Padres All-Star Says Opposing Pitchers Are Having Best Starts of Career Against San Diego

The San Diego Padres have lost four straight games, and were blanked in back-to-back games by the Detroit Tigers and Tampa Bay Rays, highlighting the issues that the team has faced in generating offense.

The team has a lengthy injured list filled with key contributors on offense, including budding star Jackson Merrill, contact hitter Luis Arraez, and All-Star Jake Cronenworth.

Xander Bogaerts' struggles have not helped matters, leading the offense to completely falter over the past few weeks, especially when the team's stars have an off game.

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“We know who we are,” Bogaerts said.

“We know the situation that we’re in. We know we have guys out, guys that are key pieces to our team. Opportunity for other guys to step up. "That’s what I always say. I think guys have been doing a good job.

"Sometimes when you run into some good ones like these last two games, probably have the best start of their career, it’s tough for you to be the team they are doing it against.”

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The saving grace for the Padres has been the resurgence of Manny Machado and the MVP-caliber performances that Fernando Tatis Jr. has pumped out so far in 2025.

Even though the team's top stars are delivering, the supporting cast has been depleted, it is showing in the results after a strong start to the season.

“This is a battle-tested team,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “Last year we lost a lot of guys coming into the season. We had Bogey go out two months. (Yu) Darvish and (Joe) Musgrove were out a good portion of the season. Tati missed two and a half months."

"We had our trials and tribulations. Manny was coming off a surgery and took him a while to get back in the flow of things. You’re going to be compromised throughout the course of the season. That’s just part of how this game works. We’ve got some guys down. We have more than capable guys with us now.

“We’re still in a pretty good spot.”

The Padres' organizational depth is currently being tested, and the team may end up rotating bottom-of-the-order players until they find a winning combination.

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