Inside The Padres

Watch: Padres Manager Slams Reporter For Asking a Painfully Obvious Question

Maren Angus-Coombs

Rhona Wise-USA TODAY Sports
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It began with a series of questions from Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune regarding the usage of the San Diego Padres' bullpen in recent games.

Manager Mike Shildt answered the questions in depth until it became too ridiculous for him. Acee followed up with a question about the offense not providing a bigger cushion.

"How much would it help to have a five-run lead?" asked Acee.

For all the aspiring sports journalists out there, there is such thing as a dumb question. This was one of them.

Shildt looked at Acee in disbelief saying, "Of course. I don't know what you want me to say. Of course it would help."

Acee continued to press Shildt on how he uses his bullpen and Shildt just let the Padres beat reporter have it.

"I'm pitching them according to my experience and communication with them, if you have exception with that ... I don't come here to argue. I've already answered your question very clearly for a minute. I don't know what more you want me to tell you that you're not hearing from me. I really don't."

The game that sparked this postgame exchange was Tuesday night, when the Padres defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-0.

Michael King threw six strong innings and the Padres clinched their eighth straight series win heading into the series finale on Wednesday that they also went on to win.

Reliever Jason Adam and Tanner Scott stranded runners at third base in the seventh and eighth innings before Robert Suarez pitched a scoreless ninth for his 27th save.

Padres third baseman Manny Machado heard the criticism of the Padres not scoring more runs but they were still winning games.

“It’s been 50-50,” Machado said. “You’re just talking about one week worth of baseball. It’s been tight. I mean, baseball’s up and down. Honestly in that week we’ve been winning games. That’s all that really matters at the end of the day. Two weeks ago, we were scoring runs and pitching wasn’t giving up any runs. Now it’s flipped. Now it’s been we’ve been hitting and we’ve been giving up some runs and it’s been tight games. …

“It’s the beauty of baseball. Every week it’s something different. You just gotta try to come out on the opposite side of winning ballgames and that’s what we’ve been doing.”

The Padres won, the bullpen feels great and the exchange between Acee and Shildt was completely unnecessary. Perhaps, it can even be considered a lesson for journalism teachers.

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Maren Angus-Coombs
MAREN ANGUS-COOMBS

Maren Angus-Coombs was born in Los Angeles and raised in Nashville, Tenn. She is a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University and has been a sports writer since 2008. Despite being raised in the South, her sports obsession has always been in Los Angeles. She is currently a staff writer for the LA Sports Report Network.

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