Padres start a new streak with series win in SF
Craig Stammen keeps getting big performances from Padres role players, the NBA Playoffs has been chalky, TMZ tackles the NFL media, and a bunch more in today's Front Row Seat newsletter.
This is going to be a short one today, but I’ll make it worth your while. I’m going to keep track of the Padres series record, because nobody else seemingly is.
The 2026 San Diego Padres started the season going 0-2, losing their first two series before winning their next six series. That got them up to a 6-2 series record for the season.
They then traveled to Mexico City, where they tied a two-game series against the Diamondbacks (6-2-1) before returning home to lose a series to the Cubs (6-3-1) and then the White Sox (6-4-1).
A series win in San Francisco (7-4-1) has them moving back in the right direction. The Padres welcome the St. Louis Cardinals to town tonight and, bad news, the Cardinals are good this year. Also, they’ve been really good on the road.
St. Louis comes to town with a 21-15 overall record, but an 11-5 record on the road. They’ve been a better at both scoring runs and preventing runs on the road.
That doesn’t mean everything in May. They put up a lot of those numbers against the Pirates, Nationals and the very-injured Astros. They’ve found ways to lose a road series to the Marlins and the Tigers. They’ve also been horrible in afternoon games, which could end up being a factor (Saturday’s game starts at 4p and Sunday’s starts at 1p).
I’ll continue to monitor how well the Padres are doing at winning each series they’re in because, as you probably know, I’m weird and find that to be a better indicator of team success than the actual win-loss record.
Now, onto the links…
San Diego Padres
Padres win late again, take series from Giants - San Diego Union-Tribune
So it is that a riddle of a season continued, as the Padres won for the third time in four games. This comes after they lost five times in six games, which came after a 16-3 stretch, which followed a 2-5 start.
Xander Bogaerts, who entered the game at shortstop after France pinch-hit for Sung-Mun Song, hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning.
In all, 69 of the Padres’ 162 runs have been scored after the sixth inning. That is the second most in the major leagues.
Stammen accidentally puts France down 0-1 ... then watches him get the hit of the game - MLB.com
France, despite starting the count behind, got to work. He battled for eight pitches. (Well, technically seven, not counting the automatic strike.) He worked the count full.
“It was a whirlwind, but it all worked out,” France said. “You just treat it like another at-bat.”
With the count full, France got a fastball from Gage and shot it into the right-field corner. The Giants’ Jesus Rodriguez, playing his first game in right, dove and couldn’t make the play. France sped into third base with his second triple of the season, plating two runs and giving the Padres a 3-1 lead.
“I don’t know if the manager put him in the best spot to succeed,” Stammen said. “But we got him out there, and he came through, made me look good.”
Kwanza Jones To Become MLB’s First Black Woman Majority Owner With $3.9 Billion Padres Deal - Essence
Jones is not a newcomer to historic firsts. She won Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater while she was still an undergrad at Princeton, and later earned a law degree from Cardozo School of Law and a master’s in dispute resolution from Pepperdine. She released music on her own independent label and founded a motivational media company. She and Feliciano have put over $200 million toward education and equity through their philanthropic initiative, and Jones has held board seats at the Apollo Theater, Susan G. Komen, and Bennett College, where her mother, her aunt, and other family members are alumnae. Princeton named two residence halls after the couple in 2023, which were the first to ever be named after Black and Latino donors in its nearly 280-year history.
NBA Playoffs
Knicks prove they can win a slugfest to take 2-0 series lead over 76ers - Yahoo Sports
Two nights after getting absolutely shellacked, the shorthanded and overmatched Sixers were putting together a performance that dragged a Knicks team that had played only blowouts over the past couple of weeks down into the mud — a physical, foul-filled, aggressive slugfest; a fistfight in a phone booth in which neither team could gain more than three possessions of separation.
Spurs respond to Game 1 loss with beatdown of Timberwolves in Game 2 - Yahoo Sports
The best that can be said for the Timberwolves is they still weren’t quite 100%, or at least as close as they can get to 100% in a series where Donte DiVincenzo is guaranteed to be out. Anthony Edwards still came off the bench after a surprise return in Game 1, and Ayo Dosunmu left the game early with heel pain after previously being considered questionable.
Odds & Ends
San Diego NASCAR race to be held on ‘Qualcomm Circuit’ - San Diego Union-Tribune
Get ready for NASCAR to circle Naval Base Coronado for the inaugural Qualcomm Circuit on Father’s Day weekend.
Qualcomm has the naming rights as the official circuit partner of NASCAR’s San Diego race on June 19-21, the company said Monday. The 16-turn, 3.4-mile circuit will be NASCAR’s first race on an active military base.
Hotels in U.S. World Cup host cities claim underwhelming demand, new report says - The Athletic
The report — which is based on 205 responses from hotel operators and owners, many of whom own multiple portfolios across multiple World Cup markets, an AHLA spokesperson said — indicates that current performance is very soft compared to the expectations of the hotels themselves.
Over 70 percent of respondents in San Francisco, Seattle, Philadelphia and Boston also reported that booking pace was below expectations, with over 60 percent saying the same in Los Angeles, New York City, Houston and Dallas.
Banning the infield shift didn’t bring back the base hit. Does anyone care? - The Athletic
“Most people thought the science was right and we weren’t going to see teams hitting .270,” said an American League executive, who was granted anonymity in exchange for their candor. “But we were going to see people less frustrated with the idea that David Ortiz is up and there are three guys standing in a triangle between 150 and 200 feet from home plate.”
That triangle has been banished, yet the root issue remains. Banning the shift revived one type of hit — lefties’ BABIP on pulled ground balls is up 24 points since 2022 — but did not alter the sport’s prevailing hitting philosophy.
“Even though we changed the shift in the infield,” Detroit Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said, “we didn’t change that the optimal ball in play is the ball in the air.”
Batters are lifting and pulling the ball more than ever. No batted-ball type has a lower batting average than a fly ball, and ever fewer are dropping for hits as clubs move toward increasingly athletic outfield trios.
PSG on brink of greatness after reaching another Champions League final - ESPN
After last week’s epic drama in the Parc des Princes, when Luis Enrique’s team edged an incredible semifinal first leg against Bayern Munich in a 5-4 victory, the reigning European champions finished the job Wednesday with a 1-1 draw in the Allianz Arena to seal a 6-5 aggregate win.
But don’t let the scoreline, made acceptable for Bayern by Harry Kane’s stoppage time equalizer, fool you. After taking a third-minute lead through Ousmane Dembélé following Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s burst down the left flank, PSG controlled the game and could have scored five again, just as they did on their last visit to the Allianz Arena for last season’s Champions League final against Inter Milan.
Report: Mike Vrabel And Dianna Russini Went Boat Mode - Defector
On Wednesday evening, TMZ reported that Vrabel and Russini booked a private boat trip in June 2021, while Vrabel was still head coach of the Tennessee Titans and while Russini would have been pregnant with her first child. According to TMZ’s story, Russini and Vrabel were the only people on board during the two-to-three-hour trip, and were cautious about photos.
This boat trip is just the latest piece of evidence indicating that Russini and Vrabel carried on a romantic relationship for many years. The publication of photos of them getting cozy at an adults-only resort in Sedona, Ariz. in 2026 led to more sources digging up photos of them smooching in a bar in 2020 and gambling at a casino in 2024.
Could Claude Mythos Actually Destroy the Internet? - The Ringer
Anthropic says its new AI model is too dangerous to be released to the public. But Mythos’s real danger is not what you think.