Padres Week in Review: Flexing on the Yankees

San Diego Padres Weekly Snapshot

Record last week: 3-3

Runs scored last week: 19

Runs allowed last week: 21 (season run differential: plus-8)

Scores

• Game 138 (Monday): Padres 5, Reds 0
• Game 139 (Tuesday): Reds 4, Padres 3
• Game 140 (Wednesday): Reds 7, Padres 3
• Thursday: Off
• Game 141 (Friday): Padres 3, Yankees 2
• Game 142 (Saturday): Yankees 5, Padres 1
• Game 143 (Sunday): Padres 4, Yankees 3

Week in Review and Highlights

Reds series

Game 1: Coming off a tough series and even tougher ending to Sunday's game against the Tampa Bay Rays, a road trip to Cincinnati was the perfect tonic for the Padres. Manny Machado went 4-for-5 and right-handed starter Michael King turning in six shutout innings, the Friars had a smooth 5-0 victory over the Reds to open the three-game series. Combined with the Arizona Diamondbacks' loss, the Padres moved back into the No. 3 NL wild-card spot, a half-game up on the D-Backs, and remained five games behind the Philadelphia Phillies, who are now tied with the Chicago Cubs for the top two NL wild-card positions. For Machado, it was his first four-hit game of the season and 26th of his career. He doubled and was the foundation of an offense that produced 15 hits. Even with that number of hits, it was one big inning that the Padres relied on for this win.

The Friars began the top of the fourth inning with six consecutive hits, five singles, to score four runs. Xander Bogaerts had the biggest hit of the inning with a two-run double. Ty France had three hits, while Jackson Merrill, Dustin Harris and Luis Campusano each had a pair. They added a run in the seventh as Fernando Tatis Jr. had a leadoff double and scored on France's two-out single.

While the offense took care of business, so did King, although not quite in the fashion you think of when you hear he had six shutout innings. The Reds had multiple baserunners in each of the first three innings and a potential home run robbery in the third by Merrill in center field. King retired all six batters over the fourth and fifth before more trouble appeared in the sixth with another pair of runners. However, none of those runners scored. King would finish with four hits and three walks allowed as well as six strikeouts, notching his fifth straight quality start and career-high 15th this season.

Game 2: The day began with excitement over the promotion of Padres Mission's No. 1 prospect, catcher Ethan Salas, but ended with a disappointing loss. While Salas wasn't available to start due to travel delays (he arrived in the third inning), the Padres misfired again with runners in scoring position, going 0-for-10, and surrendering two eighth-inning runs in a 4-3 loss to the Reds, their sixth setback in eight games. The defeat didn't hurt the Padres in the NL wild-card standings, remaining a half-game up on the D'backs and five games behind the Cubs, who fell into the No. 2 spot with a loss and a Phillies win. Tatis had his third two-homer game of the season, including one in the ninth, but there were too many missed opportunities in this one.

Driving in runners in scoring position has been a bit of an issue recently (11-for-71 in last eight games). Some RISP performances are worse than others. This one was definitely worse, as the Friars had runners in scoring position with less than two outs in the second, third and fourth innings, resulting in an 0-for-6 showing. That included Jase Bowen's leadoff triple in the third, then the bases eventually being loaded on a one-out hit by pitch and walk before France hit into a double play. Samad Taylor got the Padres off to a good start with a first-inning triple, scoring on Machado's sacrifice fly to right.

The Reds, though, got that one back off Padres right-handed starter Randy Vasquez in the bottom of the first. Tatis then lined one barely over the right-field fence in the top of the fifth for a 2-1 Padres lead. Again, the Reds tied it in the bottom half. After the Padres again failed to produce a run in the seventh after a two-out Merrill double and walk, left-hander Adrian Morejon came on to begin the eighth and issued a leadoff walk to Elly De La Cruz and a single to rookie Sal Stewart after a groundout left runners on second and third, back catcher Jose Trevino singled home De La Cruz and rookie Juan Brito hit a sac fly to put the Reds up 4-2. Tatis tightened things up with his 19th homer of the season, but it came with two outs in the ninth.

Vasquez was just OK. He worked 4⅔ innings, allowing two runs on five hits and a walk, while the Padres didn't do as much damage as they could have against Reds left-hander Nick Lodolo, who lasted six innings.

Game 3: The conclusion of a six-game road trip against a sub-.500 team did not go well for the Friars. The Padres couldn't take advantage of an inexperienced pitcher making his first start coming off the injured list and Padres right-handed starter Casey Mize gave up a pair of homers in a 7-3 loss to the Reds.

The Padres finished a six-game trip against the best team in the AL and the worst team in the NL Central with a 1-5 record. With the D'backs winning, the Padres swapped spots with Arizona and are now a half-game behind Arizona for the third and final NL wild-card berth. But losing the final two games against the Reds, especially as Salas made his MLB debut, was disappointing. Salas looked good defensively and went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts while hitting from the No. 6 spot. His first plate appearance resulted in a 390-foot fly ball to center field to end the bottom of the first.

Mize went just four innings, allowing four runs on five hits and a walk with four strikeouts. He struggled with his command on a muggy getaway day where the first pitch in Ohio was at 9:40 a.m. California time. Two little-known Reds, Juan Brito and Hector Rodriguez, homered as part of a four-run third inning that erased a 3-0 Padres lead. JJ Bleday added a seventh-inning homer to cap the day's scoring, tot that it was needed. The Padres didn't do anything after the second inning, again struggling with runners in scoring position, going 1-for-7. The Friars' first two runs came in the first inning on France's 20th homer of the season, after Tatis' leadoff single. Tatis would have the only hit with a runner in scoring position, bringing in Austin Hays, who had doubled leading off the second. But that was it against left-handed starter Brandon Williamson, who had been out since April with a shoulder injury, and a rough Reds bullpen.

Yankees series

Game 1: The Campusano game. Even before he came up to the plate in the bottom of the 10th with the tying run on second, it was a pretty good game for Campusano. After enduring a trying year in 2025, stuck in Triple-A, Campusano has been pretty good behind the plate and doing nice things with the bat. But in the series opener vs. the New York Yankees, he put both together. After throwing out a career-best three would-be base stealers, Campusano crushed a two-run walk-off homer with one out to give the Padres a 3-2 victory over the Yankees. The win moved the Friars ahead of the D'backs, who lost, for the No. 3 NL wild-card spot. It also was a good bounce back from the bad vibes left following a 1-5 road trip.

In a game dominated by pitching, someone was eventually going to come up with the big hit. Campusano, who had two of the Padres' six hits, did that when he turned on a middle-in sinker on the first pitch he saw and sent it to the front of the second deck in left. Combined with the caught stealings, Campusano became just the second player in the 75 years of tracking that stat to throw out three and hit a walk-off in Sammy Taylor of the Chicago Cubs in 1961. Campusano had never thrown out two, much less three in a single game before.

As much credit as Campusano deserves, Padres pitchers should get the same. Behind a nice outing from right-handed starter Walker Buehler, going five innings, allowing one run on three hits and two walks while striking out six, his most since fanning seven over 5⅓ on July 26 vs. the Miami Marlins. Left-hander Yuki Matsui, right-hander Bradgley Rodriguez and Morejon each went a scoreless inning before superstar closer Mason Miller zipped through the ninth in a tie game on just nine pitches, an alternate version of an immaculate inning due to only having one strikeout.

But the Yankees, with the ghost runner on in the 10th, jumped on Miller as rookie Spencer Jones, the Encinitas native who went to La Costa Canyon High School, lined a first-pitch four-seamer into center for an RBI single to put the Yankees up 2-1. Miller and Campusano combined for a double play as Miller struck out Heliot Ramos and Campusano nailed Jones trying to steal third. In the bottom of the 10th, Dustin Harris started as the zombie runner. Bogaerts struck out, bringing up Campusano. Sure, there were missteps by the Friars along the way in this one, but the bottom line was they didn't hurt like they did the previous weekend against the Tampa Bay Rays. They also came out victorious in a game started by a tough left-hander, Max Fried, after dropping their previous two games, both against southpaws.

Game 2: Robbie Ray's walk issues caught up to him in this start. The Padres' left-hander issued three straight during a four-run second inning and four free passes overall in just 2⅓ innings as the Friars dropped a 5-1 decision to the Yankees. The Padres and D-Backs again flopped positions, with Arizona regaining the No. 3 NL wild-card spot. Ray needed just eight pitches to zip through a perfect first inning before things went sideways in the second. There, he needed 42 pitches to get three outs. He finished his seven-out start by allowing five runs, five hits and four walks while striking out one. Ray famously walks more than he should. His season high is seven and he has walked five or more four times in 28 games this year. The bullpen limited further damage. That was thanks to the work of right-hander Griffin Canning, who has found a nice role after being bumped from the starting rotation. Canning went 2⅔ shutout innings, allowing just one hit. Left-hander Wandy Peralta, right-hander David Morgan and right-hander Jhony Brito combined to finish the final four innings without allowing a run.

But the Padres couldn't do much against Yankees left-hander Carlos Rodon, who gave up a run on two hits over five innings, striking out seven and walking three. Machado provided the only offense, smacking his 25th homer of the season in the fourth inning. Outside of that, though, they managed just two other hits, with one coming from Hays as a pinch-hitter in the ninth. Salas made his Petco Park debut as a pinch-hitter for Freddy Fermin in the bottom of the sixth, striking out on three pitches against left-hander Brent Headrick, who came in to face the rookie. Salas stayed in at catcher before Hays hit for him in the ninth. Before the game, the Padres honored France for being the team's Heart and Hustle Award winner.

Game 3: Boom! Boom! Boom! Just like that, the Padres had a 3-0 lead against one of the top pitchers in MLB. Tatis, Jake Cronenworth and Machado opened the bottom of the first inning with back-to-back-to-back home runs off right-hander Gerrit Cole that propelled the Friars to a 4-3 victory over the Yankees. With the D'backs also winning, the Padres, who won two of three vs. the Yankees, remained a half-game behind Arizona for the third and final NL wild-card spot entering the final three weeks. Tatis hit Cole's sixth pitch of the game, a knuckle curve, the opposite way to right for his 20th homer of the season. Four pitches later, Cronenworth sliced a four-seamer that bounced off the yellow-painted line on the Western Metal Supply Co. building for his first career opposite-field homer and his fifth this year. Machado added his 26th of the season five pitches later also on a four-seamer, his second in as many days. It was almost four in a row, but France flew out to the warning track in center. The Padres had quickly taken a 3-0 lead, perhaps inspired by the presence of new owners Jose E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones, who made their first public game appearance at Petco Park. It was just the 12th time in MLB history and second in Friars lore that a team opened a game with three consecutive homers.

That would be enough for King, the former Yankee and good buddies with Cole. King turned in his sixth straight quality start and 16th this season by going six shutout innings, allowing four hits and three walks with three strikeouts. Rodriguez kept the shutout going in the seventh, with Campusano adding to the lead with his second homer of the weekend and seventh of the season in the bottom of the seventh for a 4-0 lead. But Morejon had issues in the eighth. The left-hander allowed three runs (two earned) on three hits and a walk with one strikeout. His shakiness had Miller ready to come in before Campusano threw out his fourth baserunner of the series and getting a lineout to end the inning. Miller did come on for the ninth, striking out three of the four batters he faced for his 33rd save of the season.

Marvelous Mason Miller

Some of the amazing stats for the Padres' closer:

• Season stats: 5-2, 1.19 ERA, 57 games, 33 saves (35 chances), 60⅓ IP, 29 H, 11 R, 8 ER, 21 BB, 111 K, .141 opponent average.
• Pitched two innings for just the second time as a Padre in Friday's walk-off win.
• In Friday's outing, allowed a run for the third straight game, the first time as a Padre and first since May 10-24, 2025, with the A's.
• Before Sunday, had appeared in three straight losses after a streak of 13 outings in wins.

Random Stats

• Xander Bogaerts scored the 1,000th run of his career in Monday's game. He is one of 14 active players to reach that mark.
• Manny Machado's solo homer Saturday gave him 11 straight seasons (excluding pandemic-shortened 2020) with 25 or more home runs, the longest active stretch in MLB.
• The only other time the Padres had three consecutive homers to begin a game was April 13, 1987, when Marvell Wynne, Tony Gwynn and John Kruk did the deed in the home opener against the San Francisco Giants. The last time the Padres hit three straight homes was Sept. 18, 2024, vs. the Houston Astros with Fernando Tatis Jr., Machado and Donovan Solano.
• Sunday marked the 59th sellout at Petco Park in 71 home games.

Padres Transactions

• Tuesday: Selected the contract of C Ethan Salas from Triple-A El Paso Chihuahuas.
• Tuesday: Recalled RHP Jhony Brito from Triple-A El Paso Chihuahuas.
• Tuesday: Transferred LF Luis Rengifo (torn right ACL) from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day injured list.

Website Highlights

• Padres promote No. 1 prospect Ethan Salas to make MLB debut — Steve Drumwright
• King has relentlessly proven he should be Padres' Game 1 starter in playoffs — Yirsandy Rodriguez
• NL playoff picture: Gauging Padres' best paths to October — N.B. Lindberg
• Padres' Buehler is still elite at handling high-pressure situations — Yirsandy Rodriguez
• Salas proves to be a rare developmental win for Padres — Steve Drumwright

Looking Ahead

• Monday: Nationals at Padres (Nick Pivetta), 2:10 p.m.
• Tuesday: Nationals at Padres (Casey Mize), 6:40 p.m.
• Wednesday: Nationals at Padres (Walker Buehler), 1:10 p.m.
• Thursday: Off.
• Friday: Padres at Giants (Robbie Ray), 7:15 p.m.
• Saturday: Padres at Giants (Michael King), 1:05 p.m.
• Sunday: Padres at Giants (Randy Vasquez), 4:20 p.m.