Jake Cronenworth’s scorching week fuels Padres’ push to host a Wild Card Series

Another week, another dominant showing from the San Diego Padres.

They just manhandled the Colorado Rockies and Miami Marlins in a 6-1 week, putting the Padres in position to possibly usurp the top Wild Card spot in the National League. That stretch coincides with a bountiful September for the Friars, who have gone a wild 14-2 since losing their first two games of the month to the Cincinnati Reds.

For weeks (if not months), we had been talking about how that final series against the Arizona Diamondbacks would likely decide both teams' postseason fates. Now? The Padres are exceedingly close to making those three games not even matter.

And perhaps just as importantly as the wins themselves, it's been mighty reassuring to see Jake Cronenworth emerge as one of the primary galvanizers for this recent push.

Jake Cronenworth has been one of the most valuable players in baseball recently

Take some of these numbers with huge grains of salt since most of them were compiled in Coors Field, but over the past week, Cronenworth has hit .464/.516/.786 with two homers and steals apiece. That's ludicrous stuff, and even the park-adjusted stat of wRC+ says that the second baseman has been 159% better than the league-average hitter over this stretch.

In fact, he's been so hot that he's actually rescued his fWAR from negative territory, now sitting on a 0.2 mark for the season. His 0.7 fWAR over the past week is second-best in all of baseball, behind only presumptive NL MVP favorite Pete Crow-Armstrong (who is in the midst of a transcendental second half).

Of course, one week does not a season make, which is why Cronenworth still has an 84 wRC+ in 2026. It's been a disappointing year to say the least, with injuries and wavering in his plate approach dragging down his overall numbers. There's no way to get around the fact that this season has inarguably been his worst as a major leaguer.

And yet, it's easy enough to bury that all in the past. The postseason is about momentum as much as anything else, and Cronenworth -- much like the Padres as a whole -- has oodles of it right now. He's got hard-hit (43.5%) and barrel (13%) rates more indicative of his past self, which should offset some concerns around the disparity between slugging percentage (.786) and expected slugging percentage (.490).

He won't remain on this torrid streak forever, but the Padres will take whatever he can give them. With dates against the Dodgers and Diamondbacks on deck, the Friars have a chance to defy the odds and secure home-field advantage in the Wild Card Round. More of the same from Cronenworth would go a long way to making that dream a reality.

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