SAN DIEGO -- The Padres couldn’t overcome an early four-run deficit on Tuesday, despite homers from Manny Machado and Ramón Laureano.
Here’s some instant reaction from Petco Park, where San Diego dropped its second straight against Philadelphia, 4-3:
Offense still isn’t clicking
This was an encouraging night from Machado. He launched a laser of a two-run homer into the left-field seats in the fourth inning at 108 mph off the bat. In the seventh, he worked a leadoff walk.
But with the tying run at second base in the eighth inning, Machado stepped to the plate and hit a check-swing dribbler to third base, putting an end to the Padres’ best chance to tie the game or take the lead.
Here’s the thing about the Padres’ offense lately: There’s been an occasionally strong night from an individual or two. On Tuesday, it was Machado and Laureano. But team-wide, it just hasn’t been good enough.
Phillies starter Aaron Nola has struggled lately. But, aside from Machado, he allowed only two other baserunners across six innings -- on a pair of infield hits by Gavin Sheets (preceding the Machado homer) and Xander Bogaerts.
As of Tuesday night, the Padres are officially one-third of the way through their season. The sample size is no longer small, and they’ve been a bottom-10 offense in just about every category. A night before, manager Craig Stammen was asked to assess his offense, a third of the way through the season.
“We’re not as good as we expected right now,” Stammen said. “We haven’t been scoring as many runs as we’ve become accustomed to with these types of players in the lineup. They know it. We know it. The whole world knows it.
“We keep talking about it every day. We keep trying new things and new ideas. And we keep working our tails off.”
Vásquez hitting a rough patch
Randy Vásquez started the season brilliantly -- and did the Padres ever need it, considering all the early injuries and question marks in their starting rotation. But lately, he hasn’t been quite as sharp.
On Tuesday night, Vásquez allowed homers in each of the first three innings. In fact, oddly enough, he recorded the first two outs in each of those innings, before surrendering a solo home run.
It was a second consecutive shaky outing from Vásquez, after a poor start against the Dodgers last week. Then again, even in Vásquez’s poor outings, he usually does his best to keep the Padres in the game -- which he did Tuesday, pitching into the sixth.
Merrill magic in center
It’s still mind-boggling that Jackson Merrill had never played center field -- at any level -- until he arrived at Padres camp before the 2024 season. He’s been so smooth since day one, it looks like he’s been playing there his whole life.
On Tuesday, Merrill robbed Edmundo Sosa of a home run to end the top of the fourth inning. It wasn’t spectacular. Merrill simply ranged toward the wall, contorted his body and leapt at just the right moment. He came down with the ball.
For all of Merrill’s struggles at the plate this season -- and they’ve been plentiful -- he clearly hasn’t carried them to the field. Merrill has been excellent in center.