Manny Machado gave the Padres their only real jolt on Thursday, but San Diego’s offense went quiet again in a 3-1 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The defeat snapped the Padres’ two-game winning streak and left them searching for answers after a series that swung from one extreme to the other. San Diego was blanked 8-0 in the opener, bounced back with a 10-4 win on Wednesday night, then managed just three hits in the finale.
Machado accounted for two of them, including a solo home run in the second inning that put the Padres in front. Fernando Tatis Jr. had the other hit. After Machado’s single in the fourth, the only other baserunner the rest of the way was Luis Campusano, who drew a walk.
Arizona answered in the fourth when Max Kepler scored on a wild pitch. The Diamondbacks then took the lead in the fifth on Geraldo Perdomo’s RBI single, and Nolan Arenado added a solo home run in the sixth to stretch it to 3-1.
Griffin Canning got the start for San Diego and lasted 4.2 innings, giving up two runs on seven hits while striking out five. He took the loss and is now 1-7 with a 6.47 ERA.
Yuki Matsui was charged with the other run. Bradgley Rodriguez, Wandy Peralta and Adrian Morejon covered the final 3.1 innings without allowing a hit or a walk and combined for five strikeouts.
The Padres have won three of their last five after opening July with four straight losses, but the offense has still been too uneven to trust. In the two losses against Arizona, San Diego scored just one run total.
With the August 3 trade deadline nearing, the roster questions are piling up. The Padres now turn to a three-game set against the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday before a nine-game road trip that will take them to the Kansas City Royals, Atlanta Braves and Miami Marlins.
If the wins don’t start coming in bunches, the season could slip away, and A.J. Preller may be forced to move players.
In Other News...
Padres May Be Facing Another Brutal Big Contract Decision
Xander Bogaerts has become the latest reminder of how quickly a long-term deal can turn from a franchise anchor into a payroll puzzle. Since arriving in San Diego in 2023, the veteran infielder has not matched the level the Padres expected when they committed to his 11-year, $280 million contract, and his recent production has only added to the uncertainty around one of the clubs biggest investments.
For a team that has already shown a willingness to move high-profile names to keep competing while managing costs, the idea of revisiting another massive contract is hardly trivial. Any path forward would be complicated, since a trade would almost certainly require San Diego to take on a hefty share of the money still owed, leaving the Padres to weigh flexibility against the risk of giving up on a player they once viewed as a core piece. [Read more 🡒]
Padres Deadline Problem Is Bigger Than One Move Can Fix
The Padres keep running into the same issue as the deadline approaches: the roster has too many holes for a single splash to cover. The offense has been inconsistent, the rotation still needs help, and the bullpen has been asked to carry too much of the load, which is not a great place to be when the schedule tightens and every contender starts shopping for the same upgrades.
What makes the situation trickier is the shape of the market. San Diego needs multiple answers, but the farm system is thinner after recent trades, so the front office has fewer easy ways to chase them. There is at least some hope that ownership will be willing to push payroll higher, but even with that kind of backing, the Padres are staring at a deadline where the hardest part may simply be finding enough available help to make a real dent. [Read more 🡒]
Padres Fans Know This AJ Preller Habit Never Really Goes Away
Since AJ Preller arrived in August 2014, the Padres have lived with a front office philosophy that treats first-round draft capital as a currency to be spent when the right deal comes along. The list of players moved in those trades stretches across different eras of the roster build, from prospects who barely got their footing in San Diego to others who were still working their way through the minors when they were packaged elsewhere. Some of those moves helped land established big leaguers in San Diego, while others were smaller swaps that still reflected the same willingness to keep turning over premium talent.
What makes the pattern stand out is how often it has repeated, and how little it seems to depend on the stage of the franchise at the moment. Whether the Padres were chasing a star, reshaping the bullpen, or trying to patch a roster need, Preller has never seemed especially attached to the idea of holding first-round picks just for the sake of it. For fans, the familiar question is not whether he will move another one, but which prospect becomes the next name to disappear from the organizational ledger. [Read more 🡒]