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays gave San Diego its third consecutive defeat and its seventh in nine games. Here are three takeaways amid the Padres’ slide from the top of the standings.

‘Somewhere in between’

Padres manager Mike Shildt put it well late Sunday afternoon when asked to assess his team’s performance over the past two weeks. Since winning 14 of their first 17 games, the Padres have gone 3-8 while averaging 2.1 runs per game. Although the offense’s struggles are largely explained by the ongoing absences of Jackson Merrill, Luis Arraez and Jake Cronenworth, the 30-inning scoreless streak that ended Saturday was the franchise’s longest since 1981.

“It’s not as easy as we made it look, and it’s not as hard as it is now. Right? I mean, somewhere in between,” Shildt said.

Indeed, the Padres were not built to challenge the 1906 Chicago Cubs and 2001 Seattle Mariners. Before this season, Baseball Prospectus’ PECOTA projections pegged them as an 82-win team.

The Padres, as their first 17 games demonstrated, likely are better than that. But their floor is lower than most teams, thanks to a top-heavy roster that already has suffered multiple significant losses. San Diego’s rash of injuries has bordered on the extreme, but it also has thoroughly exposed the organization’s depth problems. The Rays, carrying a typically meager payroll, have four outfielders on the injured list, but they still managed to pull off the sweep at Petco Park.

Sunday, the visitors got a pair of hits and a run from Travis Jankowski. The Rays, out of sheer necessity, traded for the former Padres outfielder only a couple of weeks after he was outrighted off the 40-man roster of the last-place Chicago White Sox.

Former Padres outfielder Travis Jankowski made it 4-2 in the ninth inning Sunday. (Denis Poroy / Imagn Images)

At this still-early juncture in the season, Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller might be compelled to consider similar castoffs (or veterans on minor-league deals with upcoming opt-outs). The only healthy player on the 40-man roster who hasn’t come up this season is catcher Luis Campusano. Campusano, who has a .999 OPS in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, has yet to prove he can sustain above-average offense in the majors.

Shildt indicated after Sunday’s game that Arraez (seven-day concussion injured list) and Jason Heyward (left knee inflammation) could be activated before Tuesday’s series opener against the San Francisco Giants. But the manager also made clear that no decision had yet been made on either player. Meanwhile, Merrill (right hamstring strain), Cronenworth (non-displaced right rib fracture) and Brandon Lockridge (left hamstring strain) are headed to the Padres’ spring training complex in Arizona to ramp up their recoveries.

Xander Bogaerts’ power outage continues

Xander Bogaerts had an acceptable offensive performance Sunday, going 1-for-3 with a walk and a run. But he also continued to chase his first home run of 2025, and he has not driven in a run in his past 16 games. The Padres simply need far more from their $280 million shortstop; even when Merrill comes back, they could use more power from other parts of the lineup to balance out a contact-oriented offense.

In his third season in San Diego, Bogaerts has reduced his chase rate (19.9 percent entering Sunday) and increased his walk rate (11.3 percent) and line-drive percentage (30 percent). Yet his strikeout rate is slightly up — perhaps Bogaerts, who did not swing at a hanging sweeper over the heart of the plate Sunday, could stand to be more aggressive — and the 32-year-old continues to show signs of defensive decline, especially now that he is back at a premium position.

No one inside the Padres’ clubhouse or around the industry questions Bogaerts’ work ethic. It remains too early to write off the five-time Silver Slugger as a contractual albatross who will significantly limit the club’s ceiling for the next eight-plus seasons. But so far, Bogaerts’ nine-figure deal is a prime example of why teams increasingly are paying for future projection rather than past production.

Bullpen rolls on

The Padres bullpen remains the MVP of the season. San Diego relievers have combined for a best-in-baseball 1.63 ERA and a 2.91 FIP that ranks third. Despite the recent lack of offense, the Padres have lost only three games this season by more than three runs.

With the team temporarily needing just four starters, Ryan Bergert was called up from Triple-A El Paso on Friday and made his big-league debut Saturday with a scoreless inning. David Morgan, an athletic former position player who can throw 100 mph, came up Sunday to replace Logan Gillaspie, who is expected to miss an extended amount of time with an oblique injury.

Other relief prospects seemingly on the cusp of the majors include Francis Pena, who has held PCL batters to two hits in eight innings, and Bradgley Rodriguez, who wowed scouts in spring training.

(Top photo of Jeremiah Estrada celebrating after José Caballero was tagged out at the plate Sunday: Orlando Ramirez / Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

Share on

email

Previous

trending_flat

Yuri Alberto pede desculpas aos torcedores do Corinthians, mas afirma: “Não é hora de apontar culpados”

Futebol

Next

trending_flat

NBA Playoffs: Jayson Tatum, Kristaps Porzingis hang on late to lift Celtics past Magic in Game 4

Sports