For the struggling San Diego Wave FC, a teenager represents hope.

Melanie Barcenas has magic feet, as verified by her last two matches since returning from a hip injury.

The 16-year-old’s exciting trap-and-shot late in Friday’s match wasn’t enough to end the Wave’s struggles. The goalkeeper knocked away the high-speed shot, and the Portland Thorns broke through for a goal in the 84th minute, leading to the visiting Wave’s 1-0 defeat before an announced crowd of 18,011.

But talent is talent.

It’s clear Barcenas, a Clairemont-area native and former San Diego Surf star, has it.

“Oh, she’s so exciting,” Wave interim coach Paul Buckle said. “It’s not easy coming off the bench for any professional player, but she’s made it look pretty easy.”

Wave defender Hanna Lundkvist says this of Barcenas: “She’s brave and she’s got techniques.”

The Wave are desperate for scoring punch. Look for Barcenas to get more chances beginning Aug. 24, when the National Women’s Soccer League’s regular season resumes following the Paris Olympics.

Plagued by imprecision and disconnection, the 10th-place Wave (3-7-6) have been shut out in their past three-and-half games — including both matches since team president Jill Ellis fired coach Casey Stoney, the defense-first head coach.

Of course, a teen can’t be expected to come to the rescue.

The burden to turn around the offense begins with several veterans, including three accomplished NWSL scorers who are without a goal this season: forwards Alex Morgan, 35, and Maria Sanchez, 28, and midfielder Savannah McCaskill, 27.

Morgan’s drought, which spans 10 matches, appeared to end late in Friday’s first half when she tapped in a loose ball.

Then came a signal from the referee: Morgan was offside.

“That’s how it’s going for us,” said Buckle, who disagreed with the call.

Deep into her second season, Barcenas has shown she might provide a spark during the upcoming 10-game stretch that ends in early November.

She entered in the second half, just as she did in a 3-0 loss a week earlier.

Nearly decking the Thorns, she unloaded perhaps the most powerful shot any opponent has faced in the Wave’s past three matches.

The sequence began when Barcenas, a 5-foot-4 midfielder working at left wing after replacing Sánchez, tamed McCaskill’s smart crossing pass into the box with a perfect first touch. Eluding a defender, Barcenas pivoted and clubbed the bounding ball with her right foot.

Goalkeeper Shelby Hogan, on the way to her seventh shutout this season, punched the laser over the bar.

“Incredible save,” said Buckle.

Two minutes after the fans exhaled, the Thorns had them roaring.

It began with Thorns midfielder Hina Sugita stealing goalkeeper’s Kailen Sheridan’s ill-advised pass by ambushing Wave defender Kristen McNabb near the center stripe.

The sequence ended with 22-year-old Izzy D’Aquila’s one-touch goal from 4 yards, off a crossing pass from Janine Beckie, who saw D’Aquila dart past defenders Abby Dahlkemper and Lundkvist.

The final whistle sent the Wave on a glum, too familiar walk off the pitch.

They’re winless in their nine road matches, a year after winning six road games to record the league’s best away record.

Scoreless in the 300-plus minutes since rookie Mya Jones’ goal at NJ/NY Gotham FC on June 19, winless in the nine matches since they beat last-place Utah on May 8 in Mission Valley, the Wave now will try to regroup.

The layoff and exhibition matches will allow them to work on the finer points of the transition from a defense-first team to one that, in Ellis’ phrase, is “built on attacking.”

Such an overhaul takes more than two weeks.

“We have to keep believing because we did so many things right,” Buckle said. ‘We were brave again. But, we’re just not getting anything for our troubles right now. We were brave with the ball. I’d be nitpicking if I said anything different.

“I’m just desperately disappointed for the players. I said that to them, ‘Football can be cruel sometimes’. But, if we keep playing like we’re playing, it will turn. It will turn for us.”

In pursuit of a playoff bid, NWSL teams are permitted more lives than a cat. Eight of the 14 clubs get in.

Every soccer expert agrees the Wave have more talent – especially on defense led by Naomi Girma – than a handful of fellow stragglers.

All it may take is a two or three wins and a few ties. Six of the 10 matches will come in Mission Valley. Rest will be abundant, and several upcoming opponents lack game-changing firepower.

But it will take more scoring from a Wave team that shows 12 goals in 16 matches.

The Wave know the stakes. They stand as the NWSL’s most disappointing team, given they won the league title last year and were picked first or second by the soccer media and oddsmakers entering this year.

“There’s nothing to say,” said Lundkvist, who was in Sweden last season. “We have to keep going and just keep pushing.”

Leonardo da Vinci famously mused in the fifteenth century that “we know more about the movement of celestial bodies than about the soil underfoot.” Just as mind-boggling, the U.S. Forest Service tells us that “Soil is a complex, living system that serves as the skin of the earth. In just one thimble full of soil, you can expect to find 100 million to one billion bacteria, several thousand protozoa and 10 to several hundred nematodes. Dirt is literally squirming with insects, nutrients and life.”

The soil food web is the biologically active part of the soil, which is vital for growing healthy plants. As gardeners, our hands are often in contact with the soil, but unless we have studied botany or horticulture, most of us know very little about the soil in our gardens, other than the fact that our soil anchors and supports our plants’ roots and nourishes the parts of the plant aboveground. It is critical that we gardeners care as much for our soil as we do for our plants.

‘Just-right’ soil

Goldilocks was on a quest to find the “just-right” porridge and a “just-right” bed. If we were on a quest to pinpoint “just-right” soil, these are the attributes we would be looking for.

Texture: Soil can be sandy, silty, loamy or clayey (yes, this is the adjective for clay soil). Soil texture refers to the proportion of sizes of the various particles that make up the soil. Sandy soil has the largest particles. The next largest are silt and the smallest particles are clay. Loam is the best textured soil and contains about 40 percent sand, 40 percent silt and 20 percent clay. Loamy soil is ideal for many reasons including being well aerated and easily penetrated by roots.

Structure: Soil structure refers to the arrangement or aggregation of mineral and organic soil particles and the spaces between them. A just-right soil structure allows the soil to “breathe” and enables both movement and retention of water, air and nutrients. It also provides space for root growth.

Water-holding capacity: Water is delivered to plants from their roots. Water keeps plants turgid and is indispensable to the processes of photosynthesis, transpiration and the transport of nutrients from the soil to the plant. For these reasons, soil needs to hold and release just the right amount of water. Do a drainage test by digging a 1-foot-by-1-foot hole and filling it with water. Let it drain, refill it and time how long it takes to drain. In well-drained soil, the water level will go down at a rate of around 1 inch an hour. Less than that and drainage is inadequate, which is the case in very clayey and compacted soils. Very sandy soils drain too fast, which can deprive plants of sufficient water for their needs. Both sandy and clay soils can be improved with the addition of compost.

Fertility: A fertile, nutrient-rich soil is necessary to supply plants with the macronutrients and micronutrients needed in the proper form for plants’ roots to absorb them. Organic material such as well-rotted plant and animal residues provide soil fertility. Good soils contain 3 to 6 percent organic matter. We can improve our soil’s fertility, texture, water-holding capacity and soil aeration when we amend our soil with organic amendments such as worm castings, manure and compost. These amendments provide a food source for microbes, which can help soil structure regenerate.

Soil pH: An optimal pH is vital to the release of nutrients in the soil to the plant, so a correct pH level makes a huge difference to the health of our plants. Most plants grow best in slightly acidic to neutral soil (a pH between 6.0 and 7.0). The “just-right” pH for roses is a soil that tests between 6.0 and 6.5. An alkaline pH (typical in San Diego) can be adjusted with the addition of sulfur. A too-low pH can be adjusted with the addition of lime.

Soil porosity: Maintaining good air-filled porosity is important, as plants’ roots and soil organisms need oxygen. In water-logged clay soils and compacted soils, porosity decreases, which can limit root growth. Especially under wet conditions, we should refrain from tilling the soil or stepping on the soil, as both actions can lead to compaction.

Soil management and improvement

We may not be able to make our garden soil ideal or “just-right,” but we can take certain actions that will help improve our soil.

Avoid compaction: The lack of oxygen in compacted soils greatly limits plant growth because the lack of oxygen prevents good root growth. Compaction also decreases the micro-organisms inhabiting the soil that change organic matter in the soil into nutrients that plants can use. Is there anything we can do to avoid compacting our soil? Absolutely! Try to avoid walking in garden beds and step as much as possible only on steppingstones. Postpone your plans to work in your garden when the soil is wet after a rain. Limit tilling and spading the soil, as this damages soil structure, especially when the soil is wet.

Amendments to improve soil: Soil amendments such as worm castings and compost improve soil texture, structure, water-holding capacity, fertility, pH and soil porosity. In addition, the nutrients contribute to the soil biota, which help the plant uptake nutrients from the soil. Instead of digging the amendments into the soil, layer the worm castings and compost on top of the soil. Earthworms and other soil organisms will move the organic material into the soil. Adding liquid amendments like liquid humic acid, liquid kelp or seaweed, alfalfa tea or liquid fish emulsion is also a good way to enrich the soil without digging, and these products stimulate the growth of micro-organisms in the soil. Our best option to improve texture, drainage and nutrients in a clay soil and a sandy soil is to add organic materials.

Some rosarians will add gypsum (calcium sulfate) to clay soil to improve structure, compaction and drainage. Jolene Adams, master rosarian and past American Rose Society president, provides evidence in her article, “Will Gypsum Improve Clay Soil” that gypsum can help only a “sodic soil” — a soil with high levels of sodium and low levels of calcium and magnesium. Since the majority of clay soils are not sodic, Adams advises not giving in to the marketing hype and to get a lab test before using gypsum.

Organic mulch: There is a lot to be said for all the benefits that a good organic mulch can provide to the soil. It helps soil retain moisture for plant use, reduces erosion, improves soil structure over time, improves biological activity in our soil, impedes weed growth and it gives the garden beds a finished and attractive appearance. Mulch needs to be applied annually. When applying mulch, do not cover the canes or trunk of your plants.

Kick the chemical fertilizer habit: Synthetic fertilizers are lab-made and faster acting so they boost and expedite plant growth and bloom rate. However, these fertilizers are high in salts and do nothing to improve our soil’s health, texture or long-term fertility. They can be detrimental to populations of beneficial micro-organisms, and too much can “burn” our plants.

Cut out unnecessary fertilizers, pesticides and fungicides: Proper fertilization enhances plant growth without polluting the environment. Too much unnecessary fertilizer, pesticide and fungicide can not only injure, burn and kill a plant, they can also mess up and poison our soil and the soil organisms. Additionally, when these products are overused, they can run off into the ocean, lakes and streams.

Soil test: How can you tell if you are using an unnecessary amount of fertilizer? In addition to the pH of your soil, a soil test will tell you if your soil is deficient in nitrogen, phosphorus or potassium or any of the micronutrients. For a healthy soil and healthy plants, add only the nutrients your soil needs. Epsom salt has been added to rose gardens for decades by conscientious rosarians in the belief that epsom salt prompts basal breaks. But research shows there is no value to this practice unless soil is deficient in magnesium.

What is the top secret to success for gardeners? Take care of the soil, and it will take care of the rest.

Perwich is a member of the San Diego Rose Society, a Consulting Rosarian and a Master Gardener with UC Cooperative Extension.

With a little more than three weeks left until the trade deadline, General Manager A.J. Preller is sure to be shopping for pitching this month.

His two most expensive starters are on the injured list and without a definitive timetable.

The guy expected to be the ace is slumping.

Another key arm has already thrown more innings than he ever has in the majors.

Which makes every turn that Randy Vásquez takes in the rotation a critical data point as Preller decides just how to play the chips he has left.

Just what can the Padres expect from the 25-year-old right-hander?

Starts like Friday’s would be just fine, but clearly at least one leverage bullpen arm needs to be on Preller’s list, too, even if Jurickson Profar and Machado managed to save the day again.

A half-inning after the bullpen coughed up six runs, Profar hit a game-tying homer and Manny Machado hit a walk-off, two-run homer for a 10-8 win over the Diamondbacks in front of a Petco Park-record crowd of 47,171.

It ain’t over ’til Manuel Arturo Machado says it’s over. pic.twitter.com/4LSUvemYtR

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) July 6, 2024

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“We’re making it normal, right?” Profar said. “We’re showing who we are as a team. We’re going to do it over and over again. We’ve got guys in here. I’ve been telling you guys since Day 1, we don’t quit. We keep giving it.”

Especially of late.

The Padres had won four straight series entering the final homestand before the All-Star break. Including Friday’s dramatics, they’ve won 12 of their last 15 games and a 7-2 lead in the ninth inning looked like it would afford Padres manager Mike Shildt his primary goal after Vásquez’s quality start:

Stay away from the leverage arms that had worked the previous two wins.

“Almost at all cost,” Shildt admitted afterward.

Relievers Adrián Morejón and Jeremiah Estrada were both down. Closer Robert Suarez gave the team a thumbs up after throwing Friday afternoon if a save situation arrived and it did, unbelievably.

Shoot, Enyel De Los Santos even recorded the first out of the ninth before back-to-back singles and a walk loaded the bases, forcing Shildt to push Suarez into the game.

His first pitch to Alek Thomas: A grand slam to right to cut the Padres’ lead to a single run.

Suarez fetched another out on a groundball, but Corbin Carroll followed with a double and Randall Grichuk — pinch-hitting for All-Star Ketel Marte (back tightness) — blasted the go-ahead home run into the Western Metal Supply Co. building.

Fine.

No big deal around here.

“We’re built that way,” Machado said. “We’re going to fight until the 27th out is made.”

It never was.

Down 8-7 in the bottom of the ninth, Profar battled back from 0-2 against closer Paul Sewald to launch a game-tying homer to right. After Jake Cronenworth worked a walk, Machado pulled an 0-2 sweeper over the wall in left, setting off a raucous celebration that included a fan managing to get onto the field in front of the dugout with a cellphone in Machados’ face before he was taken to the ground by six security guards.

“I thought it was one of our guys in here celebrating with me,” Machado said after his fourth hit of the game delivered his 10th career walk-off homer. “I looked around and when I turned around he was getting tackled, man. I felt bad. I felt bad.

“Obviously it’s not a good situation for him, but he got some good footage there, for sure.”

What should have been a winning formula without all the late-inning dramatics was small ball early, rookie Jackson Merrill tripling and tying a career-high with three RBIs and Kyle Higashioka adding on in the sixth with a two-run homer.

More and more, Vásquez is contributing to that formula as 6⅓ innings of two-run ball positioned the Padres to win a third straight game that began with him on the mound.

He struck out six batters, including two after Joc Pederson led off the sixth inning with a leadoff single and one more to boot to start the seventh as Shildt asked the bullpen to protect a five-run lead.

It was Pederson who tagged Vásquez for a first-inning homer after Carroll’s leadoff double. The Diamondbacks threatened to add on in the first inning after Lourdes Gurriel’s two-out double, but Vásquez punched out Gabriel Moreno for the start of nine straight outs to settle into the game.

Including Friday’s quality start, Vásquez has a 1.76 ERA over his last three starts, all wins for the Padres.

“It’s really a combination of working on my mechanics and also working on sequencing each pitch,” Vásquez, speaking through interpreter Danny Sanchez, said of his last three starts. “Luckily I’ve been able to have good results with a combination of those two things.”

Given all the support he had in Boston, Vásquez was on his way to a win for himself in his last start when a comebacker off his right elbow knocked him from the game after four innings of one-run ball.

X-rays came back negative.

Just a lot of pain and swelling at first, enough for the Padres to push his start back a day to Friday.

But Vásquez did not have any limitations as he returned to the mound and pitched into the seventh inning for the second time in his career, both this season. He walked off the mound to a warm ovation from the record crowd.

Small ball had everything to do with Vásquez leaving with a lead.

First, Machado led off the second with a double, moved to third on a groundball from Donovan Solano and scored on another groundball from Merrill.

Two innings later, back-to-back seeing-eye singles from Cronenworth and Machado set up a four-run rally to give the Padres the lead. Both runners advanced a base on Solano’s fly ball to right-center and scored easily on the triple that Merrill pulled into the right-field corner.

David Peralta followed with a run-scoring double, Higashioka added a run-scoring single to open a 5-2 lead and the Padres catcher went deep in the sixth for his 10th homer of the season.

Nine of Higashioka’s blasts have come since June 1, tied with Merril for the most on the team over that stretch.