Rafael Devers spent his last two games of 2026 making the Padres sweat, and he came close to stealing the whole weekend from them.
San Diego still walked out of Oracle Park with the sweep, capped by Sunday’s 6-4 win, and the Padres left with a seven-game winning streak intact. By then, Devers was already out of the picture. The Giants placed him on the 60-day IL Sunday with a core muscle injury he had reportedly been dealing with for much of the year.
That injury ended a brutal late-season surge on a final note that was as loud as anything else he did. Since August 1, Devers had hit .291/.398/.674 with 15 homers and an MLB-best 187 wRC+ among qualified hitters.
Over his last 18 games, he launched 11 homers. The Padres caught an eliminated team, sure, but they also caught the hottest bat in baseball at exactly the wrong time.
Friday set the tone. San Diego jumped on Robbie Ray for seven runs in the first three innings and built a 7-1 lead, the kind of cushion that should have made the night straightforward.
Instead, Devers crushed an 0-1 knuckle curve for a grand slam in the fifth and ripped most of the comfort right out of it. The Padres then had to grind through the finish, and when Devers came up with two outs in the ninth and walked to load the bases against Mason Miller, the tying run was sitting 90 feet away before Miller froze Bryce Eldridge with a 102.8 mph fastball.
One night later, Devers was back at it immediately against Michael King. He drilled a 389-foot, two-run homer in the first inning, ending King’s scoreless streak at 21 2/3 innings and putting San Francisco ahead 2-0.
San Diego answered fast. Dustin Harris tied it with a two-run single in the next half inning, Jackson Merrill later connected for his 25th homer, and Fernando Tatis Jr. added a 421-foot blast as the Padres kept building enough margin to survive another Giants push in a 7-6 win.
The sweep did not come cleanly. Bradgley Rodriguez gave up three runs in the eighth on Saturday before Adrian Morejon had to come in and stop the bleeding, and Ray’s outing Friday turned a six-run edge into a night that demanded every major bullpen arm. But the offense kept giving the Padres room to breathe.
San Diego left the Bay Area at 81-68, still riding seven straight wins and now holding a 2 1/2-game lead over Arizona for the final NL Wild Card spot. The Padres also moved within 1 1/2 games of both Chicago and Philadelphia in the Wild Card standings.
They are no longer just hanging on. There’s room to climb if this run keeps going.
In Other News...
Mason Miller Scare Leaves Padres Facing A Late-Season Bullpen Concern
Mason Miller gave the Padres a brief scare Tuesday night when a 101-mph ground ball smacked into his right calf during the game against the Rockies, a moment that looked far more ominous than the end result. He stayed in the game, finished a scoreless inning and picked up his 37th save, while keeping his usual velocity intact and later saying he did not have any significant concern about the injury.
Still, even a scare that passes quickly can linger for a club trying to hold its position with 12 games left in the regular season. San Diegos bullpen has been a key part of its push in the National League wild-card race, and any late-season issue involving Miller would be worth watching closely, especially with every out carrying more weight from here on out. [Read more 🡒]
Padres Just Made A Deep Farm System Cut Fans Will Notice
The Padres trimmed their Dominican Summer League roster picture this week by releasing eight players from the organization, a move that mostly hits the pitching side of the ledger. Seven of the players let go were pitchers, all of whom spent this season with one of San Diegos DSL clubs, while the lone position player in the group was shortstop Yonaiker Hernandez.
Jose Blanco, Aneury Sosa, Gensy Aquino, Daniel Burciaga, Dioscaride Sarit, Luis Morales and Raudi Perez were among the arms moved out, leaving Hernandez as the only infielder in the batch. It is the kind of deep-farm adjustment that usually says as much about the organizations evaluation of its lower-level inventory as it does about any one player, and it leaves a few open questions about how San Diego wants to reshape that part of the system going forward. [Read more 🡒]
Padres Keep Winning But This Streak Still Comes With A Warning
The Padres kept the momentum rolling at Coors Field on Friday night, edging the Rockies 8-7 for their eighth straight win. Fernando Tatis Jr. provided one of the big swings with a 465-foot two-run homer, and San Diegos lineup kept pressure on Colorado all night with 13 hits to back up another close, tense finish.
Casey Mize earned the win after five innings, and Mason Miller closed it out for the save, but the one-run margin also served as a reminder that even a hot stretch can still feel a little uneasy. San Diego has found ways to keep winning, yet this latest victory carried the kind of late-game stress that shows how thin the line can be when the margin for error disappears. [Read more 🡒]