Tag: San Diego Padres

MLB fans roasted the Padres after a jaw-dropping blunder led to their fifth straight loss

The Padres remain an embarrassment.

The San Diego Padres should probably be thankful that the New York Mets exist because being baseball’s second-most disappointing team is slightly easier to live with. That being said, the Padres are an absolute mess.

Despite heading into the season with baseball’s third-highest payroll and stars throughout the lineup, the Padres are falling rapidly in the National League West standings. And Thursday’s loss against the Pirates won’t make for an enjoyable trip to the weekend series in Cincinnati.

The Padres threw away a win. Almost literally.

With San Diego up by two runs and runners on second and third in the seventh inning, the Pirates managed to tie the game on a soft grounder that didn’t even make it to first base. That’s because pitcher Tim Hill made a complete mess of the play.

Instead of picking up the ball and conceding the run (limiting the damage to a single), Hill made a barehanded, spinning effort without even checking if first base was covered. His erratic throw went by everybody around first base and into right field. Just like that, the Pirates tied the game.

A couple batters later, Henry Davis knocked in the go-ahead run on a single, and the Padres took their fifth straight loss.

There was no telling how the game would have played out had Hill made the smart decision with the grounder, but you can’t really blame MLB fans for piling on the Padres after that embarrassing play.

There’s no excuse for such a talented team to be *that* bad.

Juan Soto took an unreal amount of time returning to the field in the 9th inning: ‘Is this the big leagues?’

It was the ninth inning! What was he doing???

The end of the San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants’ battle on Tuesday was that of a weird instant classic — a walk-off walk win for the Giants.

But before the bases could even get loaded up for the Giants, every position player for the Padres had to be in place in the field. That includes, you know, Juan Soto, San Diego’s best player. For whatever reason, Soto took so long to return to the field between innings.

He was so late that he even drew the ire of the broadcasters, who pondered whether Soto was breaking some kind of rule:

I don’t know what Soto got up to during his break, but it had to be pretty unusual to stop the game, draw criticism from the broadcast, and even see Giants manager Gabe Kapler advocate for his team.

In a way, the Giants later winning on their walk-off walk was fitting, given how long everyone had to wait for Soto.

The Padres’ Jake Cronenworth couldn’t believe it after umpire Ryan Wills blocked him from second base

The ump seriously blamed Cronenworth …

The San Diego Padres have been one of the biggest disappointments so far this season. But even when it isn’t their fault, the game finds a way to go against the Padres.

During the third inning of Sunday’s game against the Cubs — with the Padres already down six runs — Dansby Swanson seemingly had to make a tough play and retire Jake Cronenworth at second base to end the inning. But the play ended up being way easier for the Cubs shortstop than he probably anticipated.

That was because he got an assist from second base umpire Ryan Wills in the process.

As Cronenworth made his way to second, Wills appeared to be standing right in the base path, essentially blocking Cronenworth from reaching the bag before the inning-ending throw.

The play itself likely wasn’t going to change the game. After all, the Padres were already down big, and Swanson possibly would have gotten Ha-Seong Kim out at first if he threw there instead. Yet, Wills’ poor positioning and subsequent reaction had to be frustrating for the Padres. Wills gestured and spoke to Cronenworth as if it was the baserunner’s fault for running into the umpire. Wills was the one in the way.

Cronenworth could only stand there in disbelief as the inning came to a close. There’s no reason for an umpire to get set up inside the base path.

The Padres promoting 16-year-old (!) Ethan Salas to Single-A makes me feel so old

Dude is just 16! And he’s playing pro baseball!

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There are these moments you have when you get older — or, at least, as a soon-to-be-41-year-old (gahhhhhhhhhhh), I have them.

It usually happens during pro sports league drafts. Like when an 18-year-old or whatever player gets taken No. 1 overall in the NHL draft and I’m thinking, well, here’s a guy who will carry a giant pro franchise on his back and holy cow (not the word I use) I’m in my 40s.

It happened to me on Wednesday morning. I’m sitting here, reading about Ethan Salas. He’s a catcher in the San Diego Padres, signed out of Venezuela and handed a $5.6 million bonus (don’t you wish you could make that kind of money before you turn 21?). And … he’s 16 years old.

What’s more: He just made his debut in Single-A. At 16. SIXTEEN. AND HE GOT A HIT IN HIS DEBUT.

Imagine what you were doing at that age. Were you hitting professional baseballs? This has happened before — Dodgers hurler Julio Urias was 16 and moved up to Single-A a decade ago — but this is wild. The hype around Salas is that he’s got all five tools and that he could move up super-quick — one scout predicted he’d be a 10-time All-Star.

I feel old. But I’m also in awe. Good luck, Ethan, and keep it going!

Quick Hits: NFL RB rankings … Another ump show … and more.

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

— Christian D’Andrea ranked every NFL team’s RB rotation for 2023.

— Ump Jerry Layne got in Jeremy Pena’s face after making a bad call, and MLB fans rightfully ripped him.

— Eli Drinkwitz went on a confusing NIL rant while discussing NCAA gambling issues.

— Love this Aaron Judge and Teoscar Hernandez exchange after the former robbed the latter of a dinger.

Ha-Seong Kim’s throw to an empty first base summed up the Padres’ embarrassing season so far

Good teams don’t make mistakes like this.

The San Diego Padres went into the season hoping to compete with the Dodgers for the NL West title. On paper, there’s plenty of talent, and they spent big to have free agent Xander Bogaerts join Juan Soto, Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. on roster.

This team really should not be battling it out with the Rockies at the bottom of the NL West. But after watching their first play in the field of Thursday’s game against the Washington Nationals, it’s easy to see why the Padres are struggling.

They’re making mistakes that contending teams simply do not make.

In the bottom of the first inning, Padres third baseman Ha-Seong Kim made a sweet diving effort on a line drive off the bat of Lane Thomas but couldn’t make the catch.

First baseman Jake Cronenworth assumed that Kim made the catch, so he didn’t go to first base to cover the bag. That ended up being quite the blunder as Kim came up firing to first with Cronenworth watching the ball sail by the empty bag.

Even if it seemed like Kim made the catch initially, Cronenworth has to realize that an out wasn’t called and be at first for the throw. There’s an umpire at third base for a reason, after all.

Thomas advanced to second on the error — which unfortunately was charged to Kim — and would later score in the inning.

Fans also had thoughts on the blunder.

MLB fans couldn’t believe that a motorcycle injury ad appeared during Fernando Tatis Jr.’s at-bat

That cannot be a coincidence. RIGHT?!

The past couple years have been so tumultuous for San Diego Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr. that it’s sometimes difficult to keep track of all the incidents that have kept him away from baseball.

Before Tatis Jr. was suspended 80 games last year for the performance-enhancing drug, Clostebol, he was busy recovering from a fractured wrist that he suffered in a December 2021 motorcycle crash. Well, he’s back from suspension now, and someone at Bally Sports San Diego appeared to have the most appropriate marketing campaign ready to go.

During Tatis’ third-inning at-bat against the Twins on Thursday, an ad for Law Tigers about motorcycle injuries popped up over the Bally Sports scorebug.

I mean, this was just incredible timing. It might have been a coincidence, but it’s difficult to believe that the Padres’ own broadcast would lack the awareness about Tatis’ motorcycle injury.

A company wants its ads to be relevant, and it doesn’t get much more relevant than displaying a motorcycle injury ad during a Tatis at-bat. Law Tigers were getting their money’s worth there — that’s for sure.

Still, MLB fans couldn’t believe that the Padres’ own broadcast did Tatis like that.

The Padres’ Trent Grisham amazingly tricked the runner into an inning-ending double play

Baseball mind games are so fun.

When it comes to baseball, the game within the game can be so fascinating. And the simplest gesture can be used to outsmart an opponent.

Padres center fielder Trent Grisham certainly did that on Wednesday.

During the first inning of the Padres’ game against the Reds, Spencer Steer hit a soft line drive to center field with one out and T.J. Friedl on first base. Initially, Friedl appeared to handle the situation correctly. He went halfway, but he focused mainly on how Grisham was moving in center field.

Grisham jogged and signaled as if the ball was dropping, but instead, he made the catch and immediately fired a throw to first base.

Grisham knew exactly what he was doing as he doubled up Friedl (thanks to a great scoop at first by Jake Cronenworth). He had Friedl completely fooled by the deke, and it was enough to end the inning.

Well played, Trent. That’s some high-IQ baseball right there.

A mic’d-up Blake Snell surprisingly asked the Padres broadcast for a tutorial on advanced metrics

Shouldn’t he know what that is?

San Diego Padres pitcher Blake Snell is one of the more unique personalities in baseball, which always makes for a fun interview during games.

On Tuesday, the Padres got Snell to join the Bally Sports broadcast from the dugout in the third inning. And the free-flowing conversation included a real-time quiz about advanced metrics.

Basically, Snell noticed that the Petco Park videoboard displayed “wRC+” and he genuinely didn’t know what it was. So, he asked play-by-play announcer Don Orsillo if he knew. Orsillo did not know either, and they somewhat tried to figure out the statistic as the Nelson Cruz at-bat went on.

The stat actually means weighted runs created plus, which is the runs created statistic that also takes into account factors like ballpark. Via MLB.com:

It’s adjusted, so a wRC+ of 100 is league average and 150 would be 50 percent above league average. For example, a player who plays his home games at hitter-friendly Coors Field will have a lower wRC+ than a player who posts identical stats at pitcher-friendly Oakland Coliseum.

While fans thought it was surprising that Snell didn’t know about wRC+, many thought the Padres broadcast should have had some knowledge of the stat. Either way, it made for a fun exchange.

MLB fans couldn’t believe how Trent Grisham ended the game on the worst imaginable strikeout

You NEED to swing the bat there.

It was a scenario that San Diego Padres center fielder Trent Grisham had probably imagined before:

Bases loaded, two outs, full count and you’re down by one in the bottom of the ninth. Outside of postseason baseball, you won’t find many situations with more drama and tension than that.

But man, you have to think that Grisham would have imagined handling that scenario better than he did on Sunday.

During the Padres’ game against the Milwaukee Brewers, Grisham was up at the plate against Devin Williams with a chance to tie or win the game for San Diego. It’s a count that the hitter has to be prepared to swing because he knows the pitcher needs to throw a strike. That’s what made the result so shocking.

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Grisham watched as a 94 mph fastball caught the upper portion of the zone for a game-ending strikeout looking. It was nearly the same pitch and location that Grisham fouled off on the previous pitch, but for whatever reason, he didn’t swing the bat when he needed to.

According to Codify, it was the first time a batter had struck out looking in that exact scenario since 2006 — 17 years!

Grisham had to be swinging there, and fans couldn’t believe he let that pitch go.

The Mets’ broadcast had the most overdramatic use of the pitch clock while Max Scherzer pitched

This angle was so needlessly silly.

The third base line wasn’t the only place the Mets took advantage of some dramatics on Monday night. As the pitch clock continues to establish a firm foothold across the MLB, the SNY broadcast team decided to ham up an at-bat between New York’s Max Scherzer and San Diego’s Trent Grisham.

How? They overlayed the pitch clock in the center of a “faceoff” angle between Scherzer and Grisham.

I know the pitch clock was instituted to establish some urgency for the players, but this might have been taking it a little too far to add more weight to a routine at-bat.

I mean, come on. It’s early April, with just over 10 games in the books. I can understand playing up the theatrics for viewers at home on occasion, but this feels like too much. At the very least, it makes everything seem overdramatic.

For what it’s worth, the SNY broadcast has become known for experimentation with its artistic shots. Perhaps it’d be good to dial this idea back.