Padres Daily: After frustratingly fitting end, changes anticipated

Manny Machado rounds the bases after hitting a grand slam against the Atlanta Braves
Manny Machado rounds the bases after hitting a grand slam against the Atlanta Braves on Saturday.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

It would surprise many if the Padres coaching staff remains intact, including members of the staff

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Good morning,

We will talk for weeks, if not months or years, of the disappointment and reason for it.

But, man, did the Padres ultimately peter out in fittingly frustrating fashion. So maybe if you read none of the rest of my multiple breakdowns on this monumental letdown (such as my obituary on the season after last night’s 10-8 loss to the Atlanta Braves) all you need to know is what happened last night.

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The Padres had a lead. They lost it. They showed some life. Had another lead. There was some poor pitching throughout. The other team beat them.

That is how the Padres were officially eliminated from playoff contention.

And it seems the fallout will continue. No one in the organization has confirmed concrete plans, but multiple sources around the league say what they hear from inside the Padres is that the firing of manager Jayce Tingler and the coaching staff is forthcoming.

The anticipation by multiple members of the staff is that their employment will expire.

“We all know how this ends,” three coaches have said in recent days. (Really, they said the exact same thing.)

They mean they know what happens when this happens:

The Padres spent more money than they ever had on players and virtually every projection and statistical model had them winning at least 94 games and making the postseason, and now they need to win four of their remaining seven games just to finish above .500 (82-80) for the season.

In part because 1998 (which ended with the Padres playing in the World Series) was the only other season that could compare in terms of expectations, there seems little question this is the most disappointing season in franchise history.

Asked about the changes already underway in the organization and the ones that appear imminent, Manny Machado said this last night: “Honestly, I’ve never really paid attention to anything that’s been going on. … I’ve been worried about playing baseball. At the end of the day, we didn’t play to the capacity that we wanted to, and we fell short as a team, as an organization and as a ballclub. So, moving forward, we want to put the best team out there and the best people out there to go out there and perform at the highest level and bring a championship to the city, and that’s what we’re going to work towards.”

Tidbits

  • For the record, Braves third base coach Ron Washington thinks Tingler should keep his job for another year. Why is that remotely interesting? Because Washington didn’t think Tingler should have gotten the job in the first place. Here is my post after a conversation with Washington, who thought he was going to be the Padres’ manager two years ago.
  • Machado hit a grand slam that gave the Padres a 7-3 lead in the fifth inning. His .822 slugging percentage in 103 career plate appearances with the bases loaded is second among active players behind Yuli Gurriel (.870 in 71 plate appearances). It was Machado’s 12th career grand slam, which is second among active players behind Albert Pujols’ 15.
  • It was the Padres’ seventh grand slam of the season but first since July 30. They hit .353 with seven homers in 55 plate appearances with the bases loaded last season. They are at .273 with seven homers in 152 plate appearances with the bases loaded this season.
  • Adam Frazier led off the bottom of the first inning last night by hitting his first homer in 163 at-bats with the Padres.
  • Eric Hosmer led off the bottom of the second inning with his first home run since Aug. 30, a span of 61 at-bats.
  • Trent Grisham was 2-for-4 with two doubles last night and is 6-for-17 with three doubles and a home run in his past five games.
  • The Padres pitching staff’s ERA is now 4.01, a season high and almost a half-point higher than it was on Aug. 10. The Padres have gone 11-28 since Aug. 11 (not counting their victory in the July 21 suspended game that was completed Friday). In that span, their starting pitchers have a 5.75 ERA in 161 1/3 innings, while their relievers have a 5.04 ERA in 184 innings.
  • According to Sarah Langs of MLB.com, the Padres having a share of the best record in MLB 54 games into the season (34-20) was the second longest into a season a team has ever had the best record and not made the playoffs since a second wild card in each league was instituted in 2012. The only team that made it further with the best record and didn’t qualify for the postseason was the 2012 Dodgers. The next year, the Dodgers embarked on a run of eight straight division titles that could become nine a week from now.
  • The Padres began September tied with the Reds for the second wild card spot. Here is how their eight qualifying players have fared this month:
sept padres batters
(mlb.com)

All right, that’s it for me. Talk to you tomorrow.