The Padres can take comfort in knowing they still lead the race for the third wild card that Major League Baseball adopted this year, despite their offense stinking up Petco Park once again Monday afternoon in a 5-0 loss to a loose Diamondbacks team.
With 26 games left, the Padres are tied with the Phillies for the second wild card and hold both a two-game lead and the tiebreaker on the Brewers. Their rotation that boasts three healthy standouts in Yu Darvish, Joe Musgrove and Blake Snell looms as a strength, and breathing becomes easier so long as Manny Machado continues to provide the best season of any National Leaguer other than Paul Goldschmidt.
This team can count on other constants, notably Juan Soto's ability to draw walks, and the sturdy middle-infield defense of Ha-Seong Kim and Jake Cronenworth (provided Kim's sore knee and late-season fatigue can be managed).
On the other hand ...
The Padres can't expect to reach the playoffs if they continue to vanish on offense, as they did against Arizona right-hander Ryne Nelson in his big-league debut.
(Nelson pitched very well across seven innings; the Padres helped, causing him to resemble Curt Schilling in his prime.)
This playoff bid will fizzle if Padres hitters allow Petco Park to lengthen their swings and cloud their minds.
Padres fans have to hope that when Luke Voit likened the ballpark to a graveyard for hitters last month, he wasn't expressing a belief shared by his former Pads teammates.
Though the East Village gem plays much smaller than it did before the outfield was shrunk a decade ago, the Padres have score nine runs in their past seven home games.
They've batted .170 in those games. With runners in scoring position, it's .091. They've treated locals to one run in the past three home contests, that scoring on a Cronenworth ducksnort.
They have 17 more home games. If they want fans to stick around for the whole game, in contrast to a number who beat the heat Monday, they'll have to give them more to cheer.
The offense began with a double from Jurickson Profar, only to strand him there. Padres hitters took four called third strikes. They finished with four hits and no walks.
Soto has produced good offensive value, on balance, in his 27 games in brown pinstripes. Walks lubricate an offense.
When not able to draw walks, he's hitting the baseball like someone who should've accepted the Washington Nationals' offer of $440-million in guaranteed money.
It appeared Sunday he may have found his bat-to-ball feel when he lined consecutive singles in the 9-4 loss at Dodger Stadium.
Then on Monday he went 0-4, dropping him to 7-for-44 (.159) in the past 13 games.
Manager Bob Melvin suggested Soto, who cuts loose with ferocious swings, may be pressing a tad, leading to popups and other outs.
If so, Melvin suggested Soto has plenty of company.
The trade for Josh Hader boomeranged once again. If the perennial All-Star closer can't snap out of the funk that began in his final month with Milwaukee, holding off the same Brewers club will get tougher on the margins.
Hader walked a leadoff man, let him steal second base and allowed at least one run for the fourth time in nine outings with San Diego.
Meantime, the Padres reliever who performed well as the closer while Hader tried to retool his delivery, Nick Martinez, was asked to work the eighth inning and gave up two runs.
If the Padres are to hold off Milwaukee, their payroll that's $90 million greater than Milwaukee's and fifth in MLB will need to produce commensurate returns.
Hitters will be asked to blunt recent injuries to a pair of teammates — Brandon Drury and Wil Myers — who had big hits in the 6-3 road-trip that preceded Monday's clunker.
Dodgers castoff Matt Beaty filling the designated hitter role Monday didn't scream $220.9-million payroll. If Jorge Alfaro is asked to inject life into the offense, the Padres must expect improvement from an August that yielded 17 strikeouts, no extra-base hits and a .121 batting average in 36 at-bats.
So, there's still work to be done, and that includes six more games with the Dodgers, who've won seven of the 10 contests and will receive plenty of vocal support from blue-attired fans who don't mind paying for premium-price tickets.
The heat is on, and not only because record heat is expected to blast San Diego County for a few more days.
