Manny

Machado

Machado was intentionally walked with two on and two out in the fifth, after which Jack Dreyer got Gavin Sheets to ground out. He came up again with two on in the seventh, but this time there was a righty in the game, no base open and one out. He was pitched to, and he homered just over the wall in center on an 0-2 middle-middle fastball from Kyle Hurt. It was Machado’s fourth homer in eight games and sixth in 14 games.

Machado has three homers and four doubles in his last eight games. He’s still batting just .189 for the year, but things are getting better.

Machado’s 11th homer in the fourth off Grant Holmes accounted for the only run in the finale of what was an incredibly low scoring day of baseball; 24 teams combined to scored 64 runs, with no team scoring more than six runs. Seven of the 12 games saw the teams total five runs or fewer. Machado, a future Hall of Famer, is currently hitting .185/.265/.384, probably due to analytics and algorithms and Driveline, which could all be fixed if someone would hire John Smoltz as a GM and Jeff Frye as a manager.

Machado drove in a run on a double in the third inning to put the Padres on the board. He then plated his second RBI with a groundout in the eighth. With two runners on in the top of the tenth, he put the Padres ahead with a three-run blast off Joe Ross, driving in five of the team’s six runs in Saturday’s win. The 33-year-old third baseman is hitting .178/.256/.367 with 13 homers and 41 RBI across 306 plate appearances.

Machado took Orioles reliever Albert Suárez deep in the ninth inning to close out a five-homer afternoon for the Padres that included blasts by Jackson Merrill, Samad Taylor, Gavin Sheets and Rodolfo Durán. The 33-year-old veteran third baseman has hit a bit of a rough patch lately, batting .196 (9-for-46) with two homers and five RBI since the start of June.

Machado has 13 hits in his last 116 at-bats because of analytics, apparently. The Padres continue to show him respect by refusing to bat him lower than fourth in the lineup, but it seems like that needs to change. He’s at just .169/.254/.342 for the season, and while a decent rebound still seems likely, it’s probably time to start thinking of him as more of a .240-.250 hitter going forward.

Neat. Machado is in such a deep funk that he’s hit a ghastly .126 in his last 30 games -- but he’s somehow still slugging .333 with seven homers over that timespan. We hope you can stomach the average at one of fantasy baseball’s weaker positions. It has not been pretty for Machado this year. Even the underlying Baseball Savant page is full of blue, suggesting he’s only underperforming his .270 wOBA by about 42 points. He’s walking more, but that’s about the only thing going well for Machado this year through two months and change.

It’s hard to blame Machado for the quiet night considering San Diego was up against Cristopher Sánchez in the middle of a consecutive scoreless streak of 50 2/3 innings. Still, it’s been a disappointing campaign to date for Machado, who has career lows across the board. His .177 BABIP gives hope that he’s simply been unlucky, but his fast-swing rate and blasts per swing are also down. This is a track record to bet on, ultimately, but his season isn’t trending in the right direction.

Machado put the Padres on the board with a two-run homer off Aaron Nola in the fourth inning. The home run broke a three-game hitless streak. He now has three hits in his last eight games, with all three leaving the yard. It’s all of the other balls hit in play that he’d had trouble with, recording an unfortunate .177 BABIP. The 33-year-old third baseman is slashing .173/.270/.346 with nine homers, 27 runs scored, and 27 RBI across 216 plate appearances.

Machado evened up the score in the home half of the first inning as he crushed an 0-1 fastball from Jeffrey Springs for a 370-foot (109.6 mph EV) two-run shot. That would be his only hit in the ballgame. On the season, the superstar third baseman is slashing an anemic .179/.271/.347 with eight homers, 24 RBI and just one stolen base across his first 200 plate appearances.