Bryce Miller of The San Diego Union-Tribune takes the Padres to task after Juan Soto complained that the team gives up (emphasis in the original):

This team is lifeless and listless, right at the time the incentive to be the opposite sits right in front of their collective nose. It seems as if no one wants to earn the final NL wild-card berths. Opportunity brims. The Padres yawn.

When the chance to stiff-arm the frustrations of a season that has dumbfounded baseball presented itself, it seemed as if spark plug infielder Ha-Seong Kim might have been the only lineup regular who truly got it.

We just give up.

SanDiegoUnionTribune.com

It’s very easy to blame this season on a lack of effort. On the other hand, the Padres came into Thursday allowing the fewest runs per game in the NL, 4.09 while scoring middle of the pack at 4.57 runs per game. The team should be 63-52 instead of 55-60, and that would put them at the top of the Wild Card pile. A big reason for the eight game difference with their Pythagorean projection is their 6-18 record in one-run games.

Maybe that record is a lack of guts, heart, and determination, but it also could be a few pitches that just missed getting barreled, or a few line drives that found a glove instead of the outfield grass.

I would argue that the real disappointment is that the offense is just middle of the pack. This should be a group that is as capable of leading the league as the pitchers and defense. They are hitting well enough to win. The team may very well go 10-1 in their next set of one-run games, and turn everything around. Luck has a way of evening out.