The Padres are back at Petco Park with a chance to chip away in the wild-card picture, and they’re getting a Minnesota team that arrives in a strange spot: two games under .500 at 63-65, yet sitting second in the AL Central. For San Diego, the home stretch starts with a chance to turn a middling road trip into something more useful.
That trip left the Padres at .500 after stops against the Cleveland Guardians and the New York Mets, and the offense never really found a rhythm. San Diego is still sorting through the aftereffects of its deadline moves, including the addition of two new starters, Casey Mize and Robbie Ray. Both are beginning to settle in, and the Padres are hoping that pays off during the stretch run.
Randy Vasquez gets the ball tonight for San Diego against Connor Prielipp for Minnesota. Vasquez was hit hard in his last outing, giving up four earned runs in five innings in a 6-1 loss to Cleveland. Before that, though, he had strung together three starts in which he allowed only two earned runs total.
How deep Vasquez can go may matter here, especially with the Padres now managing a rotation that has become more crowded. That has pushed manager Craig Stammen toward a mix-and-match approach on the mound, but it has also given him a chance to give a bullpen that had been running on fumes some much-needed rest.
San Diego also needs its bats to wake back up. The offense faded badly after some stronger work in Cleveland, and in New York the lone real spark came from Fernando Tatis Jr.
He carried the Padres to a 5-2 win in the middle game of the three-game series, but outside of that performance the lineup was quiet. The Padres will be looking for more than one burst tonight.
In Other News...
Fernando Tatis Jr. Finally Fixed What Was Killing His Power
Fernando Tatis Jr. spent the opening stretch of the 2026 season looking nothing like a player built to drive the Padres lineup. The home run drought lasted 55 games and stretched across 207 at-bats before he finally cleared the fence for the first time on May 30, a frustrating run for a hitter whose power has long been one of the clubs biggest weapons.
Padres hitting coach Steven Souza Jr. said the issue was as basic as it was costly: Tatis was trying to pull everything, and the contact quality suffered as a result. Once he made the adjustment and stayed inside the ball more often, the loud contact came back in a hurry, and so did the kind of home runs San Diego has been waiting to see. [Read more 🡒]
Padres Are No Longer Baseballs Small-Market Underdog
The Padres rise has been more than a run of good seasons and bold roster moves. Since being purchased in 2012 for $800 million, the franchise has ballooned in value, with the recent $3.9 billion sale underscoring just how far San Diego has come from its old small-market image. A club once known for operating on the margins now looks and behaves like a major player, and Manny Machados 10-year, $300 million deal became one of the clearest symbols of that shift.
San Diegos standing off the field has changed right along with its ambitions on it. The Padres now rank among baseballs top five teams in attendance, and the growth in sponsorship and corporate partnerships has helped fuel a high-payroll model that would have seemed unlikely a decade ago. For a franchise that long wore the underdog label, the bigger question now is not whether it belongs in the conversation, but how far this new version of the Padres can go with the resources to match it. [Read more 🡒]
Padres Fans Just Got Another Bragging Right Over Rival Broadcasts
For Padres fans, the comfort of a familiar summer soundtrack just picked up another bit of national validation. Don Orsillo and Mark Grant were ranked the top local MLB broadcasters in Awful Announcings 2026 poll, with San Diegos crew earning the highest score among respondents and extending a run of recognition that has now reached a second straight year. It is the kind of accolade that does not show up in the standings, but it still says plenty about how the team is presented every night.
The Padres broadcast operation goes well beyond the lead TV pairing, with Jesse Agler, Tony Gwynn Jr., Bob Scanlan and Mariluz Cook also part of the mix that shapes the experience for viewers and listeners. For a fan base that already takes pride in its announcers, the latest poll offers another point to lean on in the long-running cross-town and cross-league comparisons that never quite go away. [Read more 🡒]