Padres lose series, "Best team in baseball" title
After back-to-back series losses, San Diego is now 17-8 on the season. They're 3-5 in their last 8 games. Should Padres fans be worried?
Well, it was fun while it lasted.
After losing to the Detroit Tigers 6-0 on Wednesday afternoon, the San Diego Padres have dropped to 17-8 on the season. That means, for the first time in a while, the Padres no longer have a claim to "the best team in baseball". They now trail the New York Mets, who have still won over 70% of their games with a 17-7 record.
I took this series against the Tigers to be something of a Rorschach test.
If you wanted to look at the Padres, who were outscored 12-6 over three games, and say that they were just too injured to put up more of a fight...you can.
If you wanted to say, "Hey, the Tigers are actually pretty good! Losing to them is nothing to be ashamed of." Well, you can do that too. They're 15-10 with a +30 run differential.
And if you've spent the (very fun) early part of the Padres season complaining about the back-half of the lineup and the decision to start the season with Elías Díaz at catcher and Jason Heyward in LF, then you can probably claim that this is the inevitable conclusion to your accurate predictions. But it's hard to judge this lineup while it's missing Jackson Merrill, Luis Arráez, Jake Cronenworth and Jason Heyward (I know, I know).
I am being a little bit snarky in attaching any big meaning to today's game, this series or even this road trip. The answer to why the Padres lost back-to-back series is a mix of all three. The Astros and Tigers are good, the Padres are injured, and the offense (which was already unbalanced) is trying to make due with what they've got.
I saw this post earlier this morning...
After another loss on Tuesday, Michael Barkann asked John Kruk if it's "time to sound the alarm." Kruk: I don't know how you make up 3 games with 130 games left, 130-something games left. It's gonna be tough when the season's winding down like it is."
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing.bsky.social) 2025-04-23T03:29:35.956Z
You can watch the video or just read the quote, they'll both get you to the same place. The Padres are about 15% of the way through the regular season. They're comparable to an NFL team that has played 3 games. There is so much baseball left to play.
That being said, I do think the Padres have a pretty good opportunity in front of them. They have a day off (at home) tomorrow, and then they welcome the Tampa Bay Rays to Petco Park, with Michael King and Dylan Cease scheduled to pitch the first two games.
The Rays, despite being the Rays, are off to a 9-14 start and have one of the worst offenses in baseball. Their pitching and defense remain strong, though, but that's a strategy that the Padres can (probably) win at home with.
After that series, the Padres have a quick 2-game series against the Giants before they go on a heavy-mileage road trip that will see them go to Pittsburgh, New York (Yankees) and Colorado before returning home.
Mike Shildt has said that the injured guys won't be ready for the start of this home stand, but I imagine they're aiming to get back at least Merrill and Arráez before heading on the road. Cronenworth, who was given a 4-to-6 week return timeline with broken ribs, is reportedly playing catch, taking groundballs and swinging a bat. So, maybe he's back soon, too?
After putting up some big numbers to start the season, the Padres haven't scored more than 4 runs in a game in well over a week. That might be enough to beat the Rays, but they'll need more pretty soon.
