Good morning, We have reached a new phase of Mike Shildt trying to navigate the Padres through their choppy waters. The Padres are in survival mode, and they are not doing a great job of it. They have lost four straight games, and their manager, who is always something of a mama bear when it comes to protecting his players, sat at a dais after Sunday’s 4-2 loss to the Rays and said to pin the blame on him. It has been apparent since the beginning of his time as Padres manager that Shildt considers one of his main jobs to be deflecting any potential criticism away from his players. That is probably the case with most major league managers, but Shildt makes it a core principle and even seems to seek out chances to defend his guys. Yesterday was another level. “It’s not as easy as we made it look and it’s not as hard as it is now,” he said, referring to the Padres being 15-4 10 days ago and 17-11 this morning. “I mean, you’re somewhere in between. What I say the difference is, look, I’ll take, I gotta be better more recently. Players are doing everything possible to be prepared, compete, play the game. They’re giving everything they possibly have, and no one is making excuses. If anybody needs to be better the last couple games, it’s me.” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Gotta figure it out. That’s my ultimate job.” Can’t argue with that last part. But unless he thinks turning over the pingpong table in the clubhouse would work — which he doesn’t, and it wouldn’t — it isn’t entirely clear what Shildt can do “better.” It could be argued that in yesterday’s seventh inning he should have made sure Jose Iglesias wasn’t going to give an out away with a sacrifice bunt against a left-hander who had just walked Connor Joe with the last two batters in the order due up next. Shildt seemed to think it was justified that Iglesias bunted, and there was an argument to be made that the Padres were better off with the guaranteed runner in scoring position. Shildt and the coaching staff and the team’s leaders have addressed the idea the Padres are pressing a bit at the plate. They are not consistently having the kind of quality plate appearances they were earlier in the season. And opposing pitchers are largely taking advantage of it. Pitchers also know the Padres who remain disciplined are hunting strikes, so the Padres are seeing more pitches in or near the zone and are simply making more outs than they were. “We’ve just got to put better at-bats as a group out there overall,” Fernando Tatis Jr. said. “And they pitched good. … But I think as a group, we’ve got to keep putting better at-bats and stay consistent.” That was probably closer to the heart of the matter than that their manager is blowing it. Also, injuries The Padres appear on the verge of getting one of their three missing core pieces back, as Luis Arraez is trending toward a Tuesday return from the concussion injured list. They might have to play just two more games without Jackson Merrill and eight more without Jake Cronenworth. If you haven’t been paying attention while the Padres have wilted, you can read my game story (here) from yesterday’s loss to see why getting those players is important. You can read Tom Krasovic’s column (here) from yesterday for a perspective that says injuries shouldn’t matter. It is true that explanations can sound a lot like excuses, which is why the Padres have pretty much dismissed injuries as a factor in their slide. And it’s why we won’t talk much more about it now. But yesterday was almost as good an example as any of what the Padres are missing. It has to be considered that the above-mentioned three players all bat from the left side and were doing a pretty good job of it before getting injured. Their absence has left the Padres with just two or three left-handed batters in most games, no matter which side the opposing starter throws from. They were stocking their lineup with four and five left-handed batters when going against righties early in the season, which also left them with favorable matchups coming off the bench. And through the season’s first 19 games, the Padres were batting an MLB-best .291 with a .795 OPS against right-handers. In the nine games since then, they are batting .199 with a .552 OPS against righties. Yesterday, the Padres faced right-hander Zack Littell, who entered the game holding right-handed batters to a .203 average and yielding a .340 average to those that hit from the left side. (He ranked 27th among 90 qualifying starters against right-handed batters and had the 10th-worst batting average allowed among 120 qualifying starters against left-handed batters.) So from the start in a game like yesterday, the Padres were not quite themselves. Arraez’s absence has prompted the Padres to put Gavin Sheets in the two-hole, where he is clearly pressing. His chase rate in six games since Arraez went on the IL is 47%, sixth-highest in MLB, and he is 1-for-19 with nine strikeouts in that span. His chase rate was 29% before that, and he was batting .333 with an .890 OPS while hitting further down the order. Xander Bogaerts had his best game of the series yesterday. That is to say he got his first hit in three games against the Rays and did not commit an error after making a costly one each of the previous two days. He was also back in the cleanup spot, where he is batting .240 (12-for–50) this season. That is far better than the .111 (1-for-9) he is batting in the No.5 spot but not quite as good as the .250 (6-for-24) he is batting when hitting sixth. Bogaerts does not have a home run this season. He does not have an RBI in 16 games even though he has hit fourth or fifth in all but two of those. Manny Machado drove in a run with a sacrifice fly yesterday, his second RBI in nine games. He was 0-for-3 yesterday and is batting .156 (5-for-32) with a .419 OPS in those nine games. Tirso Ornelas drew his second career walk yesterday. He is 1-for-14 since making his MLB debut on April 19. Padres catchers Elias Díaz and Martín Maldonado are a combined 3-for-42 (.071) over the past 14 games. The following chart goes back nine games, during which the Padres are 2-7. Among the things the chart illustrates are that Tatis has been the team’s only consistent producer among the regulars and that the fill-ins who were stepping up enough when Merrill and Cronenworth first went down are generally no longer doing so. With a man on third base and one out in the fifth inning of Saturday’s game, Tatis ran 83 feet to catch a ball near the right field line, took a half-dozen steps to stop himself, turned toward the plate, set his feet and quickly fired a 102.9 mph throw home that was a little up the line but would have been late anyway. With a runner on third and one out in yesterday’s seventh inning, Tatis got another chance. And due to a more favorable circumstance and his abundant talent, he got the out. Tatis made the catch about the same distance from the plate as a day earlier, but he had to run just 59 feet to get there and was able to stop himself in about half the time. The incredible part was that he hardly made time to get set, barely having turned his body to line up with the plate when he fired a 95.6 mph throw that arrived on one hop to Maldonado’s glove directly in front of the plate to get José Caballero trying to score. Hay que respetar el brazo de Fernando Tatis Jr. 💪 pic.twitter.com/D22QPvpxKZ — MLB Español (@mlbespanol) April 27, 2025 “Elite athlete, elite body control, to throw from that angle, to get turned with that much accuracy and velocity,” Shildt said. “It’s something that I know we appreciate, but gosh darn, we’re seeing things that, at least in my tenure — 40 something years, getting close to (50) growing up in a clubhouse — I haven’t seen a lot of. Seen a few baseball games. Pretty amazing. That was a heck of a play.” The play gave Tatis 18 outfield assists since he became a full-time right fielder. That is tied for eighth in the major leagues since the start of 2023. Among the 11 players with at least 18 assists in that span, Tatis has played the fourth-fewest innings. Saturday’s throw was Tatis’ fourth from the outfield clocked at 100 mph or more, and it was his hardest. “Maybe I’m getting stronger,” he said. Different problem Randy Vásquez got back to throwing first-pitch strikes. He got ahead against 10 of the 17 batters that saw more than one pitch in a plate appearance yesterday. That was much better than his last start, when he was ahead at any point against just six of the 14 batters that saw more than one pitch in a plate appearance. It was what happened when he was ahead Sunday – or, moreover, when he had two strikes — that doomed him to allowing three runs and leaving with two outs and two on in the fifth inning. “I was attacking the zone,” Vásquez said through interpreter Jorge Merlos. “I felt like I was really doing well around the zone, but I guess it got a little bit anxious when I got to two strikes, and I tried to do a little bit too much.” Vásquez retired the first seven batters he faced before leaving a 2-2 sweeper in the heart of the strike zone that got hit over the right field wall by Taylor Walls. Later in the third inning, Vásquez issued a two-out walk to Chandler Simpson after being ahead 1-2 in the count. And with two out in the fifth, Vásquez left a 1-2 cutter up on the outer third that Simpson sent the other way for a single. After another single, Vásquez walked Yandy Díaz after having a 2-2 count against him. There are no tidbits for a team batting .204 over its past 11 games. What I will say here is that you can read Jeff Sanders’ notebook (here) from yesterday, which gives injury updates and has some interesting stuff about an interesting call-up the Padres made yesterday. So, that’s it for me. I need some sleep. I know I didn’t have a newsletter the past two days. I am not gonna alibi that. As I always say, sportswriters find solutions regardless of circumstance. But I was pretty sick the past few days. I got some powerful antibiotics and was able to get back at it yesterday. So I figure I should make sure I get my rest and get totally right for a season that still has more than five months to go. No game today. So the next newsletter will be in your inbox Wednesday. Sanders will have a story on our Padres page later today about the Giants series that starts Tuesday being the first division games the Padres have played and how tough the National League West looks. P.S. 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