Padres avoid Manny Machado injury scare after awkward exit vs. Cubs

For a few moments April 27, the Padres got the kind of reminder nobody asks for this early in the season. Manny Machado was in the middle of one of his best offensive nights of the young season, the Padres were grinding through a wild 9-7 win over the Cubs, and then suddenly the whole thing got a little too quiet. Machado came out of the game in the seventh inning with an apparent left leg issue after looking uncomfortable running down the line. Ty France moved from first base to third, Gavin Sheets entered at first, and Padres fans were left doing what Padres fans have been trained to do too often: pretend they are not catastrophizing another injury.

The good news, at least early, is that this appears to be precautionary. Padres manager Craig Stammen said after the game that Machado was “fine” and that the club took him out as a precaution after he looked awkward coming out of the box and had a couple of slides at second base that didn’t feel great on his lower half. That doesn’t mean the Padres can shrug and move on. It just means they avoided the immediate nightmare scenario. 

Manny Machado scare gives Padres a welcome reason to exhale

Machado was not limping through an empty night at the plate. He went 3-for-4 with two doubles, including the 400th double of his career, and looked like a hitter starting to find that familiar rhythm again. Machado had homered twice in the Mexico City Series finale on Sunday before following it up with Monday’s three-hit game against Chicago. 

So, yes, the Padres won the game and this doesn’t sound like a panic-button situation.

But it’s also fair to admit that Machado leaving any game early changes the temperature in the room. Machado is the lineup anchor, and the tone-setter. That’s why the injury scare probably felt unsettling in real time. The Padres have already had to navigate injuries and the usual early-season scrambles that makes every fan base feel like it's seeing the end times in April.  But Machado is different. He’s one of the players the Padres simply are not built to lose for any extended stretch.

That’s also why the Padres deserve credit for not trying to be stubborn here. There’s a version of this where Machado talks his way into staying in the game, everyone calls it toughness, and then we spend the next forty-eight hours wondering whether that decision made things worse. Instead, they got him out, reshuffled the corners, and lived with the temporary discomfort.

Machado has had enough little lower-body scares over the past couple of seasons to make any awkward stride feel more ominous than it might actually be.The Padres don’t need Machado proving anything in April. They need him upright in August and available if this team gets where it believes it can go.

The Padres avoided the worst version of the Manny Machado injury scare. Now the next job is making sure it stays that way.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow