Manny Machado embarrassing himself after Dodgers sweep puts more pressure on Padres

The Los Angeles Dodgers are the best team in baseball and the San Diego Padres learned that the hard way when they entered this past weekend’s series with high hopes following a monster trade deadline that featured the acquisition of Juan Soto.

LA swept San Diego handily and extended their division lead to 15.5 games — good luck catching that! At this rate, the Pads will be playing an NL Wild Card series on the road.

But don’t tell that to Manny Machado! He’s not concerned at all. He’s wondering where the pressure is. You know, the pressure that has now been heaped on San Diego due to their high-profile moves and their monumental collapse in 2021?

Machado doesn’t seem to understand that whenever you embarrass yourself, the pressure only mounts. His low-effort defensive mishap on Saturday night, which helped the Dodgers extend their lead from 5-3 to 7-3 in the seventh inning, directly contributed to a loss. His offense? Oh man, his offense! The guy couldn’t hit Tony Gonsolin, Andrew Heaney and Tyler Anderson!

But you’re “Manny ‘Freaking’ Machado”! Sorry, we’re just struggling to understand who that really is.

Manny Machado’s play, trash talk helps Dodgers as Padres’ pressure mounts

In 10 games against the Dodgers this season, Machado is hitting .182 with a .492 OPS and 15 strikeouts. He has zero home runs and zero RBI. Ok, we found him. That’s Manny “Freaking” Machado.

The Padres are 2-8 against the Dodgers this season, and a team leader like Machado should probably not have delusional responses to the media after making plays like this against his former team — a team where the fan base eviscerated him for a lack of hustle.

Ok, wait. We finally know why Machado isn’t concerned. It’s because the Padres never had a chance of catching the Dodgers in the division! Oh, now it all makes sense! They were always hoping for that Wild Card berth. If last year’s collapse to finish under .500 taught Machado anything, it’s that the Padres would never maintain the necessary consistency to remain in a two-horse race with the cream of MLB’s crop.

Still, though, the pressure remains squarely on the Pads, who are now hanging on by a thread to that final Wild Card spot by 1.5 games over the Milwaukee Brewers. They trail the Phillies by a half-game and the Atlanta Braves by 3.5 games in the race at the moment.

Maybe a team with sky-high expectations led by a hot head isn’t a winning formula?

Dodgers fans will love Padres Twitter melting down after being swept

The Los Angeles Dodgers swept San Diego this weekend, and seeing Padres Twitter have a meltdown will make every fan laugh.