Padres Daily: Big day ahead; pretty good already; lower Yu; baby’s first game

by Kevin Acee

Good morning,

By the time the newsletter arrived in email inboxes on Aug. 2, 2022, I was on the phone with Peter Seidler talking about Juan Soto.

That is how ‘round the clock the wrangling is and how quickly things happen at the trade deadline.

So get ready, today could be wild. (It might already be by the time you read this.)

As of late last night, the Padres had not made any additions or subtractions.

But they were working on it.

Earlier in the day, as deals began to happen around the league, there was word the Padres were talking fairly seriously about moving closer Robert Suarez and that conversations regarding Dylan Cease had slowed. Then a report surfaced saying the Astros were still hot on Cease, though I was still hearing the chances were slim that would lead to a deal.

That is how the mill churns this time of year, and none of us on the outside get a full picture of what is going on as it is going on.

The Padres’ asking price for their pitchers is high, because they don’t necessarily want to part with them.

But people familiar with some of the Padres’ talks said the team still is motivated (needs) to create some payroll flexibility in order to fit a new bat into the lineup.

That is the priority for A.J. Preller and his group.

The Padres were even said to still be pestering the Red Sox about Jarren Duran even though Boston had outwardly signaled he was no longer available.

Multiple reports said the Padres were talking to the Guardians about left fielder Steven Kwan. I could not verify that, but it is virtually guaranteed they are pursuing Kwan to some extent.

Few teams are as active in scouting or cast a wider net of potential moves. And arguably no president of baseball operations is as persistent.

“Preller is nonstop,” one executive said yesterday.

The Padres continue to seek a higher-leverage reliever, as well, regardless of whether they move Suarez.

The more you talk to people over the past few days, the more it seemed like the Padres were being awfully ambitious for a team that didn’t have a lot of money to spend.

But again, that is Preller. The idea he can make all this work is what is being counted on.

And we will know by 3 p.m. PT today what the Padres will look like as they ready for the season’s final 53 games.

What they look like now

Here is a quote Mike Shildt would have been inclined to give even if his team had not closed out July so magnificently.

“The team we have, I love,” Shildt said yesterday afternoon. “A.J. is going to do what he does to give us whatever he thinks is the best shot moving forward. And I’ve got complete confidence in him, whatever it turns out. But as far as expectations go, I love the 26 we have right now.”

While he would never say it publicly, Shildt knows as well as anyone what the Padres need to make a real run at the franchise’s first World Series title. But what he said after yesterday’s 5-0 victory over the Mets sounded far less silly than it would have had the past five days not gone as well as they did.

You can read in my game story (here) about Yu Darvish’s record-setting performance and another nice day of adding on by the offense.

The Padres’ fifth consecutive victory left them as far ahead of the Reds in the wild-card race as they are behind the Dodgers in the National League West.

That would be three games. And they trail the Phillies by half that margin in the race for the fifth seed.

For some perspective, in the three seasons since MLB went to six playoff teams in each league, 89% (32 of 36) of teams in playoff position at the end of July went on to play October series.

FanGraphs gives the Padres a 72.4% chance of making the playoffs.

More importantly, what we are seeing in real life suggests the Padres are a contender.

Significantly, it isn’t the ‘27 Yankees the Padres are trying to beat to the postseason. We (fans, media) tend to get myopic about the team we follow. We see their flaws and compare them to some ideal team.

In reality, the Padres have to finish ahead of the Reds. (The Giants have lost 12 of 14 and appear to have started to sell off parts. And the Cardinals have traded almost half their bullpen.)

Now, having an eye toward the World Series, we’re still not talking about having to get past an all-time great team, but it does alter the lens through which today is viewed.

It makes the acquisition of another reliever and possibly a starter more important for the Padres. And it makes seeing what the other contenders in both leagues do more interesting.

But as all-consuming as the trade deadline can feel, the most important thing remains what the current Padres are doing.

And they are doing.

It was just three days ago that I wrote about the Padres being the only team in the major leagues to have both its eight and nine batters ranked in the bottom three in OPS. Their No.9 batter is now just fourth-worst. (Don’t laugh. That is a big jump in three days.) Importantly, their catchers generally bat ninth. And Elias Díaz and Martín Maldonado have been relatively scorching lately.

The bottom three spots in the order have combined to hit .298 with two doubles and a home run while getting on base at a .359 clip during the team’s five-game winning streak.

That is significant.

Here is a look at something even more significant:

Yu the man

To get an historic victory, Darvish returned to his youth.

He threw from an arm slot two to three inches lower than he has for several years while throwing seven scoreless innings, in which he allowed just singles and struck out seven.

“I think it’s very similar to the release of when I first came here,” Darvish said, referring to his 2012 major league debut with the Texas Rangers. “You know, those early years, that was how I used to throw. … You have experience with that before. And you go into the bullpen and you feel it out, and it’s feeling good. So why not bring it into a game, right?”

Why not? As if anybody could execute that change so seamlessly.

“He’s unbelievable,” Padres pitching coach Ruben Niebla said. “His body control.”

Here is a look at Darvish’s release point last week against the Cardinals:

And his release point yesterday:

He was sharper, felt stronger and had more bite on his two-seam fastball, split-finger fastball and sweeper.

That the meticulous, improvisational, athletically graceful Darvish was able to implement such a drastic change and then pitch in a game the way he did was a fitting way for him to earn his record-setting 204th victory between Nippon Professional Baseball and MLB.

It was pretty much vintage Darvish.

“He’s a big part of this organization, big part of a big country in Japan,” Manny Machado said. “To be a part of that history is pretty special, and see it firsthand, see how much he works, how much he cares. I mean, he’s a true ambassador to the game. What an accomplishment. … We just witnessed one of the best in the world to go out there and do it.”

Darvish said it was special to become the winningest Japanese-born pitcher, but he also said he had merely gotten “closer” to the pitchers he has passed, Hiroki Kuroda (203 wins) and Hideo Nomo (201 wins).

“I may have gotten maybe the most wins,” Darvish said. “But I still feel like that doesn’t make me the best pitcher. I think there are a lot of areas where I compare myself to the legends of Nomo or Kuroda, and they’ve done better than me in a lot of aspects. So I just want to keep on working and getting better as a pitcher.”

Dad strength

Gavin Sheets sat against the past two left-handed starters the Padres faced and yesterday was dropped to eighth in the order after mostly batting fourth, fifth or sixth this season.

He was hitting just .105 (4-for-38) in the 10 games since the All-Star break.

That also happened to be since his first child was born.

Yesterday, with his 2½-week-old daughter in attendance for the first time, Sheets was 1-for-2 with a two-run homer and a walk.

“It’s been a tough stretch since the second half started, but to get that one today felt good and to contribute to this offense,” Sheets said. “Offense has been rolling. It’s been great. Just trying to be a part of it, and felt good to make an impact today.”

The home run was Sheets’ 15th of the season, matching his career high set in 2022 with the White Sox. He took 357 at-bats to reach the mark this season, 20 fewer than he had in ‘22.

Super man

Darvish knew where the infielders behind him were lined up. He knew the trajectory of the ball. He knew he had given up a hit when Tyrone Taylor blooped a ball off the end of his bat the other way into shallow right field.

But then Jake Cronenworth, who was situated on the dirt behind second base, ran 48 feet to his left and laid out to make a catch that left Darvish incredulous and the rest of the Padres cheering.

Yu's reaction says it all pic.twitter.com/wiztJjd5FR

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) July 30, 2025

“I’ve been playing this game for 21 years, and when the ball comes off the bat, you know if it’s going to be a hit or not,” Darvish said. “In my mind, I thought that that was going to be a hit, but he made that great catch. So just a phenomenal play.”

Asked how he made the catch on a shallow pop-up that was so far away from where he began running and was tailing away from him, Cronenworth smiled: “I don’t know. It was a pretty good play.”

Tidbits

The Padres have improved their run differential from plus-seven at the All-Star break to plus-32. That is largely because five of their eight victories since then have been decided by three or more runs. Just four of their final 25 games in the first half were decided by more than two runs.
Machado is batting .529 (18-for-34) with a 1.391 OPS during a seven-game hitting streak. How hot does Machado tend to get once he gets on a roll? He has had a higher batting average over a seven-game stretch four times in his career and a higher OPS 15 times.
Luis Arraez went 2-for-4 with a walk yesterday to extend his hitting streak to a season-best 13 games, one off his career best set last season. Arraez is batting .404 (21-for-52) during the streak.
The Padres are the first team to have 15 shutout victories within their first 109 games since the 2015 Dodgers. Of the eight pitchers to have made more than one start for the Padres this season, Cease is the only one to have not started a shutout.