SOUR FINISH TO HELP MOTIVATE PADRES?
Watching L.A. celebrate not easy to stomach as Padres think about 2021
ARLINGTON, Texas
Even the Padres, who had snatched multiple victories from defeat’s claws, had known for at least several minutes this would be the last game for them in 2020.
Well, maybe not the boundless Fernando Tatis Jr.
“I was just pushing for my teammates, just pushing for my teammates,” he said later of his thoughts in the ninth inning. “We feel we’re never out of the game. That’s still the same feeling when they were up by I don’t know how many runs. I feel like we have the offense to (overcome) any situation.”
But when the 12-3 loss to the Dodgers was complete a few minutes into Friday morning here, and he was walking from the on-deck circle where he witnessed the final pitch of a most improbable season speed past Trent Grisham, it hit Tatis.
An ending that is just the beginning.
“When we got the last out, that’s when I started thinking,” he said. “I just started thinking of all the memories of the year, what we went through, how we started building all this, all the workouts. I was thinking about all this year, what we have learned, but definitely thinking about what we need for next year. … I’m just going to remember this all of next year. I’m going to remember this feeling, what it’s about. And trust me, I don’t like it. So I won’t play like that to get this feeling back again.”
There was little immediate reaction in the Padres dugout as a three-game sweep in the National League Division Series was completed. It was as if they were frozen, reluctant to make a move that would concede a fantastic run was formally finished.
They had finished the regular season with the major leagues’ third-best record, made the playoffs for the first time in 14 years and won a postseason series for the first time in 22 years.
It could be argued that their chance at a long run into October ended before it began, when their top two starting pitchers were effectively shelved with arm ailments in the season’s final week.
But it officially ended with the loss to the Dodgers in a ballpark halfway across the country in one of Major League Baseball’s playoff bubbles with only a few dozen family members and team employees on hand for a finish that didn’t do the rest of the season justice.
The second-to-last person to make his way toward the stairs that led to the clubhouse was manager Jayce Tingler.
“Honestly I’m not prepared for this or this feeling,” he said. “I truly had the feeling we were going to be playing (Friday). We were going to win the game tonight and go.”
Wil Myers had stood at the top of the dugout steps the final halfinning and remained there longer
than anyone else in the white pinstriped jerseys staring out at the Dodgers shaking hands and high-fiving.
“You go through three months of the COVID camp and the season and you grind all those at-bats out, you grind all those games out, you’re with your teammates for so long, to come up short is tough,” Myers said. “No matter how good of a season anybody has, if you lose the last game of the season it is tough.”
Just before the last of the Padres, their heads hung, shuff led across the dugout f loor and descended into the bowels of Globe Life Field, the music started.
The Dodgers celebrated, somewhat reserved, handing out hats and shirts and posing for a group picture on the mound as “I Love L.A.” blared from the speakers high above.
As the old saying goes, if you don’t want your opponent to celebrate on a neutral field where you were the home team for the f inal game, you have to play better.
“I think with this, it can leave a bitter taste in your mouth, with good reason,” Myers said. “You know, you sit there and you watch the Dodgers shake hands after a win. That could be something in your mind going into the offseason for some motivation. You can take that as a positive and really use it to your advantage in the off
season.”
The Padres plan to play better.
“This is a special group,” Tatis said. “This year was really good, but I feel like this was a growing pain. I feel like we were just getting started.”
Moreover, they finally found out they can play better.
“Having this experience is good,” Myers said. “Obviously, we came up short. But this is a good season for us. You can look at the negatives, you can look at how it ended tonight. But overall,
from an organization standpoint, I felt like we took a huge step in the right direction to really give ourselves the title of a winning organization, and that’s really what we were striving for this year. That’s something we were able to accomplish.
“We know how to win now. We’re expecting to win. We’ve got great players in here. I know we came up short tonight, but there’s a lot of optimism in San Diego. There’s a lot to be proud of here, and we’re excited about what we were able to accomplish, although we
came up short. It’s going to be a great offseason for us. Ready to rock and roll and come back next year with a different mentality.”
What happened in the end was that the Padres, with multiple players banged up and without starting pitchers Mike Clevinger and Dinelson Lamet, got beat by a team that is still better than them.
They also didn’t play very well, though the Dodgers’ ridiculously deep pitching and relentless pressure on offense had something to do with that.
The Padres didn’t hit nearly as well as they did in the regular season. They hit .182 with a .546 OPS in this series. They hit .257/.798 in the regular season and .304/ .928 in their three-game Wild Card Series against the Cardinals.
The Padres very well might have three players finish in the top 10 in NL MVP voting. That trio was a combined 5-for-33 in the NLDS. Tatis was 2-for-11, Manny Machado 2-for-12, Myers 1for-10.
After leading the majors with a .310 batting average with runners in scoring position this season, the Padres hit .130 in this series.
They also made some uncharacteristic errors and other sloppy defensive plays that cost outs in each game. The relievers that posted a 1.59 ERA in 222⁄ innings
3 against the Cardinals had an 8.53 ERA in 19 innings against the Dodgers.
That was far from what it would have taken to beat the team with the best record in the majors, especially under the circumstances.
“What would it have taken?” Myers said. “Great baseball, obviously. We can look at all the things we could have done or should have done or whatever. At the end of the day, we came up short.
“We went out and gave it our all. We have to hang our hat on that and feel confident with that, go into the offseason and keep that rolling.”