San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
PADRES TAKE UNRIVALED JOURNEY TO PLAYOFFS
had a game postponed due to social unrest, another two by a positive COVID-19 test and three others moved because of fire.
If the Padres make the World Series, which will be held at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, perhaps they should keep the retractable roof closed. To keep out the locusts. For the first time in 16 years and just the sixth time since their inception as a major-league franchise in 1969, the Padres are in the playoffs. After losing more games than all but one other team the previous nine seasons, the Padres had a 35-23 record entering play Saturday, tied for fourth best in Major League Baseball.
They will play begin their first playoff series Wednesday at Petco Park.
So much has happened. “It’s been a quick but hard year,” shortstop Ferthey
nando Tatis Jr., one of MLB’S brightest young stars, said a week ago after the Padres clinched their postseason berth.
Along the way, the Padres have adhered to strict health and safety protocols governing how often and how closely they can gather away from the field, with whom they can come in contact and where they can go. They have since the last day of June added 11 new players, nine of those at the end of August. They set a major-league record by hitting a grand slam in four straight games and in five of six games to earn the selfproclaimed title of the Slam Diego Padres.
And they accomplished this turnaround while
playing in largely empty ballparks, as fans have not been allowed to attend games this season.
The Padres are essentially a new team, right down to their brown and gold color scheme, for an unprecedented year.
The coronavirus halted spring training in mid-march. After often-contentious negotiations that teetered on collapse right to the end, MLB and the players’ union agreed to play a 60-game schedule (37 percent of the usual 162).
Teams commenced for what was called “Summer Camp” at the beginning of July. The schedule was not announced until 17 days before the first game. An expanded playoff format was announced hours before the first regular season game was played.
The whole thing had an on-thefly feel. Coronavirus cases ravaged the Miami Marlins in the season’s first week and then the St. Louis Cardinals in early August, forcing dozens of games to be postponed, affecting several teams.
The Padres had their Aug. 26 game postponed when, hours before the scheduled first pitch, Seattle Mariners manager Scott Servais informed them his team had voted to not play that night as a protest of social injustice following the police shooting of a Black man in Wisconsin. That game was made up the next day as part of a doubleheader, while several other MLB teams also chose to not play that day.
It was a mere 10 minutes before their Sept. 11 game at Petco Park against the San Francisco Giants, after most members of both teams had lined up for the playing of the national anthem, that their game scheduled for that night and the next day was postponed because a Giants player had tested positive for COVID-19. The result was deemed the next day to have been a false positive, and after everyone on both teams had tests come back negative, the teams played a doubleheader on Sept. 13.
The other one of the postponed games was made up as part of a doubleheader on Friday at the Giants’ home ballpark with the Padres batting second each inning as the home team normally does. Adding to the weirdness, the Padres won the game on a walk-off home run, something that until this season only happened when teams played at home.
Rescheduling amid a pandemic has its advantages. No fans in ballparks means no real homefield advantage.
That included last weekend’s series against the Mariners, which was moved to San Diego when it was deemed unsafe to play in Seattle because of the poor air quality due to fires raging in the Western states.
It has all added up to make 60 games seem like a lot more.
“Everybody has struggled, everybody has put in the good work,” Tatis said. “We just have each other’s back and we find a way to win games.”
Through a tardy start and a truncated season, that really was the theme.
The Padres’ 22 comeback victories are more than any other team.
Under new manager Jayce Tingler and hitting coach Damion Easley, with new players Jurickson Profar and Trent Grisham among others, a group that ranked last in the majors in on-base percentage over the previous six seasons entered this final weekend ranked seventh.
Still, there was a point in the middle of the season where it felt like the old Padres might emerge.
On a weekend in mid-august, they sent closer Kirby Yates and outfielder Tommy Pham to the injured list while also being swept by the Arizona Diamondbacks to bring a losing streak to five. In a normal season, that would be the equivalent of more than 13 games. And it felt every bit as bad.
Then they headed to Texas, where Tatis’ eighth-inning grand slam capped what would be the first of eight straight victories and 21 wins in 25 games.
“It feels like so long ago,” Tingler said. “Having Kirby walk off the mound; there goes Pham. Wil (Myers) was having some (back) issues. It just felt like in that moment guys were dropping left and right.
“I’m just so happy for the players and the staff, setting up a goal at the beginning of the year, throughout the offseason. There have been a lot of challenges in 2020, as everybody knows. I think about how proud I am of the group — the staff, the players — and understand how much discipline and sacrifice it has taken to get to this point.”
It led to the surreal scene a week ago, with the Padres hugging and high-fiving as they celebrated clinching their playoff berth in a ballpark with a few dozen team employees and media as the only witnesses.
“It’s been tough, honestly,” third baseman Manny Machado said. “Sunday tops everything. It was all worth it. Every single moment. All the sweat we had, all the struggles we had — not knowing if we were going to play or if we were. It was all worth the wait. All worth everything.”
As they await their still-to-bedetermined first-round opponent, they also await word on their top two starting pitchers. Arm issues in the past week have affected Mike Clevinger and Dinelson Lamet. The team has expressed optimism both will pitch in the Wild Card Series but won’t know for at least another day or two.
Now comes what they are calling a new season. It is certainly new to the Padres. And getting past the first round would be something they haven’t done since 1998, the year of their second trip to the World Series.
Their most recent trips to the playoffs were quick ones, as they were sent home after four games in 2006 and after a three-game sweep in 2005.
“We’ve got to figure out what we can do to be on top of our game and hopefully have a couple more celebrations like this,” first baseman Eric Hosmer said on the day the Padres clinched their playoff spot.
“We know we’ve got 13 more phases to go,” Tingler said, referring to how many postseason victories it will take to deliver the Padres the franchise’s first championship.
As an extra precaution against COVID-19 wiping out the postseason, every round after the opening series will be played in “bubbles” with team personnel sequestered in hotels. The Padres would go to Arlington, Texas, for as long as they survive. There will also be games in Houston, Los Angeles and San Diego. Petco Park will host an American League Division Series and the AL Championship Series.
“For sure,” Tatis said. “We’re going to the bubble for a month.”