The Union-Tribune found those in attendance at Petco Park were more inclined to keep the faith than throw in the towel.
San Diego, CA – Liana Barajas, 10, holds a sign for her tenth birthday as the Padres take on the Mets at Petco Park on Friday, June 5, 2026 in San Diego, CA. The Padres face off against the New York Mets for a three game series to start a six game home stand.
We live in a time where people are compelled to comment on every game, every inning — heck, every pitch. So maybe asking the Friar Faithful to take a breath and let things play out over a full season — or at least until the All-Star break — is too much to ask amid the Padres’ struggles.
Then again, maybe the impatience is among the vocal minority that is quick with pithy posts on social media regarding the collective struggle of the offense, most notably stars Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., Jackson Merrill and Xander Bogaerts. A poster on Reddit at least took the time to do some research before pointing out the historically bad path on which the Padres offense finds itself.
Coming into this weekend’s home series against the Mets, Spacehand2002 noted that the Padres’ .218 team batting average is on pace to be the worst in franchise history and 11th-worst in major-league history. Their OPS of .651 would be the 14th-worst in history and their .216 average with runners in scoring position would be fifth-worst in history. The Union-Tribune found those in attendance at Petco Park were more inclined to keep the faith than throw in the towel.
The fans, offered the opportunity to give their two cents on the Padres’ offensive woes, did not have a lot of answers. There was no shortage of suggestions, however. Padres fans Cameron Pado and Charlie Hopper offered their take on the team’s offensive woes.
Encinitas’ Cameron Pado and Vista’s Charlie Hopper were sitting down the first-base line waiting for Friday’s first pitch when they were asked for answers to the struggles affecting Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., and others.
“I wish I knew,” Hopper said. “Manny’s hitting .174. That’s not great. But he’s going to raise his batting average .100 points in the next month.
I’m confident about that.
“It seems like there’s something going on in the clubhouse where nobody really cares right now, and I don’t know what that’s about. Everyone’s kind of got the mentality like, ‘It will happen. It will happen. ’ Which is kind of what I’m saying with Manny.
” Said Pado: “We love Manny. But his slump seems to be affecting everyone. It’s not exactly like he’s pumping up the team. Hopper: “His AB where he took three straight fastballs , I’m kind of wondering what is our approach at the plate.
So there’s a little bit of questioning that I’m doing with our hitting coach. I’m a little confused about the team approach in general. ” One suggestion from Hopper: “The guys need to go out and they need to get hammered together. I think that’s the answer.
Everybody go out to a bar and get drunk. ” Another suggestion involved borrowing a page from the movie “Major League,” when slumping slugger Pedro Cerrano built a locker shrine to little Jobu and offered rum and cigars to get out of his hitting funk.
“Maybe a voodoo trick,” Hopper said. “Something to get the guys out of their slump and make it feel like it’s bigger than them. Baseball sometimes is a very superstitious sport, even if you’re not superstitious. … Maybe it takes a little voodoo magic.
Something. ”Benjamin Cano, who brought his wife and three kids down from Norwalk for Friday’s game, was down behind the Padres dugout offering encouragement before the game.
“I’m stumped as well,” said Cano, who believes the fans could be key to a turnaround. “We need to do our best to step up. We need to bring the same energy and the hits will come. It’s a long season.
“They’re inconsistent. … Being an ex-baseball player , I understand the way it goes. You can’t put the pressure on them. They have enough pressure as it is.
It will come. ” Justin Detlaff and Mark Petersen, a couple of baseball fans from North Dakota, were visiting Petco Park for the first time.
“Probably hit the ball,” Detlaff said. “I got nothing for you. I’m sorry. ”Sometimes an outsider’s view is the best to get an objective opinion.
“Every team gets in a slump,” said Detlaff, decked out in a Padres hat and jersey. “You have three bad games, and all of a sudden, it’s the end of the world. Their record is still good. ”Detlaff and Petersen had tickets for each game of the weekend series, hoping to see a few more hits.
And maybe some runs. Padres season ticket holder Bill Sailer, hot dog and soda in hand, was asked for an opinion as he walked down to his field-level seat before the game.
“I’m not a big-league hitter, but it seems to me the good hitters wait for their pitch, make the pitchers work and look for it in the strike zone,” Sailer said. “It is depressing. I call it a Padres rally when they get a man on first with less than two outs.
“It’s like the old days when we couldn’t hit. They’ll come around. I’ve got to believe that Machado and Tatis and Merrill will eventually hit. ” Chula Vista’s Luis Garcia watched Friday’s game from field-level seats with his mom and stepfather.
The 16-year-old Eastlake Little League all-star drew on his own experience in the game.
“A lot of coaches give their players a pep talk when they’re struggling,” Garcia said. “I don’t know about their coach, but maybe he needs to give them a pep talk. They even yell at them sometimes. I feel like if their coach was as hard on them as coaches are now on players like me, it would really get them going.
”A fan wearing a Padres Juan Soto jersey tries to get the outfielder’s attention during the fifth inning of the Padres game against the New York Mets at Petco Park on Friday, June 5, 2026 in San Diego, California. How soon fans forget — or maybe this was them remembering — about his 1 1/2 seasons with the Padres.
Soto’s arrival in San Diego before the 2022 trade deadline was celebrated like Babe Ruth being traded from Boston to New York, with fans crowding the right-field bleachers to shout out to him and wave signs to greet his arrival from the Washington Nationals. That night, the Padres Team Store ran out of O’s to spell SOTO on the back. What happened to all those jerseys?
Many Padres fans were still willing to wear them when Soto visited with the New York Yankees two years ago following an offseason trade. Soto signed as a free agent with the Mets before last season, and those in possession of his Padres jersey seem to have buried them in the back of their closets. There was one guy in left field Friday wearing a Soto City Connect 1.0 jersey with Soto on the back. Make that the front.
The guy turned the jersey around so Soto could see it each time he came out to play defense. The fan encouraged the outfielder to toss a ball up to the youngster sitting next to him. Inning after inning, the fan made his plea. It didn’t work.
Soto tossed the ball back to a teammate each time he finished warming up. The Padres had three hits through seven innings Friday night and trailed 4-0 as they took the field for the top of the eighth, when the crowd erupted with the biggest cheer of the evening.
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