The San Diego Padres lost to the St. Louis Cardinals tonight, which would be its own shade of awful, but the whole enterprise was overshadowed by (1) the rapid sinking of the Padres’ ship the last couple weeks, and (2) the dugout eruption between the team’s two big stars.
Manny Machado started screaming at Fernando Tatis, Jr. mid-game for reasons that aren’t yet fully known. But it looked HEATED:
#padrws #STLFLY Oh Damn pic.twitter.com/OPiopEMukN
— Joe Yancey (@joe_yancey3) September 19, 2021
This is shortly after Fernando Tatis Jr. had been called out on strikes in the fifth inning. Manny Machado could be heard yelling, “It’s not (expletive) about you.” https://t.co/tq1rhtI95s
— Kevin Acee (@sdutKevinAcee) September 19, 2021
The Padres’ loss tonight put them 2.5 games back of the Cardinals for the second Wild Card spot, and also sent them behind the Reds. They’ve now lost 8 of their last 11 at such a critical time, but maybe even worse … the Padres are just 27-39 since the end of June. I mean, how much better is that .409 winning percentage than the Cubs’ .372 mark since they sold off at the Trade Deadline?
The Padres spent aggressively over the past couple years, in both cash and prospect capital, to put together this 2021 team. If they wind up tanking down the stretch even worse, and not only miss the playoffs but miss it by a LOT? I’m not sure how that front office doesn’t face incredible heat.
Things have been awful for the Cubs this year, no question. But that’s a very different kind of awful.