Inside The Padres

3-Time Padres All-Star Suggests They 'Need to Go Get Hammered As a Team'

J.P. Hoornstra|
Padres relief pitcher Mike Adams (left) center fielder Cameron Maybin (center) and closer Heath Bell (right) prior to the game against the Colorado Rockies at Petco Park on July 31, 2011.
Padres relief pitcher Mike Adams (left) center fielder Cameron Maybin (center) and closer Heath Bell (right) prior to the game against the Colorado Rockies at Petco Park on July 31, 2011. | Christopher Hanewinckel-US PRESS

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San Diego Padres

Homer Simpson is credited with popularizing the maxim "To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems."

The list of professional athletes who have taken advice from the fictional patriarch from The Simpsons is surely short. But perhaps the San Diego Padres should.

Three-time All-Star pitcher Heath Bell said on the latest episode of Friar Territory that maybe a little team bonding over alcohol is warranted amid the Padres' six-game losing streak.

"They need to go get drunk," Bell told Kyle Glaser. "They need to get hammered as a team. They need to drink because I feel like they're pressing, they're not swinging at good pitches. I feel like pitchers are trying to do too much."

Maybe a little extracurricular bonding would serve the team well.

The Padres have suffered consecutive sweeps at the hands of the Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays. They've been outscored 34-9 and squandered 2.5 games in the National League West standings during the streak.

Six of those nine runs crossed the plate Thursday in Toronto. It was a strong statement by the lineup one day after the Jays tossed a 14-0 shutout.

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Nonetheless, the Padres managed to lose 7-6 in 11 innings, despite scoring once in the 10th and again in the 11th.

At 27-21, the Padres are now in third place in the division entering a weekend series in Atlanta. Of little consolation: The Braves are getting the 2023 National League MVP, Ronald Acuña Jr., back from the injured list in time for the series.

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"They've got to mix it up," Bell said of the Padres. "They've got to do something. On a serious note, maybe they need to don't take batting practice today. Or everybody hit the ball the other way. But they need to, like, early in the season I was saying 'this is a team.' I feel like it's not a team anymore for some reason. It's getting a little bit more individual. We need to get back to a team. So, like, have a team barbecue. Go out together. Go see Bad Bunny. I'm not saying 'go get hammered,' but that's kind of what we would do back in the day.

"You'd show up the next day just hung over and you're like, 'whatever, I just want to survive the day.' And the funny part is, you just do the little things: 'OK, let me try to put a good swing on the ball,' 'let me just try to throw strikes.' David Wells was hung over and threw a perfect game. It does happen."

Bell pitched for the Padres from 2007-11, saving 134 games and making three National League All-Star teams in five seasons in San Diego.

For more Padres news, head over to Padres on SI.

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J.P. Hoornstra
J.P. HOORNSTRA

J.P. Hoornstra is an On SI Contributor. A veteran of 20 years of sports coverage for daily newspapers in California, J.P. covered MLB, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Los Angeles Angels (occasionally of Anaheim) from 2012-23 for the Southern California News Group. His first book, The 50 Greatest Dodgers Games of All-Time, published in 2015. In 2016, he won an Associated Press Sports Editors award for breaking news coverage. He once recorded a keyboard solo on the same album as two of the original Doors.

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