Padres News: Joe Musgrove Sends a Message to Clubhouse After Dominant Outing
The San Diego Padres are at a crossroads. The MLB trade deadline is just three days away, the team has an extraordinary amount of star power, and yet, for a team that was expected to be National League contenders, they sat six and a half games out of the league's final playoff spot on Friday afternoon.
Then Friday night came, and Joe Musgrove opened the weekend with one of the best starts of his season, throwing six shutout innings in the Padres 7-1 victory over the AL West-leading Texas Rangers.
It was an impressive outing as the Padres stare directly at a crucial point in their season -- a deadline on Tuesday that could determine whether the front office goes all in on turning the year around, or opts to essentially close up shop and look toward the future.
But no matter what the Padres' brass decides to do, the Friars local product won't give up on this season.
“We don’t feel out of this. We know what’s in front of us, we know the task that we have, but with the guys in here, if we get the production and we play the way that we know we can play, we’re definitely in this thing.
... “We’ve got two months left here to determine our future here for the rest of the season. So if we’re gonna go out, we gotta go out on our terms playing baseball the way that we play the game.” (via Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune)
Digging out of that hole won't be easy, but with a team that has Fernando Tatis Jr., Juan Soto, Manny Machado, Blake Snell, and Josh Hader still on the roster as of Saturday afternoon, the Padres aren't completely out of it yet.
Take the Atlanta Braves as an example.
The Braves were sitting at 51-53 on this date two years ago before engineering a turnaround for the ages, a flip that ultimately ended in them hoisting the Commissioner's Trophy as World Series champions that October.
That isn't to say with any certainty that the Padres will win the World Series this year, but major turnarounds are possible.
And as long as Joe Musgrove has anything to say about it, he'll do everything in his power to make sure the Padres still have a shot at October -- no matter what the higher-ups do.
