San Diego Padres Slug Their Way Through a Week of One-Run Heartbreak as the Deadline Looms

The San Diego Padres opened the second half with a week that captured this whole strange season in miniature: loud bats, thin pitching, and an almost supernatural talent for losing close games. San Diego went 2-5 on a seven-game road swing through Kansas City and Atlanta, and four of the five losses came by exactly one run. Sandwiched between the gut punches were a 19-run demolition of the Royals and the longest home run hit by anyone in the majors this season, off the bat of Fernando Tatis Jr. That is the state of San Diego Padres news right now — a roster with genuine star power sitting at 50-53, watching the wild card race drift a few games out of reach while the front office decides whether to buy, sell, or split the difference before the August 3 trade deadline.

A Rough Restart in Kansas City, Then a 19-Run Eruption

The trip began Friday, July 17 at Kauffman Stadium with the kind of loss that lingers. Ty France tied the game 3-3 with a ninth-inning homer, and the Padres pushed across three in the top of the tenth to lead 6-3. The bullpen gave all of it back and more, with Carter Jensen's walk-off single finishing a 7-6 Royals win. Kyle Hart took the loss, and San Diego's second half was 20 minutes old and already bruised.

Saturday was worse in a quieter way. Kansas City won 6-1 behind a 421-foot Lane Thomas blast and a two-run shot from Salvador Perez, while Griffin Canning was tagged for four runs in 3.2 innings. Tatis provided the only run with a solo homer — he had reached base safely in 33 of his previous 36 games at that point — but the Royals clinched their first series win over the Padres since 2023.

Then Sunday happened. San Diego avoided the sweep with a 19-2 avalanche: 19 hits, five home runs, and contributions from nearly everyone in the lineup. Jackson Merrill went 4-for-6 with two homers and four RBIs, France hit a grand slam in the eighth and a solo shot in the ninth for five RBIs, and Tatis added a homer and four RBIs of his own. Yuki Matsui picked up the win in relief. It was, tellingly, just their sixth win in their last 24 road games.

Four Games in Atlanta, Three One-Run Heartbreaks

The Braves series was a masterclass in near-misses. Monday's opener ended 3-2 Atlanta despite San Diego outhitting the home team 7-4. Manny Machado launched his 20th homer of the year and France added his 15th, but Bryce Elder held the rest of the lineup down over six innings and JP Sears took a hard-luck loss.

Tuesday brought the week's most electric night. Machado homered twice — 412 and 418 feet — Merrill added his 13th, and Tatis crushed a 474-foot, 111-mph two-run homer in the eighth, the longest home run in the majors this season. The Padres piled up 13 hits in an 8-3 win and briefly looked like the team everyone expected in March.

Wednesday undid it. San Diego led late until Atlanta strung together a six-run eighth built on seven consecutive hits, with Wandy Peralta charged with four runs while recording one out. The Padres answered with six runs of their own in the ninth — Gavin Sheets singled one home, Tatis ripped a three-run triple, and Luis Rengifo homered — but fell one run short, 7-6. Thursday's finale followed the same script: San Diego touched up Chris Sale for three early runs, Sale responded by striking out 11 over six innings, and the Braves went deep four times, including Drake Baldwin's go-ahead solo shot. France tied it late with his 16th homer before Atlanta closed out a 6-5 win and a 3-1 series, with all three Braves wins coming by a single run.

Tatis, France and Machado Carried the Offense

For a lineup that still ranks near the bottom of baseball in average and on-base percentage this season, the week's individual production was remarkable. Ty France homered four times, including two game-tying shots and a grand slam. Fernando Tatis Jr. did a bit of everything — the 474-footer, a four-RBI game, a three-run triple in a ninth-inning rally. Manny Machado hit three homers in a 24-hour span, and Jackson Merrill added three of his own across the week.

The rotation is the reason none of it mattered much. Walker Buehler has allowed 22 runs over 16.2 innings in July after posting a 1.71 ERA in June, Germán Márquez carries a 5.24 ERA, and Canning was hit hard twice on the trip. Meanwhile, closer Mason Miller — a perfect 25-for-25 in save chances with an MLB-best 0.86 ERA and a 48.8 percent strikeout rate — spent much of the week waiting for leads that never arrived.

Where the Padres Stand in the NL West and Wild Card Race

The Padres this week slid to 50-53, third in the NL West, a distant 15 games behind the 65-38 Dodgers and 11 back of second-place Arizona. The division has been gone for a while; the wild card is the real conversation, and San Diego sits roughly three to four games out of the final spot after entering the break at 48-48. The frustrating part is the company: the Marlins, who are just ahead of them in the race, have lost nine straight games. The window is open. The Padres simply have not climbed through it.

Injury Report and Roster Moves

• Miguel Andujar was placed on the 10-day IL on July 20 with a fractured right wrist after being hit by a pitch in Kansas City. He is expected back sometime in August, and the injury wrecks his value as a rental trade chip.
• Luis Campusano is dealing with an oblique issue behind the plate.
• Freddy Fermin (concussion) was activated July 17, and Randy Vásquez (ankle) returned from the 15-day IL on July 19.
• Reliever Ron Marinaccio was designated for assignment on July 19.
• The long-term list remains brutal: Joe Musgrove (Tommy John) and Yu Darvish (elbow surgery) are out for the year, with Nick Pivetta and Jason Adam also sidelined.

What's Next for the Padres: A Deadline Question and a Lifeline in Miami

A.J. Preller says he is staying "open-minded" ahead of the August 3 deadline, and the reporting around the team suggests genuine indecision. New owners José E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones — who bought the club for $3.9 billion — are reportedly willing to let Preller add payroll if the team earns it. If it sells instead, rentals like Adam, Adrian Morejon, Buehler and France are the obvious pieces, while Miller would command multiple top-50 prospects if Preller ever wavered on his stated intent to keep him. This next stretch decides it.

The schedule offers a lifeline: three games in Miami starting Friday, July 24 against those free-falling Marlins. Márquez gets the opener, Sears faces Eury Pérez on Saturday, and Buehler draws Janson Junk on Sunday. After that come the Rockies and Giants — as soft a ten-day runway as a fringe contender could ask for before the deadline verdict comes due.

The bottom line on the San Diego Padres this week: the talent is obviously real, the record obviously is not good enough, and the next seven games against bad teams will tell Preller which one to believe. Win the Miami series and the wild card is right there. Lose it, and the most interesting Padres news of the summer will be written in trade headlines instead of box scores.