Good morning,

Comparing October and August baseball is generally pretty silly.

No matter how big the crowd is. No matter how the game is managed.

The stakes simply are not high enough with more than a month to play for a game to have the tension that comes with knowing every loss is one step closer to a season’s disappointing end and every win could be one of the final steps to the ultimate goal.

But the Padres’ 2-1 victory over the Dodgers last night had enough of the elements to give it a sort of (sort of!) playoff feel.

It did not hurt that each team’s starting pitcher was one that will be start for them in October. It did not hurt that first place in the National League West is up for grabs and that the stakes between these two teams could be a first-round bye in the postseason.

And the way the Padres won looked like how teams often win in the postseason and like how the Padres have been saying for months that they are so well-suited to win in the postseason.

“You get in the playoffs, you get deep in the season, these are the type of games you gotta win,” Gavin Sheets said. “You’re gonna go up against the Blake Snells of the world, the Yu Darvishes of the world, you know it’s only gonna be a couple runs. And it’s how you manufacture all night long and how you put pressure on and come through for a big hit at any time.”

You can read in my game story (here) how Darvish and three relievers combined to hold the Dodgers to three hits and how the Padres offense created its two runs the old-fashioned way against Snell.

Who knows what happens tonight when Nestor Cortes, who is not projected as one of the Padres’ playoff starters, takes the mound against the Dodgers (who will start Tyler Glasnow). Who knows what happens when Nick Pivetta and Yoshinobu Yamamoto square off in what is most certainly a playoff-caliber matchup tomorrow.

But no matter what the results are the next two days, it felt significant that the Padres rebounded last night.

They gave away runs in the field and on the basepaths while being swept in Los Angeles last weekend. Their bullpen surrendered game-deciding home runs in two of the games. Their starting pitchers were not good.

“We knew what type of team we are, what we’re capable of doing,” Manny Machado said after last night’s game. “It didn’t show up (last weekend). That’s part of it. Sometimes it doesn’t happen. … We continued playing good baseball here. We got back to that. We know what we’re capable of doing. We’ve just got to continue doing it.”

Close, for comfort

Maybe the Padres needed the practice in low-scoring tight games.

Friday was the major league-leading 13th time this season the Padres won when scoring no more than two runs. But it was their first such win since July 21.

After playing the second-most one-run games (35) and winning the most one-run games (21) in the major leagues through the season’s first half, the Padres have been regularly winning by more substantial margins since the All-Star break.

Of their 33 games since July 18, just 10 have been decided by one run. The Padres are 5-5 in those games. Three of their one-run games in the second half have come against the Dodgers.

Of their 21 victories since the All-Star break, 13 have been by four or more runs. Just 14 of their 52 first-half victories came by a margin that large.

They needed some breathing room in games. They need to win that way more often going forward.

But they also know this is who they are and this is how it will likely go in October.

“It was intense, for sure,” Machado said. “I’m not going to lie about that. Every game that we play against them, the intensity is always there. I think we really played some good baseball overall. I think it was a nice test for us to come out there and play our game consistently. That’s the biggest key. That’s our strength as a ballclub. So, you know, how can we continue to do that?”

Yu better

If we zoom out and look at the big picture, perhaps the greatest positive for the Padres last night was that Darvish was once again masterful against the Dodgers.

“I don’t think he missed many pitches over the plate,” the Dodgers’ Teoscar Hernandez said. “He was hitting every corner. He was making a lot of pitches for him, good pitches for him.”

In his ninth start since returning from the injured list, Darvish allowed a solo home run, hit a batter and walked a batter in six innings last night.

“I think that was the best I’ve seen him pitch,” Machado said. “I know what he’s been dealing with to get back on that mound and how much it meant to him to just get back to being himself. … To see him go out there and pitch like he did today, it was special. That’s Darvish. That’s our guy.”

The Padres decision makers specifically mentioned Darvish’s penchant for neutralizing the Dodgers when they spoke (even before he was shut down in spring training with an elbow issue) of slow-playing his season to some extent in an effort to help him be at his best late in the season and into the postseason.

In 19 starts against the Dodgers since he joined the Padres in 2021, Darvish has a 2.63 ERA and 0.88 WHIP. That includes three postseason starts, in which he has a 2.89 ERA and 0.96 WHIP over 18⅔ innings.

Last night was Darvish’s 14th quality start against the Dodgers while wearing a Padres uniform, and he has allowed no more than one run in eight of those starts.

This was a rebound for him as well.

Darvish (3-3, 5.36) surrendered four runs in the first inning at Dodger Stadium on Sunday, three of them on a homer by Freddie Freeman and one on a homer by Andy Pages.

“I think the command was probably better compared with my last outing,” he said. “… But I think sequence as well. I think last time, there were some sequences where I shouldn’t have thrown some of the pitches. Today, I put some thought into that, and I think it worked out well.”

Darvish lamented after Sunday’s game that he had thrown one too many fastballs to Freeman in the first inning.

Freeman saw two fastballs last night. After he had seen four different offerings in the first five pitches of his second-inning at-bat, Freeman popped up on a sinker below the zone. And in the fourth inning, Darvish began Freeman with a sinker before throwing three different types of pitches and getting him on a soft lineout to first base.

Darvish threw a little more than half as many fastballs last night as he did on Sunday, and he threw seven different pitches at least 9.5% of the time versus five different offerings that frequently in his previous start. He also mixed up which pitches he threw to which batters — and where he threw those pitches.

“I think Darvish was good tonight because he flipped the script,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I think at our place he couldn’t find the zone and trusted his fastball. Today there were a lot more cutters inside to righties. There were a lot more sweepers and the curveball, and he didn’t lean on his fastball at all. I don’t think we got many balls out of the infield tonight. He just changed the script and made pitches when he needed to.”

The Dodgers grounded out six times, struck out five times, popped out twice, lined out to first base once and lined out to the outfield three times.

“You don’t know where to look, you don’t know what pitches to look for,” Hernandez said. “He was using all the pitches today. Hitting the spot, corners really good with all of it. So it’s one of those days you say, ‘OK, I’m gonna try to put the ball in play, see what happens, see if something good happens.’”

Limiting Yu

Mason Miller and Robert Suarez have pitched the past two days, and it seems certain both had to work too hard last night to bring them back tonight.

But that is the benefit of having five high-leverage relievers. The Padres will still have Jeremiah Estrada, Adrian Morejón and Jason Adam today. That sets up better than probably any other team that would be without its eighth- and ninth-inning guys.

“They’ve got four or five guys that you could argue on any roster they could be the closer,” Robert said.

And if the arms they have to work with are not enough tonight, the Padres will have to be satisfied with the wins they got the previous two days.

The decision was made to use Morejón, Miller and Suarez on Thursday to lock down a four-run lead against the Giants, and the decision was made last night to not push Darvish. So Adam worked the seventh, Miller the eighth and Suarez the ninth.

That had as much to do with wanting to keep the 39-year-old Darvish healthy as it did with facing the Dodgers.

“I’ve been on the IL for some time, and then obviously we have a great bullpen,” Darvish said. “So I think today, how it unfolded, I think that was the right move.”

Darvish threw just 74 pitches.

“There is some calculus there,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “The decision process is, he’s gone six, he hadn’t gone over anything in the low 80s. He’s at 74, (and) we feel like, clearly, we’ve got a great bullpen. So it’s just an opportunity. Why send him out if we’re going to do something early on (in the inning). So we just went to go to Jason, and Jason was fantastic.”

Darvish, who was shut down in spring training with an elbow issue and did not make his season debut until July 7, has not thrown more than 84 pitches in any of his nine starts.

That doesn’t mean he won’t at some point. But he might not be asked to do so either.

The Padres said before spring training that they were going to put some limits on Darvish to give him the best chance to be strong at the end of the season. And after he was shut down, they let him set the pace for his return.

“If I needed to go (longer) today,” Darvish said, “I would have gone.”

Saving himself

Miller had command issues for the first time in his nine appearances with the Padres.

He threw just eight strikes among his 20 pitches and walked two of the first three batters he faced.

The Dodgers had runners on first and second with one out before Miller got pinch-hitter Dalton Rushing to ground into a double play.

“Obviously, today wasn’t my best performance out there,” Miller said. “I sprayed it around a lot more than I would like. But sometimes those games happen, and I’m fortunate to have my defense behind me and get out of that inning.”

Things was, Miller was part of that defense. He was arguably the biggest part in this instance.

The double play began with first baseman Luis Arraez making the decision to go to second base after fielding the ball.

“We need to make the out because we have Shohei Ohtani behind,” Arraez said. “I don’t want him to get the AB at that time.”

Arraez’s throw from deep on the dirt went directly to the front of the bag and was caught by shortstop Xander Bogaerts just over the sliding Alex Freeland. Bogaerts’ throw to first bounced about five feet in front of Miller, who had raced over to cover first base.

“We’re programmed, anything to our left to get over and just beat the ball to the bag,” Miller said. “Fortunately, I was there, had enough time to set up and put myself in a good position to make the pick.”

Left in

Ryan O’Hearn started against a left-hander for the first time with the Padres. And Sheets was in there with him.

O’Hearn was 2-for-3 against Snell, and Sheets was 1-for-3.

The two left-handed batters were in the lineup because they have been hitting well, including against lefties.

O’Hearn earned his way into the start as the designated hitter by batting .286 (10-for-35) with a 1.022 OPS over his previous 13 games, which included his going 4-for-5 with two homers and two doubles against lefties. Sheets has also hit well of late (7-for-17 in his past seven games, including a double and a home run in four at-bats against lefties) but was starting in left field while Ramón Laureano manned center field in place of the injured Jackson Merrill.

O’Hearn and Sheets bring the threat of power. But both showed last night why they have success against lefties, poking singles through the left side against defenses that were shifted for them to pull.

“They take what the pitcher gives them,” hitting coach Victor Rodriguez said. “They don’t try to do too much. That is why they have success against lefties.”

Johnny Hustle

Years ago, Machado essentially introduced not running hard to first base all the time as an acceptable way to play.

And, sure, it costs him reaching base a handful of times each season when an infielder bobbles a ball. But it also serves the purpose of preserving the legs of a player who has made at least 600 plate appearances each of the past nine full seasons, one of just three men to have done so and likely the only one who will make it 10 consecutive seasons.

Machado is one of is one of five players who are not primarily designated hitters to have played every one of his team’s games this season.

And at 33, he is the oldest of those five.

“Man, I’m not going to lie,” Machado said. “My body feels not-so-great — to not use some curse words. Still trying to figure out August. With all these years, I’ve figured out some months, some tricks here and there. But August, I haven’t figured it out. It’s just those dog days. You kind of just got to grind through. But at the same time, I mean, it’s just what we play for. I love playing every single day. I train for this every single year to get me through this. So just continue grinding.”

And for those who don’t pay attention, Machado does run hard when he believes he can affect a play.

Such as in the eighth inning last night when he hustled down the line and dove into the bag trying to turn a two-out grounder to shortstop into an RBI single.

“I was thinking about just getting some extra runs,” said Machado, who was thrown out by shortstop Mookie Betts after a diving stop. “Getting extra runs is always huge for our bullpen. So I was just trying to get trying to get that extra run. Couldn’t beat it out on my legs. I ain’t got that speed no more. But obviously I don’t want to slide either, so I probably won’t be doing that no more.”

Once was enough.

“Effort is a very important thing,” Shildt said. “… Hasn’t had a day off all year. Knows that extra insurance run could be a factor. It’s a ball that Mookie makes a nice play on. (Manny)  knows if he can somehow scratch and claw and get to first, he knows we get another run on the board. Says a lot when your best player — or one of your best players — is giving you that kind of effort. It sends the right to message to the team.”

Good start

Laureano was 1-for-3 last night and is batting .333/.383./.587 with the Padres.

That is the third-best line through 20 games among players who have joined the Padres in July.

Two additions in 2007 were the only players to have started better with the franchise — Milton Bradley (.370/.465/.644) and Scott Hairston (.364/.420/.795).

Coincidentally, Laureano’s .333 batting average is the same average Jake Cronenworth (2020) and Jackson Merrill (2024) had after 20 games with the Padres.

Petco Park hitting

One of the messages reinforced with players during the Padres’ daily pregame “Ball Talk” yesterday was a reminder what “Petco Park hitting” is.

It is line drives, gap to gap, taking what is given by the pitcher.

The Padres’ six hits off Snell were more than he had allowed in any of his five starts this season and more than he has allowed in all but three of his 25 starts dating to the start of last season. They manufactured their runs in the second inning, on a walk, two singles, a sacrifice bunt and a sacrifice fly.

And as if to reinforce why their approach is best, Ohtani led off the ninth inning with a 108.5 rocket to center field that Bryce Johnson caught five feet in front of the wall.

“It’s probably a homer in 29 other ballparks,” Roberts said. “But the marine layer, this ballpark itself, it just kind of held up.”

While StatCast said Ohtani’s blast would have been a home run only at Wrigley Field, that is based on how far the ball traveled to that portion of the field. But of the 24 other balls hit at least 108 mph to center field with a similar launch angle across all venues this season, 20 were home runs.

Tidbits

  • Merrill missed a fifth consecutive game with his bruised and sprained left ankle, and it remains possible he is placed on the injured list. Tirso Ornelas is the only outfielder on the 40-man roster not already on the active roster, but he is batting .196 over his past 15 games at Triple-A. With no injured players being candidates for the 60-day IL, someone would have to be removed from the 40-man to make room for Tyler Wade to be called up.
  • The Padres’ three sacrifice bunts last night tied a season high and extended their MLB-leading total to 40 for the season. Of those 40 sacrifice bunts, 17 have helped lead to a run scoring.
  • Fernando Tatis Jr. was 0-for-2 but walked twice last night. He has reached base multiple times in 29 of his past 46 games. His .418 on-base percentage in that span (since June 29) is fourth highest in MLB.
  • After allowing his only hit — a home run by Alex Freeland — and hitting a batter, Darvish got the second out of the third inning on a 115 mph line drive by Ohtani that was rocketed directly at Tatis in right field. It was just the 104th ball with an exit velocity of 115 mph or harder hit in the major leagues this season. Of the first 103, 34 were home runs and 80 were hits.
  • Jeff Sanders wrote (here) yesterday about a likely change in the Padres’ television package.
  • Check out Kirk Kenney’s “Scene & Heard” column (here) from last night’s game for the lowdown on negotiations with one San Diego resident for Alex Freeland’s first career home run.

All right, that’s it for me.

Talk to you tomorrow.