Padres News: Manny Machado Feels Recent Late Comebacks ‘Huge’ for Struggling Friars

San Diego's looking to turn things around after a rough stretch.

This season has been full of the good, bad, and the ugly for the San Diego Padres. 

You're probably well aware of it, but let me do a quick recap for you on what the expectations were for the Padres heading into 2023.

After upsetting the rival Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS and bringing Fernando Tatis Jr, back into the fold along with a solid starting rotation, quality bullpen, and Juan Soto, Manny Machado, Tatis Jr, and free agent signing Xander Bogaerts anchoring the lineup, this season was supposed to be special for the Padres and a potential run to the World Series wasn't that far fetched.

The actual season? That's been anything but special for the Padres as they stand at six games below .500 and 10 games out of first place in the NL West as they cross the halfway point of the year.

That said, the Padres have won three out of their last four games and are showing signs of life after showcasing anything but that over most of June.

While they still have a sizable hole to climb out of, third baseman Manny Machado is optimistic after the recent stretch.

Manny Machado was asked if the team needs to play with more urgency, about facing Shohei Ohtani, and if the Padres can build on how they played late in the games in Cincinnati: pic.twitter.com/UVozcuGNCj

— 97.3 The Fan (@973TheFanSD) July 3, 2023

That was huge for us. I think overall that was one of the things we were lacking on was the fight. Obviously, baseball’s a hard game. … But you know as long as we’ve fought… that’s a positive thing that we have here is just ‘hey, as a group we’re gonna go out there and compete. We’re gonna leave it on the field until that last out is made.’ … You know, we just gotta keep doing that. Continue doing that every day and you know, things will hopefully turn in a positive way for us.” (Manny Machado via 97.3 The Fan)

For his part, manager Bob Melvin wasn't as happy with the big picture looking at the Padres' time away from home.

Bob Melvin discussed if he believes the team can build upon how they played in Cincinnati, the latest update on Yu Darvish, and what has stood out most about Blake Snell in his recent starts: pic.twitter.com/wGz8tuDx9C

— 97.3 The Fan (@973TheFanSD) July 3, 2023

“It’s a little bit better than what we’ve seen, but we’re not looking for silver linings at this point. We’re looking to win games and if you look at the road trip as a whole it didn’t go very well, even though we fought a little harder later in the games than maybe we have here recently.” (Bob Melvin via 97.3 The Fan)

But now the Padres will look ahead and try to keep rebounding from their rough season.