Week in Review: (Unwanted) Sweep Sensation

San Diego Padres Weekly Snapshot

Record last week: 1-5

Runs scored last week: 19 

Runs allowed last week: 25 (season run differential: plus-10)

Scores

• Game 132 (Monday): Pirates 3, Padres 2 (12 innings)
• Game 133 (Tuesday): Pirates 1, Padres 0
• Game 134 (Wednesday): Padres 3, Pirates 0
• Thursday: Off
• Game 135 (Friday): Rays 9, Padres 4
• Game 136 (Saturday): Rays 7, Padres 6
• Game 137 (Sunday): Rays 5, Padres 4 (11 innings)

Week in Review and Highlights

Pirates series

Game 1: On a day that began with a celebration of new owners Jose E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones being introduced, the Padres ran into a tough pitcher and had a few mistakes that cost San Diego a win, falling to the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-2 in 12 innings. It was the second 12-inning game of the year for the Padres, whose No. 3 spot in the NL wild-card standings was not affected, remaining two games behind the No. wild card Philadelphia Phillies and two up on the Arizona Diamondbacks, the first team on the outside, after both teams lost. But this was a tough one to swallow as the Friars had chances to topple the Pirates, who got a strong effort from right-handed starter Braxton Ashcraft, who has been the Bucs' best pitcher all season.

With left-hander Robbie Ray starting for the Padres, it was a good pitchers duel. Ray was pretty good as he went 5⅓ innings, giving up both of the runs he allowed in the sixth inning, one while he was in the game, the other after he left. He was taken deep by rookie slugger Esmerlyn Valdez, then left a runner on first with a walk. That walk would come around to score when Rafael Flores Jr. sliced a double to center of right-hander Bradgley Rodriguez that eluded center fielder Jackson Merrill and then the relay was bobbled by shortstop Xander Bogaerts for a 2-0 Pirates lead. Ashcraft had blanked the Padres on two hits entering the bottom of the sixth, but a Freddy Fermin double and a strange balk call brought him home to make it 2-1. Dustin Harris, called up by his third MLB team this year before the game, doubled with one out in the eighth for his first Padres hit, then scored on Jake Cronenworth's clutch two-out single to center. Despite two more walks, the Padres could not push across the go-ahead run.

After right-handed closer Mason Miller struck out two in the ninth despite needing 30 pitches (his most in an inning this year), extra innings provided chances for the Padres to win the series opener as left-hander Adrian Morejon kept the Pirates off the board in the 10th and 11th innings. In the 10th, Harris failed to execute a bunt, popping it to the first baseman and Luis Campusano had strayed too far off second for a double play. Cronenworth kept the Padres in it with a tremendous scoop play in the top of the 11th, but then popped up a bunt of his own in the bottom half. Still, the Padres loaded the bases before Merrill struck out and Bogaerts lined out to center to send it to the 12th. That is where Nick Gonzales had a leadoff RBI single. The Padres went down in order in the bottom of the 12th, with the game ending on a weird hit by pitch-strikeout by Harris. Manny Machado aggravated an existing bruise on his right index finger on a sixth-inning swing, but remained in the game.

Game 2: Couldn't Paul Skenes have waited another start before finding himself a bit? But that is baseball. So is Miller getting taken out of the yard for the first time in nearly 13 months. It came in a critical moment and for as many times as Miller has gotten that extra out in the eighth inning, you still expected him to come through in that situation. Miller allowed a two-out home run to Oneil Cruz in the top of the ninth inning as the Padres suffered a 1-0 loss to the Pirates. Miller has two of the nastiest pitches in baseball with his four-seam fastball and slider, which could be the best in all of MLB, but instead went with his little-used changeup, still at 98.2 mph. Cruz, who hits the ball as hard as anyone, went and got the pitch, which was at the bottom of the inside corner of the zone, and yanked a missile (111.8 mph exit velocity) into the right-field stands for the game's only run. While manager Craig Stammen brushed it off as a rare miscue, Miller was more blunt: “Humans can be idiots sometimes. “I mean, tip your hat. Good swing, crushed it, obviously. But I just can't be throwing that pitch in that spot.”

The loss hurt in the standings, too. The Padres, for the second night in a row, failed to take advantage of a Phillies loss, while the D'backs rallied for a win, keeping Friars two games behind Philadelphia and now a game ahead of Arizona. While Miller shoulders the blame due to the dramatic hit, the Padres didn't score in nine innings. That was thanks to Skenes, who entered the game with an un-Skenes-like 3.95 ERA, went six scoreless innings, allowing three hits and no walks with four strikeouts. It was his first scoreless outing since May 12. Padres right-handed starter Michael King was just as good, striking out seven over seven innings, surrendering five hits and two walks.

The Padres didn't put up much of a threat, going 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position, a night after going 1-for-13. Again, facing two pretty good starters. The Pirates' bullpen was upgraded at the deadline, too, and kept the Padres hitless over the final three innings.

Game 3: Sometimes it is the pitching that stars. Others it is the hitting. This was a combo effort. With right-handed starter Randy Vasquez going five shutout innings and bullpen following with four more, the offense did just enough against another good pitcher, the Padres avoided being swept with a 3-0 victory over the Pirates. It kept the Padres two games behind the Phillies and a game up on the D'backs, while completing a six-game homestand at 4-2.

While he retired the first nine batters, Vasquez suddenly wasn't as sharp. But he navigated through it. A single and a walk opened the top of the fourth before Vasquez got the Nos. 3 and 4 hitters, Bryan Reynolds and Valdez, popped out and struck out. Cruz walked on five pitches, then Vasquez struck out Game 1 hero Gonzales, thanks to a Fermin ABS challenge. Vasquez then retired the final three batters he faced, but Stammen had seen enough and went to the bullpen. Left-hander Kyle Hart, right-hander Griffin Canning and left-hander Yuki Matsui took care of the next two innings, then Rodriguez, with Morejon and Miller unavailable, continued his star rise by blanking the Pirates over the final two innings, dancing back-to-back singles to open the eighth. That gave Rodriguez 12 consecutive scoreless innings.

The offense, while not dynamic, was effective. Merrill continued his recent surge with a one-out double in the second inning and Luis Rengifo singled him home. In the fourth, Machado reached on a one-out error and Merrill hit a two-out triple to right and Machado lumbered home to make it 2-0. Fermin opened the eighth with a single and stole second, then scored on Cronenworth's one-out double to the right-center gap. They couldn't extend any of those rallies, but this was enough on this day for a win.

Rays series

Game 1: The Padres displayed a version of pitching chaos after the All-Star break that helped them get back into postseason contention. They have now seen another version of offensive chaos and it is why the Tampa Bay Rays have the best record in the AL. The Rays hit homers (Yandy Diaz and Cedric Mullins) and flashed their speed on the basepaths (Chander Simpson had two hits, two steals, two runs scored) in getting Padres right-handed starter Casey Mize off-balance in a 9-4 Friars loss. Mize, who recovered from a sprained right ankle the previous weekend, battled his way through five innings, but gave up seven runs, although only two of those were earned. That one error was Mize's.

It was one bad inning that did the Padres and Mize in. That was the fourth, where the Rays expanded a 1-0 lead (on Diaz's homer) to a 6-0 cushion. A hit batter started the chaos, then the speedy Simpson hit one back to Mize, who got the ball quickly and noticed shortstop Xander Bogaerts wasn't in position to get the out at second as he went to throw and bounced the throw into the outfield, putting runners on the corners. Simpson stole second, then Mize issued a walk to load the bases. Mullins hit a tapper to first baseman Ty France, last year's AL Gold Glove winner, and he bobbled the ball as he looked home, then turned to first but had no play there, either. A wild pitch and a sacrifice fly brought in two more runs, then two more came in on RBI singles.

The Padres did chip back against Rays right-handed starter Shane McClanahan, scoring two in the fifth and two in the sixth, but the Rays countered each time with a run in the bottom half of the inning, then added another in the seventh. The Padres could only muster four hits, including three against McClanahan in his 5⅔ innings. Merrill had two of those, including his 22nd homer of the year, a two-run shot in the sixth. The game did feature a cool moment. Tatis tried scaling the wall to catch Mullins' homer, with a young fan in a Tatis jersey catching the ball. Tatis wound up jumping up and fist-bumping the youngster.

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by MLB ⚾ (@mlb)

Game 2: Any loss is costly during this portion of the season, but some hurt more than others. This one had more than an impact on the standings. Rengifo sustained what could be a season-ending right knee injury on a play that led to two additional runs to score to tie the game in what would be a 7-6 loss to the Rays. The loss, combined with a Phillies win and a D'backs doubleheader split, left the Padres four games behind Philadelphia for the No. 2 NL wild-card spot and tied with Arizona for the No. 3 position. Rengifo was injured in the middle of what was essentially the game-deciding sequence. Rodriguez came on to start the seventh and issued a walk and two singles to load the bases. Diaz then hit a rocket over Merrill's head that bounced off the center-field wall. Merrill grabbed it on one hop and fired to Rengifo, who was making his first start at second with the Padres and was covering second on this play. Rengifo noticed a runner caught between second and third and chased him toward third base. Then the runner on third took off for home and Rengifo pivoted, with his right knee crumbling as he made a wide throw to the plate. All three runners who were on base scored, two as a result of Rengifo's throw.

Morejon would replace Rodriguez with the game tied, no outs and a runner on third. After a groundout and intentional walk, Morejon got a strikeout before Simpson slapped an opposite-field single to left to drive in the go-ahead run in a four-run seventh. That outburst came after the Padres scored three runs in the top of the seventh. Rengifo, as he has done since coming up July 8, started things with a leadoff walk, then Harris, who had three hits in his first four Padres games, twice failed to put down a bunt before getting his third single of the day and Tatis put down a rare bunt single to load the bases. After Cronenworth struck out, Machado came through with a tiebreaking two-run single two-run single to put the Friars up 5-3. Machado and Tatis then pulled a double steal, with Tatis taking home for a 6-3 cushion. But the Rays showed, in part, why they are the best team in the AL by taking advantage of the Padres in the bottom of the seventh.

Game 3: After an emotional loss the day before, this was perhaps the Padres' most frustrating loss of the season. After all, they had the game-ending out in their glove. Then it wasn't. In a game packed with storylines, the Padres were unable to execute in the late going, which resulted in a 5-4 walk-off loss in 11 innings. The three-game sweep dropped the Padres out of an NL wild-card spot for the first time since Aug. 10, a half-game behind the idle D'backs for the No. 3 position. The most talked-about play of the game will be the catch that was not a catch by left fielder Samad Taylor, who was back with the Padres following Rengifo's injury. With two outs, a runner on and Miller in to protect a 3-1 lead, Jonny DeLuca launched an 0-1 pitch down the left-field line. Taylor tracked it down in the corner and initially made the catch, but the ball came out of his glove as he banged into the wall at the foul pole and went over the fence for a tying two-run homer. Initially, Miller reacted as if Taylor had caught it, but when Taylor bent over in disappointment, Miller walked nearly all the way to the Padres' dugout, thinking it had been a walk-off loss. He recovered to strike out the next batter.

In the 10th, the Padres had a failed bunt by Cronenworth and a caught stealing by Bowen, who was in the game after Tatis and Stammen were ejected after the top of the seventh. Matsui escaped damage in the bottom of the 10th, then the Padres took the lead in the top of the 11th as Machado, the zombie runner, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on France's sac fly to deep right-center. Right-hander David Morgan came on for the bottom of the 11th and struck out Junior Caminero before Liam Hicks singled zombie runner Richie Palacios to third. Pinch-runner Kenny Piper stole second, leading to an intentional walk of the speedy Simpson to load the bases. DeLuca hit a one-out chopper to a drawn-in Bogaerts, who charged the ball but bobbled in a moment of indecision when he should have been coming home to nail the tying run. With the bases still loaded and one out, the defense all around was playing in when former Padre Jorge Mateo lined the walk-off single over a leaping Taylor.

Tatis and Stammen were ejected after Tatis put down a two-out bunt for a base hit in the top of the seventh. Tatis did initially run just barely on the grass in fair territory as he raced to first base, with the throw from the pitcher going down in the bullpen in right-field foul territory and Tatis ending up on second. But the umpires ruled that because Tatis had been running on the grass, however slightly, he was out. That led to a demonstrative protest by Tatis and Stammen, who were both run.

Ray had turned in a nice start for the Padres, going six innings and allowing a run on three hits and three walks with four strikeouts. The only run he gave up was Caminero's 37th homer of the year, his second in as many days.

Marvelous Mason Miller

Some of the amazing stats for the Padres' closer:

• Season stats: 4-2, 1.26 ERA, 55 games, 32 saves (34 chances), 57⅓ IP, 28 H, 10 R, 8 ER, 20 BB, 104 K, .143 opponent average
• The home run to Oneil Cruz was the first allowed since Aug. 5, 2025, Mason Miller's second game with the Padres. He allowed four homers with the A's last year before the trade.
• That was also just the second run given up in Miller's last 20 appearances.
• Was handed his second blown save Sunday on the ninth-inning homer that Samad Taylor had fall out of his glove. Was also the second homer allowed in as many outings after not giving one up since last season.

Random Stats

• Fernando Tatis Jr. was named the NL Player of the Week after hitting .480 with four homers with six runs scored and 11 RBIs.
• Monday's 12-inning loss to the Pirates snapped an eight-game home winning streak.
• Ty France hit his 100th career homer Saturday, 19 coming this season. He has 26 career homers with the Padres.
• France has reached base in 24 of his last 25 games at Petco Park.
• Randy Vasquez retired the first nine batters Wednesday for the second start in a row, the first Padres pitch to do that since Chris Paddack in 2019.
• Manny Machado's two-hit game Saturday was his 308th career multihit game, tying him for second in Padres history with Dave Winfield. Tony Gwynn has the club record with 951.
• The sweep by the Rays was the first against the Padres since the June 29-July 1 series against the Chicago Cubs. Entering the weekend, their three times being swept was tied for the second-fewest in MLB. This makes four times.
• The Padres are 11-22 (.333) vs. the Rays all time, their worst record against any team.

Transactions

• Monday: Optioned 2B Sung-Mun Song to Triple-A El Paso Chihuahuas.
• Monday: Selected the contract of LF Dustin Harris from Triple-A El Paso Chihuahuas.
• Monday: Transferred RHP Lucas Giolito (right elbow inflammation) from the 15-day injured list to the 60-day injured list.
• Sunday: Placed LF Luis Rengifo on the 10-day injured list with sprained right knee.
• Sunday: Placed 1B Gavin Sheets on the 10-day injured list with sprained left foot.
• Sunday: Activated LF Samad Taylor (strained left oblique) from the 10-day injured list.
• Sunday: Recalled 2B Sung-Mun Song from Triple-A El Paso Chihuahuas.
• Sunday: Sent RHP Nick Pivetta on a rehab assignment to El Paso Chihuahuas.

Website Highlights

• Padres' admirable plan to rest Machado never materialized — Steve Drumwright
• Has France established himself as Padres' long-term first baseman? — Randy Holt
• Rengifo's injury creates new options for Padres when rosters expand — Steve Drumwright
• Impending Taylor, Andujar returns further cloud Padres' convoluted bench — Randy Holt
• Miller is nearing a career-high workload. How should Padres use their bullpen down the stretch? — Yirsandy Rodriguez
• Breaking down the Padres' remaining schedule as September approaches — Steve Drumwright
• Song's demotion has wide-ranging impact on Padres' bench — Randy Holt
• Salas is giving Padres plenty to think about ahead of September — Sam Caulder
• New Padres owners introduce themselves with passionate, personal touch — Steve Drumwright

Looking Ahead

• Monday: Padres (Michael King) at Reds (Brady Singer), 3:40 p.m.
• Tuesday: Padres (Randy Vasquez) at Reds (Nick Lodolo), 3:40 p.m.
• Wednesday: Padres (Casey Mize) at Reds (Rhett Lowder), 9:40 a.m.
• Thursday: Off
• Friday: Yankees at Padres (Walker Buehler), 6:40 p.m.
• Saturday: Yankees at Padres (Robbie Ray), 4:15 p.m.
• Sunday: Yankees at Padres (Michael King), 1:10 p.m.