The Latest Breaking News from Manny Machado

SAN DIEGO — Seth Lugo's phone rang more than few times over the offseason. The Mets were never on the other end of call, perhaps because they eyed much larger prizes to fill the vacancies left by Jacob deGrom, Chris Bassitt and Taijuan Walker than moving their longtime reliever into…

SAN DIEGO — The Padres found relief Wednesday.

SAN DIEGO — The Padres know they have been playing better in most games while falling further behind in the standings.

CINCINNATI — The Padres weren't done.

CINCINNATI — The Padres scored nine runs between the sixth and seventh innings and emphatically halted their longest losing streak of the season at six games with a 12-5 victory over the Reds on Saturday.

It's time to look at the big picture for the flailing, lost Padres. In a 162-game season, offensive slumps routinely amount to micro problems. They come. They go.

Another angle of the play explains what happened here.

SAN DIEGO — The Padres continued to force the action and continued to win.

SAN DIEGO — The improved San Diego Padres offense continued to do new things, but could not shake old habits.

Michael Wacha was the last starting pitcher added to the mix this spring, but he was certainly not viewed as the sixth starter in the rotation. At just $7.5 million for this season, he also was something of a bargain.

A video montage that played on the Petco Park video boards late in games the Padres trailed throughout their first four home stands featured myriad offensive highlights from last season and a compilation of television commentators praising the team's lineup.