with little more than $245 million committed in contractsthe San Diego Padres are the third most expensive payroll for the current season below the New York teams: Mets and Yankees.
And while the Big Apple teams have shown signs of life in recent series, The Padres have been on a five-loss, seven-loss skid in their last 10 games that has moved them within seven games of leading the NL West. which for now belongs to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Padres scored fewer than three runs in a game for the 17th time this season on Sunday. That’s one less than the Oakland Athletics, who have done it more than any other MLB team. A statistic that portrays the crude present of the Padres if it is taken into account that the Athletics are a team that does not spend more than 60 million dollars on its payroll and that it has the worst record in the Major Leagues with 9-33.
It may interest you: Shohei Ohtani makes MLB history, breaks Babe Ruth’s record with more than 502 strikeouts
Six of the Athletics’ starting players are making minimum wage in the big tent that is $720,000while the lineup the Padres put together over the weekend against the Dodgers averaged $84.5 million (not including signing bonuses). Five of the Padres’ star position players yesterday have a base salary of at least $7 million in 2023.
The Padres have reached a point where there is clearly pressure.
“Yeah, we’re putting pressure on ourselves, for sure,” Dominican star Manny Machado said. “We want to win the game. That’s what it’s all about. It’s about winning and we’re not playing good baseball right now.”
The Padres just can’t hit right now.
In Sunday’s loss against the Padres
The All-Stars’ loaded offense went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position, further cementing their place as by far the worst-hitting team in the majors in that incredibly important stat. Machado is mired in a losing streak of one of 20.
Things aren’t happening in San Diego and you can’t say it’s too early with 41 games on the schedule still in the history books.
The curse
Ever since on the screens at Petco Park, the Padres decided to make fun of Clayton Kershaw on Friday of last week, the Padres have only managed one win.
After the victory, heThe Padres upset the Dodgers by showing a photo of Kershaw crying on the big screen in left field.
At that point the Dodgers fell to 19-14 on the season with one game over the Padres.
However things have changed since then. The Padres have lost six of seven games, including the Dodgers’ three-game sweep over the weekend.