PHILADELPHIA -- It’s early June, and there’s obviously plenty of time for things to change. Take any playoff forecasting with a grain of salt. Nonetheless, here’s some early playoff math for you:
The Braves, Brewers and Dodgers look strong atop their respective divisions. The NL Wild Card race beyond them is a crowded one. The Padres and Phillies both find themselves in that Wild Card mix. So yeah, the last week could prove costly for San Diego.
After being swept at home last week, the Padres dropped their fourth straight to Philadelphia on Tuesday night, 3-2. They’ve lost seven of eight overall. Here are some takeaways from Citizens Bank Park:
An uneven night for Tatis
Fernando Tatis Jr. seems to be finding it at the plate. He hit his first homer on Saturday. He entered play Tuesday hitting .448 across his past seven games. Tatis pounded out three more hits on Tuesday night and was hardly at fault for the Padres’ disappointing offensive showing.
But, man, that baserunning mistake in the eighth sure proved costly. With Tatis on first, Miguel Andujar bounced a grounder toward third base. Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm had no shot at getting Andujar.
So he pumped once to first. And that was enough to catch Tatis having strayed way too far off second base. Bohm threw to second and caught Tatis in a rundown, where he was promptly tagged out.
Where was Tatis going? Getting to third base in that situation, with two outs, was hardly worth any measure of risk. As it turned out, that was the Padres’ last and best chance to tie the game.
A nice bounce-back from Vásquez
Last week, the Phillies homered three times against Randy Vásquez and scored four early runs against him. After a strong start to the season, Vásquez had been struggling -- and last Tuesday’s outing seemed to be the culmination of those struggles.
But this looked like the early-season version of Vásquez, working around trouble and (mostly) limiting hard contact. Vásquez pitched five innings of two-run ball. He hung a sweeper that Bryce Harper demolished for a two-run homer in the fourth inning. But otherwise, he allowed little else.
With a fresh Padres bullpen and Harper due up again in the sixth, Vásquez got an early hook after just 80 pitches. It was a sensible move, even if it backfired. Jeremiah Estrada walked Harper, then allowed a Brandon Marsh single, before Alec Bohm’s double play plated Harper with the go-ahead run.
Sheets keeps mashing
It is mostly an indictment on the seasons the Padres’ superstars are having to note that Gavin Sheets has been, by far, the team’s best hitter this season. But seriously -- where would this offense be without Sheets’ contributions?
He launched a two-run homer in the third inning on Tuesday night, giving the Padres a 2-0 lead. It was his 10th home run of the season, tying him with Manny Machado for the team lead. Sheets is the only qualifying Padre with an OPS above .700 -- and it’s .818.