Gavin Sheets deserves better after straining to steer Padres out of dreadful skid

The Padres offense has been flat-out dreadful this past week. San Diego is riding a six-game losing streak, and in those first five contests, they combined for three total runs. The Friars are now in third place in the NL West standings at 27-21 - all after a 14-3 start to the campaign.

On Thursday, it seemed like Gavin Sheets was going to be the hero on offense that the Padres desperately needed, but the bullpen ultimately allowed the Blue Jays to walk it off in the 11th inning in Toronto in a 7-6 defeat.

Padres' Gavin Sheets has career-best game in heart-breaking loss

For just the third time in his career, Sheets pieced together a five-RBI game, which outproduces the entire San Diego lineup over the past week. It was the third time in his MLB career that he amassed five RBIs, last doing so in April 2025. On Thursday, he batted 3-for-5 with two home runs and a go-ahead single in the top of the 11th inning.

His two-homer game is the third of his career, and the first since August 2022. He was the only one getting it done at the plate, and his solo effort almost dug the Padres out of their grave. His two-run home run in the first inning got San on the scoreboard on Thursday. Then, his two-run blast in the ninth inning tied the ball game at 4 to keep the game alive.

Is Gavin Sheets an unlikely hero in a lineup with Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado, and Jackson Merrill? The answer is obvious, but sometimes it's the role players who can pull a team out of a rut. Sheets' monster game on Thursday shouldn't be overlooked, even if it was in a losing effort. Hopefully his three-hit performance strikes some motivation in the rest of the lineup the rest of the weekend.