Machado clubs 25th HR, but Padres leapfrogged in WC race following loss to Yankees

SAN DIEGO -- Back and forth they go in the National League Wild Card race.

The Padres pulled off perhaps their most dramatic win of the year on Friday -- but followed it with a dud of a 5-1 loss to the Yankees on Saturday night. That allowed the Diamondbacks, who came from behind to win in Houston, to pull back ahead of San Diego by half a game in the race for the league’s final playoff spot.

Here’s some reaction from Petco Park:

Not Ray’s day

Robbie Ray has made a career of working around traffic. For years, he’s been one of the best in baseball at escaping trouble -- usually trouble of his own making. He’d done it expertly since his arrival in San Diego at last month’s Trade Deadline.

But not on Saturday night. Ray labored during a four-run second inning, surrendering all four runs with two outs. He gave up another in the third and wouldn’t complete the frame. In total, he allowed five runs over 2 1/3 innings, his shortest start in more than two years.

“It was just bad pitch execution,” Ray said. “I think that was the biggest thing. Leaving sliders up to lefties is something that I just can’t do. It’s something that I’ve never really done in the past. Slider just didn’t feel good today.”

Again, Ray had been mostly solid since joining the Padres. But this was an example of the downside. He routinely puts himself in trouble with a high walk rate and high pitch counts. Sometimes, it comes back to burn him.

In the midst of a tight playoff race, the Padres are going to need to evaluate their usage of their starting pitchers. It’s clearly a much better rotation than they had during the first half when they employed their “pitching chaos” strategy.

But their bullpen has been lights out (and worked 6 2/3 scoreless innings on Saturday without using any high-leverage arms). As such, the leash is going to get shorter as the games grow in importance.

“We’re going to manage it the same way we would a lot of playoff games,” said manager Craig Stammen. “We’re going to be, probably, aggressive with taking the starter out of the game and using our bullpen that we feel is the strength of our team.”

Steady Manny

Another year, another 25-homer season for Manny Machado. Leading off the bottom of the fourth inning, he turned on a 1-2 fastball from Carlos Rodón and launched it to the seats in left field.

In doing so, he reached the 25-homer mark for an 11th consecutive season (not counting the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign). Machado is the only player in the Majors with 25 homers in each of the last 11 full seasons. Nobody else has more than Kyle Schwarber’s nine.

It’s a testament to Machado’s remarkable consistency. Even as he’s struggled this season, he’s continued to rack up the home runs -- now only six shy of 400.

“He’s a pretty good player, even when he doesn’t have his best season,” Stammen said. “Manny’s an exceptional baseball player, and he’s been doing it for a really long time.”

Machado also worked a pair of walks on Saturday night. He’s clearly playing through a few ailments (which he goes to great lengths not to discuss) but might be rounding into form at just the right time for the Padres.

“I think he’s got one big month left ahead of him,” Stammen said. “Today was a good sign -- a home run off a tough lefty. Hopefully there’s more of that to come.”

A tough matchup for Salas

Aside from Machado’s blast, Rodón kept the San Diego offense in check. But the Padres chased Rodón after five innings and had their best chance to get back into the game in the bottom of the sixth.

They put two men aboard with one out. But Luis Campusano flied out to the warning track, bringing Freddy Fermin to the plate against Yankees reliever Michael Fulmer. That’s when Padres manager Craig Stammen deemed it time for Ethan Salas to make his Petco Park debut.

He called on Salas to bat for Fermin, which prompted Yankees manager Aaron Boone to go to left-hander Brent Headrick.

“They had him ready,” Stammen said. “It was either let Freddy hit against Fulmer or force them to bring that lefty in. We decided to force them to make a move.”

Even with the Padres trailing by four, Salas was greeted with a rousing ovation before his first Petco Park at-bat. But this was always a tough matchup for the lefty-hitting Salas. And sure enough, he struck out on three pitches.