After Historic Embarrassment, The Padres' Season is Over: Column

It’s over.

It has to be, right?

What else to say about the San Diego Padres’ season following a brutal five game stretch that included a double-digit home loss to the rival Los Angeles Dodgers and then, four games later, the worst loss in franchise history, at the hands of the Chicago Cubs?

The Padres are 12 games behind the Dodgers in the National League West heading into a four-game “showdown” at Dodger Stadium starting Thursday night.

Winning even one game of that series might be considered a massive accomplishment, let alone getting a split. That’s probably as far as the wishful thinkers could take it, considering the Padres face Shohei Ohtani on Friday night and World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Saturday night.

The Padres missed Ohtani in losing two of three to the Dodgers last weekend, and Yamamoto earned the victory in a 15-3 rout on Saturday night.

The Padres are not only in danger of falling further behind the Dodgers, but they could be overhauled by the Arizona Diamondbacks, who are lurking just half a game back in third place. The Diamondbacks and Padres will face off for the first time this season in a four-game series starting Monday night at Petco Park.

A 23-3 loss Wednesday at Chicago had fans pondering whether the Padres have hit rock bottom. If they haven’t, they most certainly can see it from here.

The Padres set club marks for largest margin of defeat and most home runs given up (eight), and tied the club mark for runs allowed.

Dansby Swanson had three of the Cubs’ eight homers, including a grand slam. The day before, Swanson connected twice as the Cubs clubbed five home runs in a 9-7 win.

“It only counts as one [loss],” rookie skipper Craig Stammen told reporters after Wednesday’s beatdown. "We've got to remember that. They’re going as poorly as they can right now, and we've got to find a way to dig deep, dig our way out of that hole. I think there's some grit on this team, and we've got to dig deep for that.”

Stammed added that the Padres "still believe in ourselves, stay positive enough that we will get out of it. If we get negative, we turn on each other, we start pointing fingers — that's when it'll turn into disaster. And I'm not going to be doing that."

The problem is, Wednesday’s game wasn’t an aberration. On Saturday night at Petco Park, the Dodgers teed off during a nine-run sixth inning that propelled them to a 15-3 win. By the end of that game, as well as Sunday’s 4-2 Dodgers victory, most of the Padres’ fans had bailed, leaving a sea of fans in Dodgers blue and white.

It seems like a lifetime ago when the Padres nosed a half game ahead of the Dodgers after Michael King outdueled Yamamoto in a 1-0 win against the Dodgers on May 18 in the opener of a three-game series at Petco Park.

That ride ended when the Padres lost the next two games to the Dodgers.

The Padres had a repeat last weekend, when they won the opener, 7-1, before losing the next two.

“I shouldn’t have to say it, but we need to turn the intensity up for this next series,” Gavin Sheets told the San Diego Union-Tribune after Wednesday’s loss. “Obviously, we get off to slow starts, and the game starts to snowball a little bit. But we’ve got to keep that under control and as a defense not let that unravel and not let it affect the way we play. I think, unfortunately, it did the opposite. We need to get back on track against the Dodgers and right this road trip.”

As it stands, this roster isn’t built for October. Yes there have been injuries to the rotation and everyday lineup, but there wasn’t much margin for error to begin with and the pitching and offense are in the bottom third in MLB.

Even if president of baseball operations A.J. Preller makes a slew of deals at the trade deadline, there’s no guarantee they could help improve their playoff chances, which currently can be found under the category of, “See you next season.” If there is a next season.

So yeah, it’s over.

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