With the Washington Nationals in town for a three-game series and how well the former Padres players in the Juan Soto trade on the Nationals’ active MLB roster are doing, it’s fun to look back at the What If? had the Padres kept those players and not made the trade.
MacKenzie Gore: 2.8 bWAR, 3.19 ERA, 3-7 W-L, 123 SOs (leads the league)
Robert Hassell III was called up on May 20, 2025 for the first time and in 79 plate appearances has a slash line of .218/.228/.269 (.497 OPS) while Jarlin Susana is still in the minors.
Of course if the Padres don’t make the trade, there’s always the daisy chain effect as Jackson Merrill might not be here (he might have been traded instead for another player that AJ Preller felt could put the team over the top), they sign or trade differently because of who they have here and other gaps (such as not signing Xander Bogaerts with Abrams as SS), etc. But let’s for fun, assume only the trades directly affected by Juan Soto (such as the trades to get Michael King and lead to getting Dylan Cease) don’t happen, you end up with a starting lineup and pitching rotation of:
Tatis RF Arraez 1B Machado 3B Wood LF Sheets DH Merrill CF Cronenworth/Iglesias 2B Diaz/Maldonaldo C Abrams SS
Pivetta Gore Bergert Kolek Another starter with Darvish and Musgrove on the IL
The first thing that sticks out is how this lineup skews really lefty with six left-handed hitters. There’s already that challenge with Merrill, Sheets, Cronenworth in the middle of the lineup (and Arraez if you want to switch it with yesterday’s lineup where Merrill batted second and Arraez fourth) so this really makes it even more so.
The other thing is the length of this lineup as really the only glaring hole is the catcher position. But having solid players from 1-7 and 9 really goes with the Padres motto of passing the baton along the lineup and how some other teams have that length where every batter is a challenge.
Starting pitching seems to be more of an issue with this lineup; I get it’s been an issue this year with the injuries to Darvish and King but you have to give credit to Vasquez, Kolek and Bergert for how well they’ve been pitching considering being young guys at the back of the rotation.
Besides the fact that the surrounded players signed/traded would be different because of a different approach to roster construction with having these guys around as mentioned above, the other thing is if the Padres don’t make this trade, they don’t get to the NLCS in 2022 or win 93 games in 2024 (since they picked up Michael King and Dylan Cease as a result of trading Soto to the Yankees after the 2023 season).
The ultimate goal is to win the World Series but considering the lack of success in the Padres history, they had legitimate teams these past few seasons to make the playoffs and do something which is what you want as a fan.
So would I still do the trade in hindsight? Yes, because it’s still allowed the team to be competitive since then. Now if the Padres didn’t get anything for Juan Soto when they felt they couldn’t re-sign him, had their payroll/budget concerns after Peter Seidler’s passing and didn’t end up with King, Cease and Vasquez that made them competitive last year and again this year, then I’d have a different opinion.
Musings halfway through the second series with the Dodgers after dropping 4 of the first 5 games to them:
Xander Bogaerts batting in the middle of the lineup continues to kill the Padres scoring opportunities. Two times he had two runners on and both times he grounded into double plays. I previously mentioned about moving Xander down and at that time Sheets hadn’t emerged the way he has, which is even another reason to move him down. I get it that Jackson Merrill is out right now but it doesn’t mean that Xander has to be the one to move up. For a while Shildt seemed to have moved Xander down to 6th in the lineup but now he’s right back in the middle of the lineup where he can do damage or is more often the case do what he did tonight.
Nice to see local guy Trenton Brooks hit a two-run home run. It’s sad but he already has contributed more in that one at bat than the other call ups this year including Luis Campusano and Connie Joe. Might as well give him some run with Merrill out and considering the major hole at left field.
The Padres can be frustrating to watch, especially considering the struggles the past week against the Dodgers and Diamondbacks. Nevertheless I’ll be watching against tomorrow and be at Petco Park on Friday when the team returns home.
With the Padres playing a weekend series in Milwaukee and never having been there before, I decided to make a quick weekend trip to check out the city and American Family Field, formerly know as Miller Park (and what many of the Brewer fans still call it).
The ballpark is located just outside of downtown (it was about 4 miles from my hotel) and from doing some Googling before the trip, most people recommend staying downtown and then taking one of the many shuttles since there isn’t much to do in the area around the ballpark. I’m a big fan of ballparks being in downtown or areas where there is much to do around it but in the case of American Family Field, it’s isolated by itself as its right off the freeway and has primarily residential nearby and even those in the residential area have a bit of a walk to get to the ballpark.
Since many of these shuttles require a purchase at the establishment (i.e. buying a drink at the bar), I ended up taking Uber/Lyft from my hotel which wasn’t expensive ($10-$15 each way).
Getting to the ballpark is pretty easy and only took 10 minutes. I left at 5:40pm for a 6:35pm start time and from getting picked up at the hotel and getting dropped in the rideshare lot, it was only about a 10 minute drive and didn’t have any traffic on a Saturday night.
Now leaving the game is another matter as it reminds me of leaving Qualcomm Stadium and how it takes some time to leave because all the lots are funneling out to the same exits.
The one thing you noticed is tailgating is in full effect here as there are some expansive parking lots surrounding the ballpark:
And right in front of the ballpark as you walk towards the main entrance (it’s between the ballpark and the parking lots) is Helfaer Field, a little league-size field that can be used on non-gamedays:
Once inside the ballpark, I walked around the field and loge levels and noticed that the walkways are of a good size so it doesn’t feel crowded or congested or difficult to walk around.
I did notice that on the field level behind home plate they have suites so when you’re walking there you don’t have a view of the field. As well, you have to go around the suites to access seats in sections in front of the suites. For example, if you have seats in section 119-123 which are in front of the suites, you have to either access the seats from 118 or from 124, which both feed into a walkway that goes right in front of those suites to access seats in 119-124.
Similarly on the loge level, the press box blocks the view when in the walkway behind home plate. But throughout the rest of the field and loge levels, you have a view of the field as you walk around and I like that they have it set up for standing room only behind each section on both levels (unlike some ballparks like Petco Park that only have standing room on the field level).
Some people have mentioned how the ballpark is a little difficult to walk around and it does have a maze-like feel to it. On the field level, when I was walking around the ballpark and going from center field into left field, it abruptly ends and tells you to go up to the upper levels:
You have to look to the left of the team store to find a walkway to go continue on with the rest of the field towards third base and home plate:
As well on the loge level in right field, it just abrupty ends at section 201:
While in left field it ends in a private event area:
I do like that on the loge level near both foul poles they have unique food areas that include bar areas for drinks which makes these areas really become social areas to hang out and watch the game. On the left field foul pole, the have The Alley Food Truck Park:
Near the right field foul pole is the 3rd St. Market Hall Annex, which features vendors from the 3rd St. Market Hall in downtown Milwaukee:
A lot of people like the loge level at American Family Field as the view is a little more elevated so you can see plays happening a little more especially balls hit to the outfield. As well, the pricing is more reasonable here which along with the previously mentioned food/bar areas near the foul poles, make it a good place to watch the game.
On the field level, the have games for kids to play near the right field foul pole, with a larger selection of different games for kids to play than other ballparks. Below is just one section of games they have offered:
Besides the aforementioned food areas, the other food stands throughout the ballpark offer ballpark food that they advertise as being based on recipes from local restaurants:
This includes ballpark variations of local popular foods like cheese curds and frozen custard and these stands were repeated throughout the ballpark. That is, they would have a Burgers stand, Sausages stand, Chicken stand, etc and then repeat it again. The food itself was good for ballpark food and better than the generic stands that some ballparks have but I tend to like places that feature actual stands of unique/local food vendors i.e. if they had more of the unique food areas like on the loge level throughout the entire ballpark.
The new video screens in center field and right field that were installed for the 2024 season are both pretty large and clear though it was interesting they’re only 1080p screens. But the pictures were bright and clear (and didn’t seem to ber noticeably less clear than the 2K and 4K screens some other ballparks have) and provided good information on the game including video reviews when the Padres challenged and lost a video review.
From the seats, the views were pretty good as I saw a game with the roof open and then another game where they started closing the roof in the 2nd inning as a thunderstorm was coming. I had a good view on the field and loge levels and didn’t feel too far away with the exception of the loge level in the outfield which did feel like it was much further away. I didn’t get a chance to go to the club or upper levels as I’ve heard that the upper level seats feel really high and far away.
There isn’t a home plate club with premium seating like many other ballparks are doing, so you can get regular field level seats right behind home plate. On the field level they do check your tickets more than other ballparks as the ushers at each section check your tickets and they also know which rows haven’t been sold. For example the back few rows of section 125 weren’t sold for the second game of the series on Saturday and they were making people who sat there go to their actual seats.
Regardless of the roof being closed or open, the ballpark felt cavernous because of the beams and structure needed to support the roof along with the window panes in the outfield. The ballpark felt really big walking around and this isn’t the only one with a roof where I felt this way (Houston’s Daikin Park, Arizona’s Chase Field and Texas’ Globe Life Field all come to mind). As well, with the roof and the location where the ballpark is by itself, it makes the ballpark look really large and like a stadium where you just see it there the way you see football stadiums sticking out by themselves with nothing around them. Other ballparks, especially those in downtown, tend to have architecture and a look that blends in with their surroundings, with PNC Park being the best example of this.
One of the notable features is Bernie’s Slide where Bernie Brewer slides down a water park-like slide in left field after a Brewer hits a home run. I actually didn’t see Bernie Brewer sliding down since the only home run the Brewers hit in the series was the walk-off home run in game 2 of the series which had all the commotion of the crowd going crazy so I forgot to look up to see if he did the slide.
I would put American Family Field in my middle tier of ballparks as some of the other ballparks have better locations, good city views from the ballpark seats and some just do other things really well (variety of food, attractions around and in the ballpark like their hall of fame and other displays/attractions, the aesthetics of the ballpark, etc). Overall I enjoyed my time at American Family Field and I can see why Brewer fans really love their ballpark.
With the Padres in Toronto this past week, now was a good time to check out Rogers Centre after they finished doing the renovations the past couple of years and since I hadn’t been to Toronto before.
The Rogers Centre is located in downtown close to Union Station, about a 10-minute walk to the UP Express which is a 25 minute train ride to/from the Toronto Pearson Airport (YYZ) that you can tap with your credit card to pay $9.25 CAD each way.
The Rogers Centre is near the harbour of Lake Ontario (see the white dome in the bottom left of the pic below) right next to the CN Tower and Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada and pretty close to Scotiabank Arena where the Maple Leafs and Raptors play as well as harbour terminals to do cruises around the harbor and ferry to Toronto Island. It’s in a good location downtown so you can get to many nearby attractions and also jump on the TTC subway and trains. Uber and Lyft are pretty prevalent in Toronto as well.
I arrived at 10:30pm on a Monday night and walking around near the hotel/ballpark at midnight felt safe. There wasn’t a lot of foot or car traffic but it wasn’t quiet either.
We stayed at the Toronto Marriott City Centre Hotel, which is connected to the north end of the ballpark as it was something to experience, especially getting a room that gives you views as though you were sitting in upper level outfield seats.
The south side of the hotel has rooms that look into the ballpark from the outfield while the north side looks into the city, which is mostly looking at the train tracks that go into Union Station. The hotel has 11 floors of rooms but is 12 stories high. In the US, we think of the first floor as level 1 but at this hotel and many others I’ve seen internationally, the first level is the “Lobby” level and then level 1 starts on the next level (so that would be our level 2 in the US).
The ballpark view rooms are on levels 1-4 only while the city view rooms go from levels 1-11. It can be pretty pricey for the ballpark view rooms if you want to do the usual flexible rate booking (the one that allows you to cancel with no charge up to three days before arrival). If you really want these rooms, the best way is to do the prepay option (if you know for sure you’ll be going) as it then isn’t that much more than the flexible rate booking for a city view room.
Once you’re in the room, the view is pretty sweet:
And it’s cool to be able to see both teams’ batting practices from your room, the stadium filling up and the game itself:
Interesting about the ballpark view rooms is they only give you views into the ballpark for Blue Jays games; we stayed there until Saturday (the Padres vs Blue Jays series ended with a day game on Thursday and both teams left to play other teams on the road right after) and on Thursday night they were already setting up a stage for a concert. Doing a quick Google, I found a Post Malone concert for the following Monday and by early Friday afternoon, I saw they were draping a black cover over the entire outfield starting from right field (our room was in left field) so all the rooms wouldn’t be able to see the concert though you could still hear it.
The hotel has the Sportsnet Grill restaurant/sports bar on the Lobby level that also has views into the ballpark. To guarantee a window view, you have to make a reservation that costs $10 CAD per person and then you have to spend another $60 CAD per person in food and beverage. he food is pretty standard sports bar food with pricing to match but with things you would find in Canada (such as poutine).
For the first game of the series on Tuesday May 20, we decided to eat at the Sportsnet Grill. They have the radio broadcast on (which is pretty close to real time) but the TVs have a very noticeable delay to the action on the field. So you’re using the TVs almost like a replay system such as checking afterwards if you have a hard time seeing the ball and strike calls.
For the second game in the series, we went into the ballpark and sat on the 100 level on the first base side as the visitor’s dugout is on this side. I like that Rogers Centre has 17 different gates to enter the ballpark making it quick and easy to get into the ballpark.
The 100 level has a really large concourse where you can always see the field as you walk around and the Outfield District (the part of the 100 level in the outfield) is more of a social area with open standing areas and bars to buy drinks from like many other ballparks are now doing.
Even as you walk around the ballpark, there are a lot of standing rails so you can stand behind many sections similar to other ballparks like Petco Park regardless of what tickets you have:
They have a few local places like Mary Brown’s Chicken and Mill Street Brewery for food and beverage and then offer different options like poutine and chicken wings. The food is solid but doesn’t have the variety of many local options you see like at Petco.
I do like that the video screens are pretty large and they do show a lot of stats, including for each batted ball the exit velocity, launch angle and distance while for each pitch the speed, pitch type and break (both horizontal and vertical). One thing of note is they only show replays for the Blue Jays that are good for them, such as in the Wednesday night game when Manny Machado made errors but not when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. made an error (or any other play that benefited the Padres).
The seats have a good view though the renovation caused every seat on the 100 level to now have an obstructed view. For example, where we sat on the first base side, when a ball was hit in the corner down the foul line in right field, we couldn’t see what actually happened. I know some people don’t like this but I guess I’m just used to it since Petco has similar obstructed views.
The one other thing of note is being a dome is depending on where your seats are at, the lights can cause a glare when looking into the stands. It doesn’t affect the view of the field of play, but more for example if you’re behind home plate and then look up into the upper level stands to see the crowds up there, the lights can glare making it hard to see up there.nfortunately, the dome was closed the whole series because of the weather with rain on both Wednesday and Thursday so I didn’t get a feel for how it is when the roof is opened.
Overall I liked Rogers Centre and a place I would recommend checking out now that they’ve done the renovations. The location of Rogers Centre is great being in downtown on the water and the dome blends in with the skyline as shown in my first pic above though up close the exterior architecture doesn’t look as nice as it did when it first opened.
But inside it doesn’t feel big like other domed stadiums do, like how Daikin Park for the Houston Astros and Chase Field for the Arizona Diamondbacks both feel like large stadiums. I like the renovations they’ve done as walking around the ballpark it feels really open, modern and a great place to be (has a good social aspect to it). Definitely was a fun place to watch a game even though the Padres ended up getting swept (a story for another day, hopefully they’ll get out of their offensive funk the next time I post).
Thoughts after the weekend series with the Colorado Rockies in Denver:
After beating the Rockies 21-0 yesterday, on one hand you had to feel like it was setting up for a sweep with Nick Pivetta on the mound for the Padres and German Marquez on the mound for the Rockies. Pivetta has been the Padres’ best starting pitcher this year and Marquez hadn’t won yet (he was 0-6 with a 9.90 ERA going into the game) and was roughed up the last time the Padres faced him (five earned runs in 4 2/3 innings).
But on the other hand, you saw that Pivetta had an 18.90 era in three starts in Coors Field and even this season was much better at home (1.42 ERA at home versus 3.00 ERA on the road). As well the Padres hadn’t swept a series in Colorado since 2011 and then Jackson Merrill was a last-minute scratch with an illness.
That was not to mention Bud Black getting the typical backing of the front office that usually happens right before the person is fired.
So of course, Pivetta has another tough outing, Marquez pitches lights out like he has against the Padres in past years and the Rockies win easily 9-3. And then after the game Bud Black is fired which is tough considering the team he’s been giving. I’m not sure how many other managers would have won much more with the players he had.
Considering the state of the Rockies you would have hoped for a sweep like the Padres did earlier this year but going 6-3 on this road trip is something you take any day and would have been happy before the trip started.
The one tradeoff with the more balanced schedule is these road trips seem even longer because the team has to travel to so many different cities now but I still prefer this over the previous schedule. It’s a better barometer of teams when they’ve all played each other; if there was a way to do a true balanced schedule, I’d be all for it (that’s a story for another day).
First game Dylan Cease looked dominant this season, hopefully it is an elbow cramp like he says and you tip your cap to Cody Bellinger for the home run he hit on the 0-2 high fastball.
Jason Adam has been struggling a little bit lately (has given up runs in three out of his last seven outings) but all relief pitchers have their ruts. The leadoff walk was killer (isn’t it usually?) and him going changeup to Grisham again right after Grisham hammered his previous pitch that was a changeup just foul down the line was a little surprising. You figure he would mix it up because that’s what Grisham is sitting on.
The 10th inning played out the way teams should attack the Padres in this situation. With the ghost runner on second and Fernando Tatis Jr. leading off, getting him to strike out and not move the runner (granted Brandon Lockridge would just steal third when Luis Arraez was up next so it ended up being the same thing as a sacrifice) you can then pitch around Arraez to bring up Manny Machado.
Manny is prone to hitting into double plays or striking out which in this case he struck out for the second out.
You then have Jackson Merrill up so you don’t give him anything good to hit and the Yankees pitched him inside and ended up hitting him.
Which then leads to Xander Bogaerts being up to bat, who also has a propensity for hitting ground balls or striking out and he did strike out.
Then in the bottom of the 10th, the Yankees sacrificed the runner to third and the next guy hit a sacrifice fly to win the game.
It’s unfortunate but it would seem so simple to score in that case with a ghost runner on and the top of your lineup but the Padres showed why they can have scoring issues with how their lineup is and guys like Manny and Xander who tend to strike out or ground out a lot killing many scoring opportunities. Of course, Xander is getting paid to produce but at some point you have to really look at other options (I would have already moved him down) for hitting cleanup or fifth regardless of how much he’s getting paid.
The day after the great comeback, the Padres had a game unravel in the 7th inning with Adrian Morejon and Wandy Peralta combining to give up 10 runs after the Padres had taken a 3-2 lead in the top of the 7th with a 2-out double by Fernando Tatis Jr.
I get why Morejon was the option here after Estrada had pitched the past two games so you’re hoping he gets through the inning to turn it over to Jason Adam and Robert Suarez since Adam didn’t pitch yesterday and Suarez could go again.
But when Morejon got in trouble by giving up a double, single and single to the first three batters to tie the game up, I don’t get why you’re not already trying to stall and pull him already. He obviously didn’t have it today so leaving him in there to get one out (which only happened because of a bunt pop up) and then walking Goldschimdt isn’t giving the next pitcher a great situation to come into with bases loaded, one out and a tied game.
And then on top of that, bringing in Wandy Peralta in such a high-leverage situation. I get it, it’s early in the season so you don’t want to keep doing the multi-inning approach with Adam or Suarez (like April 20th against the Astros when Adam went 1 2/3 innings and I was thinking that he and Suarez might each do four outs) but do we have to keep forcing the situational matchups and go lefty on lefty with Trent Grisham do up next?
Why not go to other relievers who have shown to be more reliable such as Alek Jacob who was rested and hadn’t pitched in three days? The bad thing about Mike Shildt having his players’ backs is he seems to stick with them too long even when everyone else knows it’s not a recipe for success such as using Peralta in a high-leverage situation. I’m hoping these things will start to become clearer sooner rather than later so we don’t have situations like this that seem obvious happen again.
After the third rain delay in four road games on the trip (which even for me watching at home throws off the schedule as I try watching the game and then doing other things such as going to the SDFC game on Saturday night), tonight’s game looked like one of those dog day games that gets away from you.
Lefty on the mound, two rain delays, Nick Pivetta not having his best stuff (not to mention tipping his pitches) and then being down 3-0 in the top of the 8th wasn’t looking too promising.
But after Fernando Tatis Jr and Mike Shildt were ejected (Tatis’ first career MLB ejection), Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts both came through with clutch two-out hits to each drive in two runs and give the Padres their first lead 4-3.
Ironically, the strike two call on a pitch low in the zone that Tatis and Shildt argued about was a strike but home plate umpire Adrian Johnson’s low strike call had been pretty inconsistent all night for both teams. Sometimes he was calling them a strike, other times not as on a 3-2 count to Jorbit Vivas in the 3rd inning, a pitch from Nick Pivetta at the bottom of the zone was called a ball. That lead to a walk and of course the next batter Trent Grisham hit a two-run home run.
The inconsistency of it (Robert Suarez actually benefited in the 9th on a pitch low in the zone called a strike) is what drives players and managers crazy so I get why Tatis was upset (he had several low strike calls in his four at bats) and Mike Shildt was going to defend his player no matter, that’s why his players love him and play so hard for him.
In this case Manny and Xander came through to pick the team up and lead to an impressive 4-3 comeback victory. I’ve mentioned before about not having Manny and Xander bat back to back in the 3-4 hole since it leads to too many strikeouts and double plays so credit to both players for coming through in clutch situations today.
That’s really the idea with having a top-heavy team with Tatis, Arraez, Manny, Xander, Jackson Merrill and Jake Cronenworth, the idea being that you have enough star power that even when one or two players are in a slump (and all baseball players go through slumps with how difficult the sport is), that the other ones can pick them up.
These past two games are an example as Tatis has gone 0-9 but with Xander stepping up the past two games, the Padres have won both. Of course, in the past we’ve seen it where if Tatis is struggling, the other guys aren’t coming through or struggling themselves, especially with Manny and Xander 3-4. So to see this happening today is what we’re expecting and why Xander was brought here at $25+ million a year and something we hope to see more of the rest of the season.
With the Padres visiting Comerica Park and since I was on some travel to the east coast, I worked it out to stop by Detroit on the way back to catch the last two games of the series.
For the first game I went on April 22nd, I sat in the Tiger Den (section TD129A that’s left center behind home plate), which are seats on the lower level right behind the front sections so they’re just underneath the overhang of the second level:
I can imagine that during a day game these seats are nice since you’re out of the sun. New for 2025, they replaced these seats to have the same style of seats as in the Home Plate Club (which is also new for 2025) except the seats don’t have the ventilation features like the Home Plate Club seats do (more on that below).
The rows for these seats don’t have many seats (the row I sat in only had four seats in the row) and the way it’s set up is seat 1 has a small tray table between it and seat 2, seats 2 and 3 are next to each other and then seats 3 and 4 have another tray table between them. So in this row of four seats, seats 1 and 4 were almost like their own seats.
What’s also great about these seats is the leg room is pretty wide so you don’t have to get up for when people are going to their seats in your row (which also won’t be that often since the rows don’t have that many seats).
You can scan a QR code to order from the MLB Ballpark app but it’s only the standard ballpark fare (hot dogs, popcorn, peanuts, etc). Each Tiger Den ticket comes with $10 in food and beverage credit that you have to scan your ticket at a concession stand to use (doesn’t work with ordering from the app).
You are a little further back since it’s behind the front section and a small four-person loge box that has the same style seating but it’s a great place to watch a game if you’re looking for cover and more intimate seating.
For the Wednesday April 23rd day game, I was able to get a seat in the Home Plate Club off SeatGeek. As mentioned, this area is newly created for 2025 and it was still a work in progress as they plan to build an underground space (to be finished in the middle of the season) right next to the seats, similar to how you can go to the underground space at Petco Park for the Padres Home Plate Club.
For now, they’re using the Tiger Club for food and beverage (and if you want to get out of the elements on a hot or cold day) so only Home Plate Club seat holders can access it until they finish the new space. You enter the Tiger Club through a separate entrance outside the ballpark on Witherell St and once you enter, you go up one floor to the Tiger Club.
From there, they have buffet-style food with a bar to get all drinks, including soda, with most alcohol included (there were some higher-end alcohol that had an upcharge).
For this game they had a good selection of food including hot dogs, sausages, beef sliders, pasta and meatballs, pizza, charcuterie, sushi, salad, chicken and waffles and a dessert bar with ice cream, cream puffs and cinnamon rolls.
The food was of good buffet-style quality to me (not super high-end but good like you find in most buffets) and the space is pretty big. The only negative is there aren’t a lot of dining tables with chairs to sit at and eat, instead there are many standing height tables that have no chairs as well as couch-style seating with a low table in the middle like you see in an office waiting room.
To get to the Home Plate Club seats, you leave the Tiger Club and go down one floor to the main level and walk down through the regular sections (sections 128 and 127) to access the seats.
I sat in section 1 of the Home Plate Club and row CCC (third row) and just like many other ballparks, these seats go down so they’re lower than the field in row 1, so it depends how much you like that. I find that seats that are lower than the field it’s harder to tell how far a ball is hit so anything that’s hit deep feels like it’s going to be a home run. Whereas seats a little higher but still on the lower level (like the Tiger Den), you can more easily tell off the bat if it has a shot or a routine fly ball.
The rows here actually have less leg room than the Tiger Den (more like a standard row where you have to get up to let people by) and the ventilation feature in the seats didn’t really seem to work that well. Since it was a sunny day, I had the cooling feature set to the highest level (there are three different levels) but I really didn’t notice the seat feeling cooler. The concept seems cool but didn’t seem to work that well and I didn’t really see anyone else taking advantage of it.
As far as the ballpark itself, Comerica Park has a nice retro look to it as I like the design and it fits in well with the surrounding buildings and landscape.
It has a nice view of the downtown skyline behind the outfield in right-center and has a couple of rides people (carousel and ferris wheel).
Food wise, there had a few local restaurants and a Little Caesars stand (Little Ceasars’ headquarters is across the street) but otherwise a lot of it is the standard ballpark fare.
The main level concourse is nice and wide making it easy to get around but there wasn’t a lot to do or see really as you walked around the ballpark. It seems here it’s more about getting your food and then getting back to your seat versus the many distractions of the other ballparks. Like here I didn’t even notice the Tigers team store (the D Shop) or see many souvenir stands as I walked around.
I stayed at the MGM Grand Detroit which is only about 1/2 mile away so it was a 15-minute walk over. The MGM Grand actually has free parking so some fans actually park here to walk to the ballpark.
It isn’t a straight line to get to the ballpark but the walk itself is pretty easy. This northern part of downtown is a little desolate as I didn’t see a lot of people or cars as I walked to and from the ballpark each day and there were many buildings that were empty and rundown but I felt pretty safe walking back and forth, even at 10pm at night after the night game I went to.
I would put Comerica in my middle tier of ballparks and worth visiting for those like me who want to see all the ballparks.
Good way to end the season series with the Chicago Cubs tied 3-3 as you never know how important this can be at the end of the season and making the playoffs. It’s always funny how the MLB schedule is to where you face a team twice in the first month and then don’t see them again until possibly the playoffs.
It was only two years ago when the Padres finished two games out of the playoffs (don’t get me wrong that 2023 team had a whole bunch of other problems) and finished 6-7 against Arizona that year, including losing 3 out of 4 in August to end the season series, as well as 3-4 against the Cubs, both teams with better records than them that year (Arizona would get the final playoff spot). So their path to the playoffs was even more difficult since they lost the season series to the two teams right above them as they tried making the late run.
So when it comes down to the end and playoff tiebreakers, with the 4-2 win today over the Cubs, the Padres won’t lose that tiebreaker if they happen to be in the playoff hunt and finish tied with the Cubs. I know it’s way early but that’s where these types of games count.
That’s why it doesn’t make sense to me with having Manny and Xander bat 3-4 even if it’s a lefty starting pitcher on the mound as Mike Shildt continues to do last night and today. Yesterday’s 2-1 loss was a golden opportunity to win considering Shota Imanaga was on the mound for the Cubs and the Padres pitching was able to go toe to toe for 9 innings. Not many times where you can win a low-scoring game against their ace pitcher, so it compounds it when you have Manny and Xander come up with the bases loaded and 1 out and end up getting no runs like what happened in the bottom of the third. If one of them comes through (or someone else batting in the lineup between them), the game may break wide open like what happened in Shota’s last start against the Rangers where he goes only 76 pitches in 5 innings giving up 5 earned runs.
And then there’s the relievers he keeps using in situations that aren’t the best. I figured the way he’s been using Wandy Peralta and Yuki Matsui earlier this season where the team had comfortable leads, was way behind or when it’s earlier in the game like the 5th or 6th inning would be how he would continue to use them based on their track record last year. There’s a big need in those situations (we can only remember Enyel De Los Santos last year and how often he would blow big leads or make the deficit even larger) but the past two days have left me scratching my head.
Yesterday putting Matsui in the 10th inning with the ghost runner on, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who had a bad feeling about it. Credit to Matsui for getting out of the inning with just the one unearned run after he gave up the leadoff triple to Nico Hoerner to score the ghost runner and then getting the next three guys out (short flyout and two strikeouts) but the damage was already done.
And then today he pulled Pivetta after 91 pitches and 6 innings, going to Estrada in the 7th which is par for the course in a close game with the bullpen. However in the 8th with Jason Adam down today (understandably after going the past two days), he went to Wandy with a 3-1 lead after the Padres added on one run in the bottom of the 7th and again I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who was a little worried. Wandy proceeds to give up a home run to Pete Crow-Armstrong to make 3-2 and then give up a 2 out double to Ian Happ bringing red hot Kyle Tucker up to bat as the go ahead run. He did end up striking out Tucker but way too close for comfort.
Shildt does get the most out of his team (feels like the team would run through a wall for him like the St. Louis Cardinals postgame speech) so I’m sure that’s part of it. But when you see the same guys not coming through in the same situations over and over again, at some point you have to realize that’s not the best situation for them.
