Are the Padres' wheels coming off?

The Padres dropped 3 of 4 to the Phillies over the weekend, and their delicate balance of stellar pitching with little offense seems to be off-balance without Machado in the lineup.

Hi there. As I mentioned on Friday, I moved over the weekend. As such, I saw some Padres baseball but not as much as I typically do or as much as I would’ve liked to.

From what I can gather, a couple of things led to the Padres losing 3 of 4 to the Phillies at Petco Park over the course of the weekend:

1. The starting pitching is getting wobbly: Gore is fighting through some mechanical issues. Snell was good until he wasn’t. Musgrove is fighting through COVID. Darvish was fine but not great.

2. The lineup relies heavily on guys who aren’t here: Most notable, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado. Tatis hasn’t played yet this season and Machado has been gone for more than a week, although it sounds a little like he’s holding the team hostage because he doesn’t want to go on the IL. (I do think some of the cold streaks from Voit and Cronenworth are due them missing Machado’s gravity in the lineup.)

3. The Phillies aren’t terrible: After sweeping the Diamondbacks, it felt like the Padres would survive this time without Machado. Unfortunately, the Phillies are better than the Diamondbacks.

A couple of notes here. One, the Padres get today off and then spend the next two days playing the Diamondbacks again. That is both fortunate and an opportunity that must not be missed by the Padres.

Two, I feel like the starting pitching will be fine. Musgrove’s bad start isn’t a bad sign, just a sign that pitching relies on routine and full health and he was without either. Gore being able to pitch through his issues and take coaching during the game is actually a great sign. Snell…we’ll get to him in a minute.

Third, The Padres are still 45-30 through 75 games. They’re in a good position in 2nd place in the NL West, with a .600 winning percentage.

As was always the case, the long-term outlook of this team is still tied to Tatis. The short-term outlook is probably tied to how fast Manny Machado’s ankle can heal. And the Padres head to Los Angeles to take on the Dodgers after the two-game series against Arizona.