What happened to the Padres offense?
Padres offense can't get going in loss to Giants, Ant topples Wemby to give Minnesota an early lead, SDSU basketball adds an Italian pro, cool photos of the moon, and more in today's Front Row Seat!
Well, it was fun while it lasted.
After the Padres tripped out of the gates of the regular season, they went on a tear of good vibes, fueled by late-inning comeback wins and Don Orsillo reaching the tippy-top of his vocal chords.
We knew it wasn’t going to last like that for six months. We knew this team had issues. Issues that we can point to and say “That’s the result of the team being mid-sale process during free agency,” but issues all the same. Over the course of a long baseball season, the issues always come up. It’s just a matter of how long they stick around.
An astounding amount of ink and time was spent shitting on the 5.9 bWAR all-around all-star 2025 season for Fernando Tatis Jr., with writers and Padres employees alike talking about the player that Tatis could be instead of appreciating who he is….or was.
The Padres’ hope for fixing their biggest issue in recent seasons, a lack of power in the lineup, was two-fold. One, Tatis would work with new hitting coach Steven Souza Jr. and find the power that led him to hit 42 HRs in 130 games in 2021 (he’s hit 71 total HRs in three seasons since). Two, Manny Machado’s buddy Nick Castellanos would sign for the minimum for a chance to prove the Phillies wrong.
Through 34 games (20% of the season), Tatis is on pace for zero home runs. Castellanos has one more HR than Tatis, but an OPS+ of 37 says he has been well below-average when he’s in the Padres lineup.
As such, the Padres rank 22nd in MLB in home runs hit this season and 24th in slugging percentage. They’ve also, somewhat uncharacteristically, been awful at getting on base (27th in on-base percentage). This was all going to catch up with them eventually.
Since the Padres opened Petco Park a little more than 22 years ago, no Padres hitting coach has lasted more than three seasons with the team. Since A.J. Preller took over as the Padres GM at the end of the 2014 season, no Padres hitting coach has lasted more than two seasons with the team. About half of them were fired after one season. Craig Elsten once likened the job to being the drummer for Spinal Tap.
I guess you can start the clock on Steven Souza Jr., whose number one job with the Padres is to make sure Tatis is hitting dingers. An outside-the-box hire who had never before worked as the hitting coach of a baseball team, much less an MLB team, time is running out for him (and Preller) to prove that he can deliver on his promises.
Now, onto the links…
San Diego Padres
Padres’ struggles at the plate continue in series-opening loss to Giants - San Diego Union-Tribune
Between Merrill’s single and Laureano’s blast, the Padres made 15 consecutive outs. They ended the game with three more in a row — a strikeout by Fernando Tatis Jr., a groundout by Merrill and a strikeout by Manny Machado.
Thus ended the Padres’ quest to add another late win. Of their 20 victories, half have have been earned with the decisive run scored in the seventh inning or later.
That is an astonishing accomplishment. And it is a perilous way to live, because it is not always going to happen.
San Diego still searching for offensive rhythm: ‘We know it’s in there’ - MLB.com
The Padres mashed on their road trip through Denver and Mexico City. (And, to be fair, they scored nine runs in their first game back at sea level last week.) But across the last six games, San Diego has scored just 14 runs.
On Monday night, it was Giants rookie right-hander Trevor McDonald who held the Padres in check across seven innings.
“The kid was making pitches, was throwing a little harder than what he was throwing all year,” said manager Craig Stammen. “... Then, I think a little bit is: We’ve got to fight him a little bit more. We made it a little easier on him.”
Padres keep saying their offense will ‘eventually’ arrive. The wait continues - The Athletic
“We’re definitely racking our brains and trying to figure out why that is. We just haven’t hit our stride early in games yet,” manager Craig Stammen said before Monday’s game. “We’re making small little tweaks here and there to see if that might spark the difference. I’ve probably got to look internally, maybe in the lineup or something like that, but kind of anything is on the table to spark us early in games.”
Monday’s game would go down as another with few answers. In a 3-2 loss, the Padres (20-14) fell to a fourth-place Giants club (14-21) that has rivaled the New York Mets for the league’s worst overall offense. San Diego finished with just three hits: Merrill’s first-inning homer and fourth-inning single, and Ramón Laureano’s ninth-inning solo shot.
Reinforcements - Letters to A.J.
Though his first outing was very effective, there were moments where you could see how it might go wrong for Canning. He’s always had a bit of trouble with walks, and if that rears its head frequently, he’ll struggle to have clean innings. That’s really going to be the differentiator. But he’s a major leaguer, and he’ll raise the floor of competence in the starts he makes. Across a long season, for a team with a threadbare back of the rotation, that is exactly the reinforcement the Padres need.
NBA Playoffs
Knicks stay on historic roll, crush 76ers by 39 in Game 1 - ESPN
Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals was essentially over before halftime as the Knicks took a 23-point lead over the Philadelphia 76ers on the back of Jalen Brunson’s 27 first-half points. He finished with 35 as New York emphatically added to a historic postseason roll with a 137-98 win Monday night at Madison Square Garden.
The Knicks became the first team in NBA history to win three straight postseason games by at least 25 points, continuing a wave that began midway through the first round against the Atlanta Hawks by shooting 63% and leading by as many as 40 points Monday night.
The Minnesota Timberwolves Cannot Be Doubted - Defector
For as gutsy and impressive as their first-round upset of the Denver Nuggets was, there were plenty of reasons to doubt the Minnesota Timberwolves’ chances against San Antonio. That’s not saying much—to point out that the Spurs are heavy favorites in this series is like pointing out that a rock will fall to the ground when released from your hand. And yet here we are, once again trying to make sense of a Timberwolves victory that did not seem possible. Without the services of Donte DiVincenzo or Ayo Dosunmu, and with a hobbled Anthony Edwards restricted to just 25 minutes, the Wolves beat the Spurs in Game 1, 104–102.
One Loaded Question for Every NBA Second-Round Series - The Ringer
After one of the more exhilarating, consequential, and undeniably sloshed first rounds in recent NBA playoff history, the conference semifinals are here. Eight teams are still standing and all of them have what it takes to reach the NBA Finals. Questions abound, though. As we get ready for what should be an incredible few weeks of basketball, here’s a question that will help decide each second-round series.
Odds & Ends
Aztecs add Italian pro to basketball recruiting class - San Diego Union-Tribune
On Monday, 6-2 David Torresani became the fifth player — and second European pro — to commit to the Aztecs as they restock a roster ravaged by transfer portal defections. Torresani plays for Nutribullet Treviso, a first-division Italian club that started the season with a 36-year-old forward named Deshawn Stephens. He also played against another former Aztecs, center Skylar Spencer at Udine.
Maple Leafs confronted at John Chayka’s introductory press conference for ‘sham’ hiring of ‘con artist’ new GM - Yahoo Sports
Chayka had been hired by the Coyotes in 2016, becoming the youngest GM in the league at age 26. A month after his resignation, the NHL sanctioned the Coyotes for illegal pre-draft testing for more than 20 Canadian Hockey League prospects, which violates the league’s combine testing policy. And in 2021, Chayka was suspended for one year by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman for “conduct detrimental to the league and game” for pursuing jobs with other teams while still under contract with Arizona.
All of that hung over the news conference, which peaked with a question from the Toronto Sun’s Steve Simmons. Simmons confronted Pelley on the hire, saying that he had spoken to 20 people who work in the NHL, and 19 of them had not been supportive of the Chayka hire. Simmons added that some of those sources had called the hire a “sham,” describing Chayka as a “con artist,” “liar” and “salesman.”
Pablo Torre’s Kawhi Leonard reporting wins Pulitzer Prize, a first for The Athletic - The Athletic
The podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out” won the Pulitzer Prize in audio reporting on Monday for an investigation into the Los Angeles Clippers’ alleged evasion of the NBA’s salary cap through the use of a separate entity to pay star Kawhi Leonard.
You’re Not Looking Through 12,000 New Artemis Photos, So Here Are Some Of The Best - Defector
I suppose that if I were to complain about how NASA is making available the bulk of the photography captured by Artemis astronauts, NASA would tell me to go to the Moon and get my own pics, if I think I could do it better. But the fact remains that they’re just dumping these things: 12,217 new images released this weekend, “available” on a website that barely works, and not sorted, or sortable.