Soto, Padres Take Care of Business Against Nationals But At What Cost?

Even though he is claimed as our superstar now, it was great to see Juan Soto get a well deserved standing ovation in addition to the smiles he brought in his return to Washington D.C. ten days after being traded. However, the shocking 80-game suspension to Fernando Tatis Jr. and the Nationals comeback in the second game of the series did leave a sour taste in our mouths.

When I was watching Apple TV for the series opener against the Nationals, I saw breaking news as I sat down with my Chipotle burrito, expecting to hear Tatis Jr. to return potentially next week. Instead, the headline "Suspended 80 games for foreign substance" had me drop my burrito and gave me so many mixed emotions. Keep in mind, I was already wondering if Soto's return would have been filled with cheers, jeers or both. Rightfully so, he received much love from the crowd. Mad respect to the Nationals fanbase. But for that whole first game, we could not stop thinking about Tatis Jr. and the suspension. We still do not know what to truly comprehend out of all of this.

Tatis immediately gave out an apology to many including the Padres clubhouse and fanbase and stated he will serve his suspension right away. An interesting piece on this was his statement about how he treated ringworm in the past that contained the illegal substance, Clostebol. One thing I will defend El Niño on is that I truly believe there are so many stupid medications out there that have everything you could think of in the fine print. Still, this is a major blow. Thanks to the Major League Baseball Players Association for providing the statement, I have attached that below:

Let me know what you all think about this situation. Recently extended Padre Joe Musgrove and soon to be free agent Mike Clevinger stated they are disappointed in Tatis for this situation but keep it to a minimum as you do not want any team drama once he returns.

Despite that news always being in your mind as a player or a fan, the Padres were able to take two of three from the Washington Nationals who have officially blown the team up. The Friars took out their frustrations with the bats in the series opener as they erupted in the middle of the game. After a Ha-Seong Kim RBI single to make it 1-0 in the fourth inning, the Padres scored seven runs in the fifth to blow it open. It started with a Manny Machado 2-RBI double, a fielder's choice RBI by Cronenworth and eventually a Grisham blast as well as a Soto RBI single.

Speaking of Grisham, he has been doing very well as of late. It may not seem it due to his average and lower OPS, but Grisham has reached base in 15 of 16 games and has had five home runs since the beginning of August. In addition, Grisham is above the .199 average mark for the first time since the second game of the 2022 MLB season. This is nice to see for the former Gold Glover. It might feel real good soon to see that bat working as there were rumors for if Tatis Jr. did come back, he would be competing for a spot in center field. If Grisham can keep up this momentum, it would bring a boost to that bottom-half of the lineup which arguably is top-heavy.

For Soto, he has reached base successfully in 20 straight games and has reached base in all of his games as a Padre. So Soto has been himself since making his debut in the brown and gold.

The only downside coming in this series besides the suspension news was the Padres blowing away the lead and the potential win in the second game to which they were up on the Nationals 3-0 until Darvish gave up back-to-back home runs to Yadiel Hernandez which was a two-run blast and one batter later to Joey Meneses. The Padres had a chance to do damage with the bases loaded in the seventh inning but failed to score. After that, the Nationals bullpen took care of business. Overall, the Padres were 2-12 RISP and left 13 men on base.

The series finale featured Blake Snell on the mound, who has been sensational in the second-half of the season just like in 2021. Snell in his last seven games, Snell is 5-1 with 55 strikeouts and just 13 walks in 38.1 innings. Fantastic pitching from both Snell, Martinez and and Suarez in addition to the great bats that brought the Padres to 6-0 win.

The San Diego Padres go on to take the Miami Marlins down in South Florida for three games. That series will start off with a pitching duel as the Padres ace Joe Musgrove takes on the most-likely N.L. 2022 Cy Young winner Sandy Alcántara who is known to go very deep in ball games this season with his dominance.

Be on the lookout for a new episode of the Grand Slammin' Padres podcast to be uploaded Thursday morning. Going to be an interesting one, especially with my take on Tatis Jr.'s suspension.