Front Row Seat: First Place Padres!

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San Diego Padres

Padres keep cruising, catch Dodgers for division lead - Padres.com
With 42 games to go, the National League West is entirely up for grabs.

In the moments after the Padres’ 5-1 victory over the Giants at Oracle Park, the Angels walked off the Dodgers in Anaheim, leaving San Diego and L.A. with identical 68-52 records. It marks the latest point in a season the Padres have held at least a share of first place since Sept. 25, 2010.

Padres beat Giants, move into first-place tie atop NL West - San Diego Union-Tribune
Their 13th victory in 16 games was also the 10th time in 15 games the Padres scored at least five runs. That was something they had done just four times in their previous 20 games.

“This is team is going in the right direction,” Iglesias said. “We stay healthy, we should be fine."

Padres pull even with Dodgers in NL West, claiming latest share of first place since 2010 - The Athletic
“It won’t be tied if we don’t win games,” Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “So that’s kind of our main focus right now. If we worry about outside things – we gotta worry about inside things right now.”

So far, San Diego’s stars and supporting players have aligned in what could go down as a second half to remember. A secondary drought ended in Tuesday’s second inning when Jose Iglesias sent a long fly ball to left. That gave the Padres a lead they would not yield. It also gave Iglesias, the veteran reserve infielder, his first home run in 269 at-bats.

#58 When the Dodgers cease to be the Dodgers - The Bandwagon
Slipping into the churn of the postseason picture, battling injuries and slumps, facing a challenge from a division rival, that’s all part of the rigor of defending their coveted throne in the sport. The 2025 Dodgers are giving their fans heartburn not just by falling short of sky-high expectations, but by betraying a vulnerability that’s startling even if it proves fleeting.

They’re showing flashes of what it might look like if and when the Dodgers are no longer The Dodgers.

Padres Daily: Fit to be tied; bottom’s up; no QS code; Merrill’s drives; X swings - San Diego Union-Tribune
The bottom three spots in the order are hitting 50 points better than those three spots did in the first 109 games. Their on-base percentage is 73 points higher. They have driven in 20 runs, which is nearly a run more per game than before Aug. 1.

It is a small sample size, to be sure. But the goal A.J. Preller set for the trade deadline was to eliminate his team’s “weak links,” and that quest could not have yielded a much better result through 11 games.

“It completes the team, right?” Shildt said. “It doesn’t put so much stress on one through whatever number you want to go through — six, seven — when you’re getting contributions. … It definitely lengthens the lineup and turns it over, and it allows the other guys not to feel like they got to carry the world.”

Mason Miller is turning up the heat in San Diego - The Sporting News
According to Sarah Langs of MLB.com, Miller has already claimed the Padres' five fastest pitches since the league began tracking pitchers' velocities back in 2008. He also has 10 out of the first 12 spots for San Diego in terms of velocity, respectively.

Miller not only throws heat, but he is efficient when throwing it, which makes his arsenal even more potent. Miller ranks in the 100th percentile in terms of fastball velocity, according to BaseballSavant, averaging 101.2 mph on his heater.

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