{"id":161290,"date":"2025-08-20T14:21:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T14:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/161290\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T14:21:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T14:21:17","slug":"streak-ends-machados-rbi-tatis-hr-drought-better-upcoming-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/161290\/","title":{"rendered":"Streak ends; Machado\u2019s RBI; Tatis\u2019 HR drought; better upcoming \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning,<\/p>\n

The Padres beat the Giants 5-1 last night to stop the longest four-game losing streak in the history of the world.<\/p>\n

Such was the fretting regarding the Padres being swept by the Dodgers over the weekend and losing to the Giants on Monday that the skid seemed much longer than four games.<\/p>\n

And the reality is that there have been and there remain reasons to be concerned.<\/p>\n

But a team in need of a win got one.<\/p>\n

It was impressive. And kind of a grind.<\/p>\n

The Padres took a little bit to get going against a young starting pitcher who hasn\u2019t been good.<\/p>\n

They missed opportunity after opportunity to make the game lopsided.<\/p>\n

But after a home run on the second pitch of the game, the Giants did not score again and got just three more hits against Nick Pivetta and three relief pitchers.<\/p>\n

The Padres answered in the bottom of the first, took a lead in the fourth and added a run in the fifth and one more in the sixth.<\/p>\n

All nine players in the starting lineup reached base at least once. Five different players scored. Five different players drove in runs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was one through nine,\u201d manager Mike Shildt said. \u201cIt\u2019s the blueprint of how we play \u2014 better as the game goes, contributions from all parts of the lineup.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can read in Jeff Sanders\u2019 game story (here<\/a>) about Pivetta once again being the \u201cstopper\u201d and how the Padres built their first win since their last win over Giants six days earlier.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust the whole ballclub playing good baseball,\u201d Manny Machado said. \u201cWe know what we\u2019re capable of. Just continue doing that. That\u2019s our game. That\u2019s our best baseball. \u2026 Just to get back in the win column, it\u2019s a good thing. We play our game like we did today, we\u2019re going to be in a good spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Time on their side<\/p>\n

The Mets and the Reds won yesterday.<\/p>\n

But they also lost. Especially the Reds.<\/p>\n

Every time the team ahead in the standings wins, the team giving chase suffers a setback because a page comes off the calendar.<\/p>\n

The Padres could go .500 over their final 36 games and finish with 88 wins, which is what FanGraphs projects will be the win total for the final NL playoff entrant.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Better ahead<\/p>\n

The Padres were mostly befuddled by Giants starter Kai-Wei Teng for three innings last night.<\/p>\n

This was a guy pitching in his eighth major league game and making his third start.<\/p>\n

His second start was last Wednesday in San Francisco when the Padres scored seven runs against him in the second inning, which he did not make it out of.<\/p>\n

In his other big-league start, Aug. 2 against the Mets, Teng allowed five runs in 3\u2153 innings.<\/p>\n

He did throw five scoreless innings in a relief appearance against the Nationals in between those two starts. But he allowed 12 runs in 11 innings in four relief appearances last season and, as of today, has a 9.61 career ERA.<\/p>\n

The Padres scored an unearned run against Teng in last night\u2019s first inning and drove him from the game with two runs (on two singles, two hit batters and a walk) in the fourth.<\/p>\n

They will see a different level of starting pitcher the next eight days.<\/p>\n

The Padres will face Landen Roupp and Justin Verlander in the final two games of this series. Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto will pitch for the Dodgers this weekend. The Mariners have Logan Evans, Luis Castillo and Bryan Woo lined up for the series in Seattle next week.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Tatis\u2019 contribution<\/p>\n

Fernando Tatis Jr. was 1-for-3 and walked twice last night.<\/p>\n

He also stole his 25th base of the season, tied for the second-highest total of his career behind his 29 steals in 2023.<\/p>\n

His .412 on-base percentage over his past 43 games is second highest in the NL since June 29.<\/p>\n

He also went a 22nd game without a home run, the longest stretch of his career. His 89 at-bats and 104 plate appearances without a homer are also career-high droughts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need to get better,\u201d Tatis said. \u201c\u2026 I\u2019m happy as long as the team wins. But obviously I want to contribute more. I know I can do more and I want to do more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manny\u2019s dip<\/p>\n

Machado drove in his first run in 15 games with a groundout in last night\u2019s first inning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt all right, not great,\u201d Machado said.<\/p>\n

This was the second time in his career that Machado went 14 games without an RBI. He has never gone 15 games without one.<\/p>\n

It is not that he has not had chances. He has one hit in his past 14 at-bats with runners in scoring position.<\/p>\n

Machado did get two hits last night, his first multi-hit game since Aug. 5. One of those hits was his 31st double of the season, his most since 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a rollercoaster ride,\u201d he said. \u201cYou ride the good and ride the bad as best you can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Machado has had more ups and downs than it might seem this season. His relative consistency owes to his mostly avoiding extreme droughts.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Keeps getting better<\/p>\n

Pivetta is almost certainly going to be named on Cy Young ballots for the first time in his career.<\/p>\n

He is probably going to get a lot of down-ballot votes.<\/p>\n

Pivetta, who never had better than a 4.04 ERA in his first eight big-league seasons, last night lowered his ERA to 2.81, seventh best in the NL.<\/p>\n

He maintained his league lead in batting average allowed (.190) and moved into a tie with the Phillies\u2019 Zack Wheeler for the league lead in WHIP (0.94). His 147\u2153 innings rank eighth, and his 154 strikeouts are 10th most.<\/p>\n

Last night was the seventh straight start in which Pivetta went at least six innings. That is the longest streak of his career and is tied with Dylan Cease (2024) and Sean Manaea (\u201822) for the fifth-longest streak by a Padres pitcher since 2019.<\/p>\n

Pivetta has a 1.71 ERA over his past 10 starts.<\/p>\n

I wrote (here<\/a>) a couple weeks ago about the changes Pivetta has made and what it is that drives him.<\/p>\n

Getting some work<\/p>\n

It was quite the parade of relievers Shildt ran out to protect a four-run lead against an opponent that doesn\u2019t score much.<\/p>\n

But such is the depth the Padres manager has to choose from, and the reality is all three had pitched once in the previous six days.<\/p>\n

So Adrian Morej\u00f3n worked the seventh, \u00a0Jason Adam the eighth and Robert Suarez the ninth.<\/p>\n

RISPy business<\/p>\n

Shildt is rarely candid about his team\u2019s shortcomings.<\/p>\n

So this assessment qualified as his being downright critical:<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing we\u2019ve still got to work on is runners in scoring position,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we do have a lot of runners, so it\u2019s a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Padres were 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position last night and are 6-for-40 over the past five games. Their .224 average over their past 87 games is third lowest in the major leagues in that span.<\/p>\n

Shildt is correct that having a lot of runners reach second and\/or third base is a positive. The Padres are 25-7 when they have at least 11 at-bats with runners in scoring position.<\/p>\n

Tidbits<\/p>\n