Padres Manager Expects Team to Get Hot, Potentially Win 7 Series in a Row

The San Diego Padres need to turn things around quick.

After a hot start to the season where they stayed within arms reach of the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers, the Padres have lost three consecutive series in a row — two of which were against the Dodgers — and have fallen five games back in the NL West.

Now third place in the division, Padres manager Mike Shildt hasn't lost faith in his team, and believes they can take all seven of their series before the All-Star break.

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“When you play close games and you don’t win a couple, it really hurts,” Shildt said. “And when you string a couple of those together, it doesn’t feel great. I will not alibi the fact that end results are what’s important here. Not close. But I also have enough experience and trust and belief in our group and know that this game can be unforgiving, to know that it’s really a couple balls here and there that go our way and we’re in here talking about how well we’re playing. Literally in the same baseball games.

“But the scoreboard at the end doesn’t lie, and we have to answer for it. But I have complete confidence that we’ll get those bigger hits and add on in the fifth or sixth. We’ll get those shutdown innings in the fifth or sixth. And we’ll start to reel off three, four, five, six, seven series in a row that we win. And we’ll be in a great spot.”

Though the Friars lost a four-game series to the division leaders at Dodger Stadium, they took the last game of the set against the Dodgers on Thursday evening in a tense 5-3 win which saw the benches clear in the ninth inning after the Dodgers plunked Fernando Tatis Jr. for the second time in the series.

The emotional win could set a fire under the Padres, who have favorable home matchups against the Kansas City Royals and Washington Nationals in their next two series. The Royals have struggled on offense in 2025, scoring the second-fewest runs in MLB so far, and the Nationals had lost 11 in a row before walking off the Colorado Rockies in extra innings on Thursday.

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If the Padres are able to take both series, they would set themselves up well heading toward their final five series against the Cincinnati Reds, Philadelphia Phillies, Texas Rangers, Arizona Diamondbacks and Philadelphia Phillies.

Though they've fallen behind, the season is far from over and a strong finish to the first half of the season could bring them back toward the top of their division. Their comeback charge begins against the Royals on Friday at 6:40 p.m. PT.

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