Machado provides hope

Manny Machado seemed to seriously injure his ankle just two days ago. He can't possible be healthy enough to play baseball already, could he?

I know this is probably bad for business, but I don’t really care:

If you like this newsletter, you’ll probably like the one Kevin Acee puts out most mornings, as well. I often read it before writing this to make sure I don’t duplicate topics so that Padres fans can enjoy both things separately.

The one thing that Acee can do in his that I can’t here is provide random little stories from the clubhouse. This one was in his newsletter this morning:

But something happened after the game that reminded us we’re just living in Manny Machado’s world, and he’ll let us know what is important and what isn’t.

Machado walked through the clubhouse barefoot, slid on a pair of shower shoes, said he had “no time” to talk and kept on walking toward the showers. With no limp whatsoever.

This was less than 36 hours after everyone who could stomach it watched multiple replays of Machado’s left ankle contorting at a 90-degree angle as he slipped while running past first base.

So how long the Padres will have to continue without him isn’t known.

How? I have no idea! I’m wondering the same thing.

I mean, as a kid that grew up playing a lot of basketball, I am familiar with twisted ankles. It happens 99% of the time you jump and land on someone else’s foot. It swells, it hurts, and you’re convinced it’s broken or severely sprained. Then, a day or two later, you realize that it’s gone from a big pain to a little pain and you stop limping.

Maybe that’s what happened with Manny? Or maybe he was putting on a show because he knew Acee would write about it. Either way, that sounds more like a guy that’s going to play a little more DH over the next few weeks than a guy that’s going to be on the Injured List.

Yu stops the bleeding (again)

Yet another great start for Yu Darvish last night, and one where he admitted it that being in Colorado slowed down his recovery from the previous start.

By month, Yu’s ERA has been 4.44 in April, and then 3.08 in May, and now 2.12 in June. It feels like, and looks like, he’s gaining strength and confidence as the season goes along.

After last year, there was a lot of reluctance around calling Darvish the team’s “ace”. Maybe the ace, instead, was Joe Musgrove? Or maybe even MacKenzie Gore, once he got going? And yet, Darvish keeps chugging along and putting up good 7.0 inning start after good 7.0 inning start.

This was the second straight start in which Yu was asked to stop a losing streak and did so with aplomb. I can’t imagine where the Padres might be without him this year. Now, over the next two months, we’ll get to see if the extended rotation helps him to stay healthy throughout the year and into the playoffs.