Three Padres players who haven’t had the start we’d hoped for

Coming away from a season-opening seven-game homestand with a 4-3 record probably isn’t what you had in mind for the Padres. But given the shoddy defense, a crippling injury to our beloved Bebo and a fairly pedestrian offensive showing with a few exceptions, that’s where we stand.

A few guys, in particular, haven’t gotten off to hot starts that could have made all the difference over the past week. The three players who come to mind are all position players because, by and large, the pitching staff has been really solid – especially the new-look, star-studded starting rotation.

Let’s cross a big one off the list to get things started.

Padres need Manny Machado carrying the offense right now

With Fernando Tatis Jr. sidelined, at a minimum for the next week-plus, the San Diego Padres need Manny Machado to get it going sooner rather than later.

Tatis Jr. finished fourth in NL MVP voting last year – which tells you how big a loss this is for the offense. But Machado finished third and, with Padres fans looking for a monster year from their Gold Glove third baseman, he’s come up well short of that mark early on.

Machado enters Thursday’s off-day batting just .200/.333/.320 on the year. Of his five hits, just one went for extra bases – and that came via a home run on April 3. Since that game, last year’s Silver Slugger winner for NL third basemen is just 2-for-14 (.143).

Machado will head into this weekend’s series in Texas with a clean slate, taking on Kohei Arihara in Friday’s opener. Given it’s just his second big league start, everyone is starting at zero – let’s hope the Padres slugger can get the extra-bases part of his game going because it’ll go a long way in filling the void in the lineup.

Padres fans all hold their breath and hope Fernando Tatis Jr. is OK

This isn’t how it was supposed to go.

Watching Fernando Tatis Jr. collapse into a heap at home plate after taking a cut this week was enough to make me feel sick. Even if I weren’t a Padres fan, seeing the most exciting young player in the game suffer an injury that looked like the kind that ends seasons was just awful.

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Hopefully, it looked worse than it is. San Diego seems to think that’s the case as the club is reportedly ‘cautiously optimistic’ he’ll be back on the field sooner rather than later. For now, let’s all just hope and pray that’s the case because the Padres without El Niño aren’t the same team – period.

Even prior to the injury, though, Tatis Jr. hadn’t gotten locked in at the dish. Through five games at 18 at-bats, the Padres infielder batted just .167/.286/.333 to open the season. With Machado also struggling, that left a huge hole in the middle of the order. Thankfully, Eric Hosmer and Wil Myers have picked up the slack because otherwise, we could be looking at a team with just a win or two on the year.

Things haven’t gone as planned yet. But the season is literally just one week old. Hopefully by the end of the month, Tatis is back on the field and doing what he does best: bringing an unmatched swagger and energy to the diamond on a daily basis.