The Padres don’t look like a team waiting for the offense to wake up anymore. Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jackson Merrill have dragged the lineup into a different gear since the All-Star break, and the numbers are starting to look wild.
Tatis has hit 12 home runs since the break, tied with Pete Crow-Armstrong for the MLB lead. Merrill is right behind with 11, tied with Wilyer Abreu, Matt Olson and Alex Bregman. Together, they’ve accounted for 23 of San Diego’s 49 second-half home runs, a staggering share of the power production.
That surge has changed what the Padres can be over the final stretch. They’re no longer just trying to stay afloat in the NL playoff picture. Their stars are driving the push.
The turnaround is even sharper when you look back at the first half. Tatis went 55 games without a home run before finally getting one at the end of May.
Merrill was sitting on a .601 OPS around that same time. For a while, San Diego kept waiting for two of its biggest bats to start playing like it.
Now, Tatis is slashing .290/.361/.453 with an .814 OPS and 17 home runs. His two-homer game Sunday was another sign that the swing is back where it needs to be. Merrill has been right there with him, giving the Padres the kind of one-two punch they were built to lean on.
That has helped flip the team’s entire outlook. San Diego has gone an MLB-best 21-7 over the past month and moved from the fringes of the race into sole possession of the final NL Wild Card spot.
The bigger story is what the offense looks like now compared to the first half. The Padres entered the All-Star break hitting .226 and scoring fewer than four runs per game. Since then, they’ve pushed that average to .274 and are scoring more than five runs a night.
The home run totals are eye-catching, but the real shift is simple: the Padres are scoring more, winning more and getting the kind of production from Tatis and Merrill that can change a game all by itself.
In Other News...
Padres Suddenly Have A Wild Card Edge Diamondbacks Fans Fear
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For San Diego, the timing matters. The Padres have worked their way out of a losing streak and back up the standings by leaning on accountability and steady leadership inside the room, the kind of internal stability that can separate contenders when the margin gets tight. Arizonas latest issue leaves the door open a little wider, and with the two clubs chasing the same late-season goals, the pressure now feels very different on both sides of the desert. [Read more 🡒]
Padres Just Made Another Telling Pitching Decision In Triple A
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Thurman had signed a minor league deal with the Padres in January, hoping to work his way toward another shot at the majors. Now 34 and a free agent, hell be looking for a new landing spot, while the Padres keep adjusting their depth chart in El Paso and searching for arms that can better hold down innings. [Read more 🡒]
Padres Just Made A Curious Roster Call Before The Pirates Series
The Padres made a notable roster tweak ahead of their series with the Pirates, selecting the contract of outfielder Dustin Harris and giving him his first chance at the major league level with San Diego. Harris arrived on a minor league deal in July, and the move places him on both the 40-man and active rosters as the club continues to sort through its depth.
To clear space, the Padres optioned infielder Sung-Mun Song to Triple-A and transferred right-hander Lucas Giolito to the 60-day injured list on the 40-man side. It is the kind of transaction that can fly under the radar in the moment, but it also hints at how the Padres are managing both their immediate bench mix and the longer injury-related picture as they head into the series. [Read more 🡒]