Quote from Alex Tamayo on May 31, 2026, 2:01 pm

Quote from fenn68 on May 31, 2026, 1:32 pm

WASH came into the series allowing the most runs in MLB ... Friday gave some hope the Padres would take advantage of that but that fizzled out Saturday when 3 of the 4 runs came on HR (little else) and today just a few hits and only 2 runs.

Seems as though Machado - Merrill - Bogaerts - Tatis are doing "better" but with little impact while the guys that had carried the team Sheets-Andujar-Laureano faded and still getting little out of Castellanos - Fermin - Duran. Net: still not scoring enough.

Side: WASH has a good hitting team (most runs in MLB) and that seemed to work for them vs the SD bullpen that was highly praised. Something to watch vs other good hitting teams.

To be fair they (SD) only have 3 reliable BP guys, all the others are good in none pressure situations, but as soon as they get into a tough spot either blew It or they barely get out of It.

Quote from Jeremy Hill on May 31, 2026, 4:11 pm

Quote from fenn68 on May 31, 2026, 1:21 pm

Quote from Jeremy Hill on May 31, 2026, 1:14 pm

Wtf was Merrill thinking?

In both Merrill's case and Song's case ... guessing the sign came from the bench in an attempt to avoid the double play grounder ... and in both cases the runner had the base stolen .. so not a bad move EXCEPT

1. in both cases the runners had terrible slides coming disengaged from the bag and got tagged out (time to once again critique the head first slide ... or at least having the runner perfect not over sliding)
2. in both cases the hitter neglected to make contact on strike three pitches ... bad

Poor execution at both ends of each play.

I don't have any problem with Song trying to get a bag in that situation. Down 2 in the 9th trying to take a bag is only worth it if they're absolutely giving it to you. I can't imagine that was a called play and Merrill reacted like he knew he messed up. Just a dumb decision.

Quote from fenn68 on May 31, 2026, 4:40 pm

He did mess up by over sliding the base when he had it stolen (same as Song). As upsetting is that in both cases the batters (Andujar and France) took called strike three ... not even a protection swing. I have more of an issue with execution at both ends than the decision (questionable as it may be).

Even if just the runners executed correctly they both would have been safe.

Quote from WindsorUK on May 31, 2026, 5:04 pm

Quote from fenn68 on May 31, 2026, 1:32 pm

WASH came into the series allowing the most runs in MLB ... Friday gave some hope the Padres would take advantage of that but that fizzled out Saturday when 3 of the 4 runs came on HR (little else) and today just a few hits and only 2 runs.

Seems as though Machado - Merrill - Bogaerts - Tatis are doing "better" but with little impact while the guys that had carried the team Sheets-Andujar-Laureano faded and still getting little out of Castellanos - Fermin - Duran. Net: still not scoring enough.

Side: WASH has a good hitting team (most runs in MLB) and that seemed to work for them vs the SD bullpen that was highly praised. Something to watch vs other good hitting teams.

Castellanos has 20 RBI, France 18.

BOTH are relatively productive given the low number of AB's.

 

Quote from Jeremy Hill on May 31, 2026, 5:14 pm

Quote from fenn68 on May 31, 2026, 4:40 pm

He did mess up by over sliding the base when he had it stolen (same as Song). As upsetting is that in both cases the batters (Andujar and France) took called strike three ... not even a protection swing. I have more of an issue with execution at both ends than the decision (questionable as it may be).

Even if just the runners executed correctly they both would have been safe.

And in Merrill's case it still would have been a stupid decision.

Quote from ultratvfan on May 31, 2026, 7:59 pm

Padres drop 5.5 games back.