Manny Machado finally got a breather on Wednesday, and the Padres badly needed the pause as much as their third baseman did.
San Diego sat Machado for its series finale against the Cincinnati Reds after a punishing stretch that had him in the lineup almost every day. Before the off day, he had started 47 straight games and appeared in 109 of the club’s previous 110 contests over 125 days. Even with Wednesday’s rest, Machado has now missed only four games all season.
The workload has been relentless, and the injuries have piled up along the way. Machado has dealt with five different injuries this season and has said he is nowhere near fully healthy. Still, he kept grinding for a Padres team trying to stay alive in the wild-card race.
Craig Stammen has noticed the edge in Machado’s approach.
“I think he’s playing … with a sense of urgency, and I think that’s what our entire team needs at this point in the season,” Craig Stammen said recently.
Stammen had already said before the season that Machado would “get more rest” in 2026, and earlier this week he acknowledged that a day off was under consideration. On Monday, after Machado went 4-for-5, Stammen praised the veteran’s willingness to push through.
“He’s not feeling great. Nobody’s feeling great,” Stammen said of Machado on Monday. “But he did what he could to help our team win today, and that’s what Manny is all about.”
The next night, Machado was back in the lineup and went 0-for-2 with a walk and a sacrifice fly in a loss to the Reds. Then came Wednesday’s rest day.
The timing mattered because the Padres are sliding at the worst possible moment. They have lost five of their last six games, and each defeat has tightened the squeeze on their postseason chances. After a 1-5 road trip, San Diego sits a half-game behind the Arizona Diamondbacks for the third and final wild-card spot.
Machado has made it clear he knows what’s at stake. Last week, he said:
“Well, just 27 [and now 22] games left, leaving it on the table,” Machado said last week. “So at the end of the day, just what’s it going to take for us to win ballgames.
And every time you step out to that field, you gotta leave it out on the field. With just a few left, just go out there and try to try to get as many runs as we can, try to score as many as we can, and put ourselves in a postseason run.”
Stammen suggested Wednesday’s day off may have been designed to get Machado through the final stretch, and perhaps not just one game.
“A day game in Cincinnati with this heat - get him off his feet,” Stammen said. “Hopefully refreshes him, gets him another [team] day off [Thursday], and then he’ll be in there for the next 22."
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