After a disappointing start to the season, the San Diego Padres have made their way back to .500 fresh off a three-game winning streak. Aside from the three straight wins, perhaps the most encouraging factor has been the manner in which the Padres have won the three games.
In their first seven games, the Padres scored five or more runs only once. San Diego has now scored five or more runs in their past two games. The Padres’ fan base has been anxiously anticipating the superstar-heavy San Diego offense surging, and these past two games have shown positive signs.
Following the Padres’ 5-0 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates in the season opener, Manny Machado sent a clear message regarding the team’s offense.
San Diego Padres Manny Machado’s Clear Message
Manny Machado told The San Diego Union-Tribune’s Kevin Acee about their offensive approach, “We’re taking really, really good at-bats, quality at-bats. Whenever you can take consistently quality at-bats … and we can put that stress on those pitchers, even though we line out … as much as we can try to wear those guys out and have quality at-bats, throughout the season we’ll come up on top”
That statement has proven to be true for Machado, who despite a .226 batting average, which is well below his career average, he has a career-high .415 on-base percentage. Machado currently leads the league with 10 walks, as he is walking on 24.4% of his plate appearances, which is well above his 8.2% career average.
Additionally, Machado had his first home run of the season in Sunday’s win over the Red Sox. In the series opener, Machado had a walk and a singlethat would have likely been an extra-base hit had it not bounced directly off the wall towards the right fielder Ryan O’Hearn.
San Diego Padres’ Offense
Machado was not the only member of the Padres to share that sentiment. Shortstop Xander Bogaerts spoke to reporters about the team’s approach in the series opener against Pittsburgh. Bogaerts said, “Today, we wanted to get the starter out of the game early. I feel like he was cruising a little bit in the beginning. I mean, the guy has got good stuff. He throws hard, he’s got really good pitches. But that was the approach — try to get him out as early as possible. And we did that, got into the bullpen. It’s exactly what we wanted to do, and it’s nice to see that it worked.”
Hard-throwing Bubba Chandler did not get out of the fifth inning as the Padres scored three earned runs in that stretch. The team totaled five hits off Chandler while adding four walks.
After a slow start, Bogaerts also had his second consecutive strong game as he had two hits and a walk during the team’s win over Pittsburgh. San Diego’s shortstop has totaled five hits over the past two games, after a previous four-game hit drought.
Next up for San Diego is a difficult challenge. The team will face off against 2025 National League Cy Young winner Paul Skenes. It will mark the first time San Diego face off against Skenes, as they had previously managed to avoid the star pitcher.
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