That’s probably not what Padres fans want to hear.
In the latest chapter of a season characterized by disappointment in San Diego, superstar outfielder Juan Soto made a surprising admission after the Padres were shut down by a Mariners rookie pitcher.
“We’ve got to play as a team,” Soto said Wednesday after the Padres mustered just four hits, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune. “We’ve got to go out there grind every day. Grind every at-bat … It’s been really inconsistent. Some days we do, some days we don’t. We gotta do it every day. Days like this series, we just give up. Like literally, we just give up instead of keep grinding, keep pushing. We’ve got to forget about yesterday and keep moving.”
Following a 6-1 loss in which highly touted rookie right-hander Emerson Hancock — the Mariners’ No. 4 prospect — tossed five innings of one-run ball in his MLB debut, it’s easy to see why Soto’s spirits might have been low.
The Padres’ offense, which was supposed to be a vaunted group led by Soto and fellow stars Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts, has been barely above average this season.
Their runs scored total (530) is 15th in the league, while their team wRC+ of 105 (100 is league-average) is ninth.
San Diego (55-60) has fallen behind its NL West counterparts by a considerable margin, sitting 13 games behind the Dodgers and 4 1/2 games out of a Wild Card spot entering Thursday.
Despite their place in the standings, the Padres still added at the trade deadline by acquiring Rich Hill, Ji-Man Choi, Scott Barlow and Garrett Cooper.
The team held a postgame meeting after its miserable loss to Hancock and the Mariners, trying to engineer a turnaround after four straight losses.
“Unacceptable,” Machado said of the team’s performance after the meeting. “I mean, he made some good pitches. We just couldn’t capitalize on it. But, yeah, we’re way better than that, than what we did today.”
