As Mike Shildt stood last in another victory line, deferring to Padres players and coaches, Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. made sure to share the love.
Each star hugged the manager, as did Luis Arraez. Not a bad trio to have in your corner.
By using their brains as much as their bats and arms Wednesday afternoon, the Padres had pulled out another close game, beating the Cubs 4-2 in the East Village, to win another series and crank the heat higher on the hottest start to a season in franchise history.
It’s impossible to know to what extent Shildt, the lead brain, has contributed to the majors-best 15-4 record the Padres will take to Houston.
The Padres have a top-10 roster. Even with Jackson Merrill on the injured list, Machado and Tatis gave Shildt one more star player to work with than a good Cubs team had Wednesday. Machado and Tatis had no home runs but lifted the collective effort, as stars do.
Nor is it critical that players like the manager. Many players on the 1984 Padres would’ve hugged a saguaro cactus before embracing Dick Williams, an all-seeing disciplinarian with a mean streak. Come October, those players were pouring champagne on the Hall of Famer manager en route to the World Series.
This seems certain: the Padres both like and respect Shildt, and his stewardship has contributed to this team playing a cleaner, smarter brand of baseball than many teams do. Padres executive AJ. Preller appears to have hired the right guy two offseasons ago.
The 2025 Padres are making fewer mental mistakes than their opponents.
My favorite example of miscue-avoidance Wednesday was Tyler Wade not getting doubled off first base on a lineout to shortstop by Arraez. The recovery enabled Machado to bat in the seventh inning with the Padres ahead 2-1.
Machado doubled home Wade. It was a large run.
My guess, informed by 15 years as a beat writer, is that one of four big leaguers would’ve been doubled up where Wade stayed alive. Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson pounced on the chance. Wade, who maintained ideal positioning and alertness, beat Swanson’s firm strike by a good foot and thus was rewarded for mental diligence.
“Freeze on a line drive,” he said. “Before the pitch, you recheck where all the infielders and outfielders are at. I was like, ‘OK, I know where everyone’s at.’ ”
Wade may have made the same play had he been on another team.
The 30-year-old outfielder said he learned a lot about baseball from Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner — “like a second father to me and an incredible baseball mind” — and Yankees star Aaron Judge — “a big brother to me” — within his nine-year tenure with New York’s organization.
Machado’s RBI double came off an 0-2 slider from a pitcher whose fastball was reaching 100 mph.
Did Machado guess right, enabling to stay back and pull the pitch?
In dominating the bases-on-balls game 7-1, did Padres hitters benefit from crucial details in the scouting report and in-game attentiveness?
Wade, the No. 9 hitter, pulled a crucial single off fellow lefty Matthew Boyd. The pitch was a fastball inside of the inside corner, but Wade whipped his wrists so fast he avoided getting jammed. Did he anticipate inside heat?
Players don’t spill those beans to baseball writers. But this team has appeared both well-prepared and smartly responsive within games since the very first matchup, when smart baserunnning reads by Machado and Tatis hurt the Braves, initiating a four-game sweep.
At catcher, the Padres have a high-baseball-IQ tandem in former Astros World Series champion Martin Maldonado, 38, and Elias Diaz, 34,.
(Diaz got perhaps the biggest out Wednesday with an excellent throw. The catcher, whose 1.92-second average time on throws to second base this season is .08 faster than the MLB average, nailed a runner after pitcher Nick Pivetta raised his leg in the delivery and threw an 82-mph sweeper.)
It’s always a good sign for a team when a player who will get Hall of Fame votes echoes the manager’s pet phrases, as Machado did.
“The game really speaks to the scoreboard,” said the third baseman. “I know a lot of people don’t really realize it and look at it. But you look at the board, and it tells you what you need to do.”
Downturns will come. A strong mental game, like good footspeed, shouldn’t go into many slumps. It’s another reason to believe that, leading up to the July trade deadline, Preller will try to improve this club, rather than sell any potential free agents.
