'We've got to clean it up': Padres' frustration builds 

SAN DIEGO -- On the eve of the 2023 season, Padres third baseman Manny Machado spoke about the new expectations in San Diego and what it all meant. The tone had shifted, and that was a good thing, he said. A season ago, he even noticed booing from fans when the team underperformed, and you know what? He liked that.

“That means the world to us, seeing that there's expectations for us to go out and perform every single day,” Machado said before the season.

After a series like this one, it’s clear those expectations are still there. The boos told that story. It’s also clear San Diego has yet to live up to those expectations. The Padres dropped Wednesday’s series finale against the Royals, 4-3, at Petco Park. With the loss, they fell to 20-24, fourth place in the National League West, and their home fans let them know how they felt about it -- as loudly as they have all season.

“It’s not like we’re playing any better to deserve better,” said Padres shortstop Xander Bogaerts. “We’re not. It’ll continue until we start playing better. We’ve got to clean it up, all aspects of the game.”

Machado -- who sported a splint on his left hand after he was diagnosed with a small fracture of a metacarpal bone -- reiterated the same opinion he’d held before the season.

“I don’t blame them for booing,” Machado said. “We’re not playing well right now. There’s an expectation that we had coming into the season. … Collectively, as a group, we’ve got to go out there and be better.”

For nearly 40 minutes after Wednesday’s loss -- in which the Padres stranded a whopping 12 baserunners, twice loading the bases with fewer than two outs without scoring -- the home clubhouse remained shuttered to media. Inside, the players held a meeting, the specifics of which weren’t revealed afterward.

But if the exact message remained internal, the basics weren’t hard to glean.

“We have to clean a lot of stuff up,” Bogaerts said. “Once we do all of that, we’ll be fine. But there’s a lot of stuff that we have to clean up, and that’s starting with attention to detail.”

Bogaerts promptly added that the struggles aren’t due to lack of effort or preparation. Nearly every Padre reiterated as much. If anything, they’re searching too hard to find answers, particularly on offense.

Perhaps that’s what’s led to the team’s dreadful start to the season with men in scoring position. The Padres are currently hitting just .196 with RISP, which qualifies as an historic low. No team in recorded history has posted a RISP batting average below .200. On Wednesday, the Padres finished 2-for-9, though both of those hits were aided by Royals defensive blunders.

“We have a ton of really good hitters on this team,” said Jake Cronenworth, who launched a solo homer in the fifth inning. “But when it comes down to it, you need to go up there and believe that you’re going to do it -- and believe that if you strike out with nobody out and the bases loaded that the next guy’s going to get it done.”

The Padres left the bases loaded in both the fourth and sixth innings. They loaded the bases again in the seventh, but Juan Soto was tagged out at the plate when Aroldis Chapman’s wild pitch bounced off the backstop and directly back to catcher Salvador Perez.

After the game, manager Bob Melvin chalked that up as “pretty unlucky,” and he’s not wrong. It’s also the way things have gone for the Padres lately. The most frustrating aspect, Melvin said, is how often they’ve put themselves in the position to succeed. The Padres drew nine walks on Wednesday and had eight hits -- and somehow managed only three runs.

“We just have to fight through it, somehow break through,” Melvin said. “You’d think at some point in time when you have that many opportunities, you’d cash in on it.”

Now the Padres are facing the prospect of being without Machado, even if it remains unclear whether he’ll require an IL stint. The team is adamant they’ll have enough to withstand his temporary absence -- and on paper they do. But recent results aren’t pretty.

“We’ve just got to find a way to do a better job,” said DH Matt Carpenter. “We just haven’t been able to do that. It’s a little bit of a snowball situation happening. You get an opportunity in a game, and guys want it so bad that they take themselves out of the at-bat by doing something they otherwise wouldn’t do.”

And that’s when the boos come.

“There’s a lot of expectations on us, and we’re not performing right now,” Melvin said. “Our fans come out and support us. They’re hungry for more. I can’t blame ‘em.”