Xander Bogaerts’ Red Sox won 17 of their first 19 games in 2018, grabbed first place in the division for good by late June and “cruised,” as he put it, to a franchise-record 108-win season that was still just eight games better than the Yankees.
It was hardly ever that easy in Bogaerts’ experience in the the AL East.
Boston had to hold off the feisty Rays for Bogaerts’ first World Series ring in 2013. The Orioles rose up to win 96 games the next year, the Blue Jays won in 2015, the Red Sox returned to the top the following three years, the Yankees won in the division in 2019 and 2022 and the Rays reigned in 2020 and 2022.
It’s precisely why the AL “Beast” has historically been considered baseball’s best division.
There’s some familiarity, too, to what’s transpiring in Bogaerts’ new home.
The NL West is home to four of Major League Baseball’s 11 best records to start 2025. The Padres held baseball’s best mark up until their first loss in Detroit last week. Now it’s the Giants who are on top in the division, a half-game ahead of the Mets for the league’s top record. The Dodgers remain the favorite to repeat as World Series champs, while the Diamondbacks remain a dangerous team that won the pennant just two years ago.
“All four teams are doing really good,” Bogaerts said. “It just makes it that much tougher when it comes down to the end. You know these teams are probably going to be in it. In our case, Tampa was always right up there when I was with the Red Sox. The Yankees, you can’t sleep on those guys and Baltimore started being good toward the end of my tenure there.
“It just makes it fun. Every game is head-to-head.”
The Padres swept the cellar-dwelling Rockies earlier this month at Petco Park, but their first true division test of the year begins Tuesday with the start of a two-game series against the Giants.
Iron sharpens iron, they say, but the battered Padres still remain in circle-the-wagons mode with Jackson Merrill, Luis Arraez, Jake Cronenworth and Yu Darvish among nearly a dozen players on the injured list. Merrill, Arraez and platoon outfielder Jason Heyward ramped up activity considerably on Sunday. Cronenworth is at least a week behind that trio and Darvish is pointed toward a late-May launch.
So help is coming.
Until then?
“I’m going to have the exact same temperament I would have regardless of who’s hurt, who’s going to be in the lineup, what lineup we’re putting out there that day,” said Padres right-hander Michael King, who will start Wednesday’s matinee at Petco Park. “ … Our defense is still stellar. Our pitching has been good. It’s the waiting game of knowing those hits are going to come. Those big outs are going to come in those big situations and we have a great team out there that we’re putting out. The wins will come.”
They had been coming even after the first injuries struck the lineup.
But the wins haven’t come lately.
The Padres have lost four games in a row and seven of their last nine. They’re hitting .208 over their last nine games. Take away Fernando Tatis Jr. maintaining his MVP pace, and the shorthanded Padres are hitting .189 over that stretch.
Bogaerts has not driven in a run since April 8 and does not yet have a home run this season. Gavin Sheets has just one hit in his last 19 plate appearances and Manny Machado has a .419 OPS over his last nine games. It adds up to just 2.6 runs per game during this rut, two runs fewer than the Padres averaged did while penning an MLB-best 15-4 start to the season.
“Just find a way,” Tatis said. “Find a way to win ballgames. We can do it. So just find a way.”
The Giants won’t make things any easier.
Former Padres skipper Bob Melvin will throw his ace (Logan Webb) on Tuesday. The Giants boast baseball’s second-best bullpen, behind only the Padres.
A healthy Jung Hoo Lee (.930 OPS) has been a revelation. Wilmer Flores has seven home runs to go with an MLB-leading 28 RBIs, 34-year-old Mike Yastrzemski (.888 OPS) is turning back the clock and Matt Chapman leads the majors with 28 walks, all of it propping up a lineup that is still waiting for newcomer Willy Adames (.582 OPS) to come around.
Baseball operations director Buster Posey’s tenure has started off better than anyone could have imagined coming off last year’s 80-82 finish. The Padres won last year’s series, 7-6.
“They’ve surprised a lot of people, media-wise,” Bogaerts said. “On paper, they have a really good team. Their center fielder is healthy again. They brought in some key players. Last year, they played us pretty tight. Their pitching is good. They brought in some guys to make the team better, and it’s paying off.”
Tale of the tape
How the Giants and Padres are faring heading into Tuesday’s opener:
Batting average: SF (.229, 22nd in MLB), SD (.255, 5th in MLB)
On-base percentage: SF (.311, 17th), SD (.324, 10th)
Slugging percentage: SF (.377, 21st), SD (.386, 16th)
Starters’ ERA: SF (4.20, 22nd), SD (3.70, 10th)
Bullpen ERA: SF (2.30, 2nd), SD (1.63, 1st)
Run differential: SF (+28, 6th), SD (+23, 7th)
— JEFF SANDERS
