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San Diego, CA

Padres must wait to clinch postseason berth, but bigger goals remain within reach

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1 year ago

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Padres must wait to clinch postseason berth, but bigger goals remain within reach


SAN DIEGO — At 1:27 p.m. Sunday, the out-of-town scoreboard in right field at Petco Park was updated to reflect a result that had just gone final more than 2,000 miles away. Atlanta 5, Miami 4. The Padres thus learned they could not clinch a postseason berth until Tuesday at the earliest.

Then, with no visible change in collective demeanor, they went on to observe what has become a familiar routine.

They came back from a deficit. They won, maintaining the majors’ highest success rate in the second half. They secured the franchise’s first 90-victory season since 2010. The latest capacity crowd in downtown San Diego did not seem to care that it came at the expense of a team that made the worst kind of history.

“People talk about scoreboard watching, and I understand it. The scoreboard I watch is at home in left-center. It’s our scoreboard. It’s about what we do,” manager Mike Shildt said after the Padres rallied in the eighth, prevailed 4-2 and handed the Chicago White Sox their 120th loss.

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“Those players on the field, they got to the big leagues by getting it done on the field, and that’s what this is about. It’s about us taking care of our business, and we’re not looking for anything other than what we can control.”

And the Padres (90-66) still control something potentially seismic. Sunday’s result in San Diego, combined with a subsequent walk-off in Los Angeles, kept the Padres three games behind the Dodgers. Tuesday, the two teams will meet in a series at Chavez Ravine that could all but decide the National League West. The Dodgers have won the division in 10 of the past 11 seasons. The Padres have not won it since 2006. More than a possible first-round bye is at stake.

“We want it,” Jurickson Profar said. “We’re going there and bringing our ‘A’ game.”

The Padres did not require that level of performance against the White Sox. San Diego’s regular-season home finale drew the 56th sellout of the year (and brought the club’s single-season attendance record to 3,314,593). The White Sox, on their way to all-time ignominy, lost their 56th game this season after having a lead.

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Amid a three-game sweep, the supposedly hapless visitors still managed to push the Padres. Shildt was compelled to deploy multiple high-leverage relievers in each win. White Sox right-hander Sean Burke, making his second big-league start, threw six innings of two-hit ball in the series finale. Chicago took a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the eighth before Luis Arraez delivered a tying pinch-hit RBI double, Profar supplied a go-ahead sacrifice fly and Fernando Tatis Jr. homered for insurance.

Against a famously overmatched opponent, the need for such dramatics would have been more troubling if the Padres weren’t already 36-21 in comeback games, 47-41 against above-.500 teams and an MLB-best 39-17 since the All-Star break. Now, they are a 90-win club for the first time in the decade-long tenure of general manager A.J. Preller.

“A.J. deserves a lot of credit. But our players ultimately get the credit,” Shildt said. “They’re the ones out there executing. But it’s a very complete roster. We’ve been able to demonstrate how to win games a lot of different ways. We do play a lot of close games; we’ve been able to execute and be on top of most of them.”

After last season’s historic failures in high-leverage situations, few people outside the organization predicted that the Padres would turn things around in such convincing fashion.

“That’s something that we worked for since day one in spring training,” Profar said. “Very happy that we’re showing it. A lot of people didn’t believe in us, but we trusted each other and kept building every day.”

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Just six months ago, the Padres gathered on their home field to honor the life of late owner Peter Seidler. Late Sunday afternoon, the players lingered on the same field, applauding the type of crowd that didn’t consistently fill Petco Park until Seidler spent unprecedented sums of money trying to bring San Diego its first major sports championship.

“This is what Peter built. We’re just taking care of it,” Tatis said. “We’re definitely doing it for him on the front line. But these fans are showing up, the city. It’s just a beautiful time right now in San Diego.”

The Padres must take care of more business to ensure postseason baseball returns to this city. They hold a three-game lead over the Arizona Diamondbacks in the race for the National League’s first wild card, a berth that would come with home-field advantage against the second wild-card team. San Diego will conclude the regular season next weekend with three games at Chase Field.

But, first, a potentially seismic series at Dodger Stadium awaits. A division title remains within reach.

“Los Angeles and Arizona, it’s gonna prepare us for the playoffs,” Profar said.

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“Everybody knows we’re ready to play baseball, we’re ready to win this division,” Arraez said. “We’ll go to L.A. and compete with those guys. We just need to continue to play hard and then stay together. If we stay together and stay healthy, we can do a lot of good things.”

“It’s been an amazing year playing in front of these fans,” Manny Machado said. “And we’re gonna continue to play in front of them for the next couple weeks and hopefully the next month and a half.”

(Photo of Jurickson Profar tossing his bat after hitting a solo home run: Denis Poroy / Getty Images)





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San Diego, CA

San Diego sues federal government over razor wire fence near U.S.-Mexico border

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51 minutes ago

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January 6, 2026

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San Diego sues federal government over razor wire fence near U.S.-Mexico border


The city of San Diego has filed a lawsuit against the federal government that alleges the construction of a razor wire fence near the U.S.-Mexico border constitutes trespassing on city property and has caused environmental harm to the land.

The complaint filed Monday in San Diego federal court states that razor wire fencing being constructed by U.S. Marines in the Marron Valley area has harmed protected plant and wildlife habitats and that the presence of federal personnel there represents unpermitted trespassing.

The lawsuit, which names the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Defense among its defendants, says that city officials first discovered the presence of Marines and federal employees in the area in December.

The fencing under construction has blocked city officials from accessing the property to assess and manage the land, and the construction efforts have” caused and will continue to cause property damage and adverse environmental impacts,” according to the lawsuit.

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The suit seeks an injunction ordering the defendants to cease and desist from any further trespass or construction in the area.

“The city of San Diego will not allow federal agencies to disregard the law and damage city property,” City Attorney Heather Ferbert said in a statement. “We are taking decisive action to protect sensitive habitats, uphold environmental commitments and ensure that the rights and resources of our community are respected.”



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San Diego, CA

Padres roster review: Sung-Mun song

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13 hours ago

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January 6, 2026

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Padres roster review: Sung-Mun song





Padres roster review: Sung-Mun song – San Diego Union-Tribune


















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SUNG-MUN SONG

  • Position(s): Third base, second base
  • Bats / Throws: Left / Right
  • 2026 opening day age: 29
  • Height / Weight: 6-foot / 194 pounds
  • How acquired: Signed as a free agent in December 2025
  • Contract status: A four-year, $15 million deal will see Song make $2.5 million in 2026, $3 million in 2027, $3.5 million in 2028 and $4 million in 2029 if he does not opt out of last year; Half of his $1 million signing bonus is due in January 2026 and the other half in 2027; There is a $7 million mutual option for 2030.
  • fWAR in 2025: N/A
  • Key 2025 stats (KBO): .315 AVG, .387 OBP, .530 SLG, 26 HRs, 90 RBIs, 103 runs, 68 walks, 96 strikeouts, 25 steals (144 games, 646 plate appearances)

 

STAT TO NOTE

  • .214 — Song’s isolated power in 2025, a career high as he prepared for a jump to the majors. Isolated power measures a player’s raw power (extra bases per at-bat) and Song had a .190 OPS in 2018, in his third year as a pro in Korea, before it dropped to .101 in 2019 and then a career-low .095 in 2023. Hitting 19 homers pushed Song’s isolated power to .178 in 2024 and then a career-high 26 homers push it even higher in 2025.

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San Diego, CA

Poway removes hundreds of trees to make city safer

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1 day ago

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January 5, 2026

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Poway removes hundreds of trees to make city safer


Drivers traveling through the city of Poway may have noticed a dramatic change to the landscape. Since September, more than 1,400 trees — many of them eucalyptus — have been removed as part of the city’s hazardous mitigation grant project aimed at reducing wildfire risk and improving public safety.

Poway is spending roughly $3 million on the effort, which focuses on removing trees that are dead, dying or considered dangerous. Much of the cost is being reimbursed by FEMA. Officials say the project is designed to make emergency evacuation routes safer while improving the overall health of trees along major roadways, rights-of-way and open spaces.

“I was relieved that there were some efforts being put into improving our resiliency to wildfire in our community,” said Poway Fire Chief Brian Mitchell.

Mitchell said spacing out trees can slow the spread of a wildfire and prevent roads from becoming blocked during an emergency.

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“That certainly has the potential to block our first responders from accessing somebody’s house in the middle of an emergency,” Mitchell said.

City leaders also point to storm safety as a key reason for removing hazardous trees under controlled conditions rather than risking falling limbs or entire trees during severe weather.

“I don’t want to be driving down that street and just a random limb just happened to collapse, you know, just hit me,” said Poway resident Dawn Davis.

Davis said she also worries about the threat the trees pose to nearby homes.

“I don’t want anybody’s homes here to be damaged, either by them or fire,” Davis said.

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A Poway spokeswoman said a certified arborist evaluated nearly 6,800 trees in Poway. About 2,800 invasive trees were recommended for removal.

This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC San Diego. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC San Diego journalist edited the article for publication.



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