Manny Machado Fires Back at Reporter for Criticizing Padres' 'Uncompetitive' At-Bats

After snapping an eight-game losing streak with a much-needed win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday, the San Diego Padres quickly went back to their losing ways on Monday with an 8-0 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

"Just not much action offensively,” Padres manager Craig Stammen told reporters after the game. “The pitcher handled us well tonight. We didn’t have much fight for him. And then, we got down early with Walker [Buehler] giving up the big four-spot in the third inning. So just a tough day all around. Not good starting pitching, not very good hitting."

The Padres went just 8-for-35 collectively, leaving all eight runners on base. Starting pitcher Walker Buehler gave up seven hits and seven earned runs in five innings. Overall, it was a massively disappointing performance in a series that means more than most, with the Diamondbacks and Padres both battling for a wild-card spot.

Padres third baseman Manny Machado was, perhaps unsurprisingly, not in the mood to answer questions after Monday's loss.

When asked about there being more uncompetitive at-bats than the Padres normally have, Machado flipped the question on the reporter.

“Have you ever stepped in a batter’s box to know what an uncompetitive at-bat is?” Machado responded. “We’re competing our ass off every single day. We got beat.”

Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune, who wrote in his column that he both respects Machado's career and the sheer difficulty that is standing in the batter's box, defended his claim that there were several at-bats on Monday that seemed uncompetitive.

"You don’t have to have be a Michelin-starred chef to know when your steak is overcooked," Acee wrote.

Whether it was purely the Padres' poor plate discipline or not, they helped Diamondbacks starting pitcher Brandon Pfaadt on the way to his best performance of the 2026 season. Before Monday's game, Pfaadt had been demoted from the Diamondbacks' five-man rotation with a 5.40 ERA.

“Who was that guy on the mound today?” Machado asked rhetorically. “You don’t think he’s been competing? You don’t think he’s felt pretty bad all year, going to Triple-A, coming back up. … He has a contract, right? He’s a pretty big dude. He did a lot for that organization in the postseason run. He did a lot to get paid. The m—f—r is pretty good. He had good stuff today.”

The Padres are sure to face better pitchers than Pfaadt going forward this season, and their bats must respond if they are to have any hope of making it to the postseason.

The Padres' team OPS of .671 and batting batting of .224 both rank last in MLB.

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