Wednesday, August 12

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Welcome to The Pregame Lineup, a weekday newsletter that gets you up to speed on everything you need to know for today’s games, while catching you up on fun and interesting stories you might have missed. Today’s edition is brought to you by David Adler.

The National League playoff race is pretty juicy all of a sudden. 

We now have a three-way tie for the last two NL Wild Card spots, with the Padres, D-backs and Phillies all sitting at 64-57 entering play today. 

That should set up a fun stretch run — and it’s thanks to the Padres, who are finally firing on all cylinders.

At the All-Star break, San Diego’s playoff oddswere hovering around 10%. A month later, they’ve skyrocketed to over 50%. 

The Friars’ offense, which was sputtering for most of the first half, has kicked into high gear — look no further than their drubbing of the MLB-best Brewers yesterday to clinch a series victory.

It’s been a massive turnaround for San Diego. Check out these numbers:

Padres in the 1st half: 

• .226 BA (worst in MLB)
• .302 OBP (worst in MLB)
• .370 SLG (2nd worst in MLB)
• .672 OPS (worst in MLB)
• 379 runs scored (worst in MLB) 

Padres in the 2nd half

• .283 BA (best in MLB)
• .356 OBP (best in MLB)
• .457 SLG (2nd best in MLB)
• .813 OPS (best in MLB)
• 139 runs scored (2nd best in MLB)

This lineup has done a complete 180. The Padres have gone from pretty much the worst offense in the league to pretty much the best. 

When your big bats wake up all at once, that’s what happens. Look at how all of these guys have turned it on in the second half: 

Fernando Tatis Jr. 

• 1st half: .277 BA / .340 OBP / .374 SLG / .714 OPS
• 2nd half: .295 BA / .391 OBP / .600 SLG / .991 OPS 

Jackson Merrill

• 1st half: .219 BA / .278 OBP / .350 SLG / .628 OPS
• 2nd half: .347 BA / .363 OBP / .684 SLG / 1.047 OPS 

Manny Machado 

• 1st half: .203 BA / .291 OBP / .418 SLG / .708 OPS 
• 2nd half: .258 BA / .327 OBP / .423 SLG / .750 OPS 

Ty France 

• 1st half: .267 BA / .325 OBP / .490 SLG / .815 OPS 
• 2nd half: .347 BA / .390 OBP / .600 SLG / .990 OPS 

This is a good reminder that these Padres have been a playoff team for three of the last four years. It’s about time they’re playing like it again. 

 

GAMES OF THE NIGHT

Here are three games to watch tonight.

Guardians at Tigers (6:40 p.m. ET, MLB.TV) 

Funny how these things work sometimes. The Tigers trade Tarik Skubal, and they immediately go on a roll. Detroit is now just a half-game out of an American League Wild Card spot, and just 2 1/2 games back of the White Sox in the AL Central. With a chance to get back to .500 today, Detroit faces one of the Guardians’ big Trade Deadline additions, All-Star lefty Foster Griffin.

Cubs at Nationals (6:45 p.m. ET, MLB.TV) 

Nationals No. 8 prospect Jackson Kent will make his MLB debut today against the Cubs. The 23-year-old lefty will have his work cut out for him against a lineup led by NL MVP frontrunner Pete Crow-Armstrong, who hit his 27th home run of the season yesterday and just leapfrogged Shohei Ohtani to take the National League lead in OPS at .932.

Red Sox at Blue Jays (7:07 p.m. ET, MLB.TV) 

José Soriano will make his first home start in Toronto after debuting for the Jays on the road in Philadelphia last week. Soriano was solid in that game, helping the Blue Jays beat the Phillies — and he made a couple of interesting tweaks to his pitch mix, throwing his curveball a season-high 38% of the time and his four-seam fastball a season-low 12% of the time. We’ll see if those changes stick against the Sox. 

THE RETURN OF SNELLZILLA

Well, turns out Blake Snell didn’t miss a beat. He punched out 10 in his return to the Dodgers last night, and he looked good doing it. 

We knew Snell was on as soon as he blew away Bobby Witt Jr. with a 97.5 mph heater in the first inning: 

And then it was the Blake Snell curveball show. Snell racked up five of his 10 K’s on his signature breaking ball. Check these out (the “sword” from Jac Caglianone is our favorite): 

That’s Cy Young stuff. The Dodgers rotation is starting to look pretty, pretty scary.  

THESE INFIELD PLAYS WERE PURE WIZARDRY

Next up in our 250 for 250 series, we’re ranking the best infield wizardry of all time.

Check out our top 10 list and relive web gems like: 

The Wizard of Oz

No account of “infield wizardry” would be complete without the Wizard of Oz himself. We’ve got two of Ozzie Smith’s most eye-popping plays on our list. As a Padres rookie in 1978, Smith dove and snagged a grounder up the middle with his bare hand before getting up and firing to first base for the out. And in 1992 with the Cardinals, he jumped OVER a Dodgers baserunner to complete a double play. 

Wright’s barehanded catch 

David Wright couldn’t help but crack a smile after an amazing barehanded snag during a 2005 game against the Padres at Petco Park. Just 22 years old at the time, the Mets third baseman raced backward to track down a broken-bat blooper, but the catch he made was anything but typical. Wright stretched out his throwing hand and made a great barehanded grab before crashing to the ground. Watch it here >>

The Buehrle-Meter

Mark Buehrle made this famous play on April 5, 2010. After a hard ground ball caromed off his foot and into foul territory, the White Sox lefty raced across the first-base line to snag it. He then flicked the ball through his legs with his mitt while tumbling to the grass, and first baseman Paul Konerko made a barehanded snag. This play led ESPN’s Baseball Tonight to coin the “Buehrle-Meter,” where they rated other highlight-reel plays against Buehrle’s. Watch it here >>

What other wizardry cracks our top 10? See the full list >> 

REMEMBERING FIELD OF DREAMS ‘STALK-OFF’

Just one more day until the return of MLB at Field of Dreams, presented by John Deere. 

The Phillies and Twins take the (corn)field in Dyersville, Iowa, tomorrow for the third edition of the game at the “Field of Dreams” movie site (7:30 p.m. ET on Netflix). 

Before they do, we want to take a trip down memory lane to the inaugural Field of Dreams Game in 2021, between Shoeless Joe Jackson’s own White Sox and the Yankees. 

Tim Anderson gave the White Sox the only known “Stalk-Off” in MLB history — launching a walk-off two-run homer into the right-field corn.

Our White Sox reporter Scott Merkin caught up with the recently retired Anderson, who reflected on the first MLB at Field of Dreams Game.

“That moment is going to be around forever,” Anderson said. “We are still talking about it five years later. We are still touching on such a cool moment that happened in baseball.”

See everything you need to know about the 2026 MLB at Field of Dreams Game here >> 

 

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