San Diego, CA
Snell, Hader show their value before Deadline
SAN DIEGO — Well, then. Maybe the Padres are buyers after all.
If they entered their weekend series against Texas still looking for a direction, still looking for a sign that it might be worth adding to a roster that spent the first four months of the season underwhelming — maybe this was it.
The Padres swept the first-place Rangers, capping it with a tense 5-3 victory on Sunday afternoon at Petco Park. They still find themselves two games below .500 and on the fringes of the National League Wild Card race. But if this was their last chance to make a statement to their front office that it’s worth buying — or, at the very least, not selling — before Tuesday’s Trade Deadline, they made quite a statement.
“I’m very happy we got a sweep,” said left-hander Blake Snell, who would instantly become the prize of the trade market if the Padres were to decide to sell. “Hopefully, that helps our chances more to be buyers. I believe it does. I’m just not going to think about it at all. Whatever happens happens. But I can focus on my pitching and really just lock into that.”
And is Snell ever locked in. His 2.50 ERA leads the Majors. No, he wasn’t particularly efficient on Sunday afternoon, walking four. But he allowed only one unearned run across five innings and has posted a 0.65 ERA over the past two months.
Two Gary Sánchez home runs gave San Diego an early lead, before the Rangers mounted a late charge, making closer Josh Hader work. He loaded the bases in the ninth, before getting Josh Jung to fly out to end the game.
Hader, of course, might be the trade market’s next-best chip after Snell — if he’s even a trade chip at all, that is. It’s been a year since Hader was sent to the Padres in the first of multiple Deadline blockbusters last summer. He’d rather not be moved again.
“We have a really good team, and we’re playing good baseball,” Hader said. “We’ll see what they decide to do in the next couple days. Like I’ve said, I love it here, I love this team, and I’d love to stay.”
That decision, of course, is largely out of Hader’s hands (although Sunday’s pressure-packed save may have helped tilt things in his favor.) Still, the preference of the Padres’ front office remains a mystery. Sources have indicated recently that the team would be open to all paths, listening on all offers — buying, selling, perhaps even both.
With only one game left before Tuesday’s 3 p.m. PT Deadline, here’s the reality of where things stand:
• The Padres sit five games back in the NL Wild Card race, needing to jump three teams to put themselves in a playoff position.
• The Padres have deficiencies on their roster worth addressing, namely the bottom of their lineup, their bench and their pitching depth.
• The Padres, on paper, still appear to have one of the most talented teams in the sport, loaded with superstars. They have somehow managed to produce the NL’s third-best run differential and its 10th-best record.
“I’m ready to go with the boys that are in this clubhouse,” said Fernando Tatis Jr., and he’s not the only one to espouse that notion.
To a man, the Padres are resolute in their belief that they have enough to reach the postseason as currently constructed. And maybe they do. They’re 15-9 in July — precisely the type of baseball they’ll need to play to reach the postseason.
It’s a steep climb, nonetheless, and the Padres will need a lot of things to go their way — not the least of which is health. On both sides of the ball, this roster is precariously thin. Case in point:
After the third inning on Sunday, second baseman Ha-Seong Kim exited with a jammed right shoulder. He injured it diving headfirst into a collision at the plate with Rangers catcher Sam Huff. After the game, Kim said he expects to be OK and could return as soon as Monday’s series opener in Colorado.
Still, the moment underscored the fragility of what lies ahead for the 2023 Padres. Kim has been arguably their best player. Their depth behind him is limited. If they’re going to make a run to the postseason, they’re going to need good health.
They might also need to make a trade or two to reinforce that depth.
If they’re buying, that is.
And that path sure feels more likely now than it did three days ago.
SAN DIEGO (KUSI) – The new look St. Augustine Saints Football Team, led by new Head Coach Ron Caragher, take down the Rancho Buena Vista Longhorns 18-13 at San Diego States Passing League.
The standouts from the game include Longhorns’ Quarterback Brayden Freitas, who threw two Touchdowns against the Saintsmen, and Saints Quarterback Vincent Smith, who threw two Touchdowns against RBV, including the game-winning pass to Paisios Polamalu (son of Troy Polamalu).
OXFORD, N.C. (AP) — President Joe Biden and Donald Trump have their sights on a handful of battleground states in the White House race, and North Carolina is one of them.
Rural voters in particular will play an important role for both campaigns, but the candidates will have to overcome voter indifference, fatigue and even disgust.
Both Democrats and Republicans hope face-to-face contact will help them make their case. In places like Granville County, a swing county tucked between the Raleigh-Durham area and the Virginia state line, that has already begun.
Here are some key takeaways from an examination of the campaign less than five months before the November general election.
Spending war for North Carolina’s airwaves
When it comes to advertising spending in North Carolina, Democrats are outpacing Republicans by a nearly 4-to-1 margin, according to AdImpact data. As of June 7, Democratic groups had spent more than $4 million compared with about $1 million from Republicans in the state.
That gap widens even further when looking ahead to the fall. For reserved ad slots between June 8 and Election Day, Democrats have spent more than $5.6 million so far, compared with $25,000 reserved by one Republican political action committee. Those reservations are subject to change as races come into focus.
The Raleigh-Durham area makes up a significant portion of advertising spending in North Carolina for both parties: almost $2 million for Democrats and more than $138,000 for Republicans. The area skews heavily Democratic, but it also borders counties such as Granville and Franklin that voted for Trump in 2020.
Tuning out the election
As a rematch of 2020 takes shapes, many people in the United States are not paying much attention to the election.
About 4 in 10 Americans in a Pew Research Center poll conducted in April said they are not following news about candidates in presidential contest too closely or at all. Younger adults are less likely than older ones to be following election news.
Many people already find the election exhausting, even if they are not tuned in. About 6 in 10 U.S. adults in the poll say they are worn out by so much coverage of the campaign and candidates. Those not following closely are especially likely to say they are exhausted.
Trump’s record with North Carolina’s rural counties
In a state with the second highest rural population in the country, winning over those voters is essential. Democrats may not win outright in rural parts of North Carolina, but if they can keep the margins close, they have a better chance to take advantage of their strength in the state’s urban areas.
Previous election results show that appealing to North Carolina’s rural voters may be easier for Republican Trump than for Democrat Biden.
In 2020, 64 rural counties backed Trump while only 14 went for Biden. Compared with his 2016 campaign, Trump’s winning margin grew in most rural counties four years ago.
Possible openings for Democrats
A handful of rural counties could be more competitive. Granville County, for example, had one of the tighter margins of victory for Trump — 53% in 2020 — among rural counties. That was a jump of 3 percentage points from 2016, when he narrowly won against Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Before Trump, Granville County was considered a blue rural county. Democrat Barack Obama won it in 2008 and 2012. It’s one of six counties in North Carolina that made the pivot from Obama to Trump.
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — San Diego Police are searching for a suspect after a Jack in the Box fast food restaurant was robbed at gunpoint Saturday morning.
The San Diego Police Department (SDPD) reports a male suspect pointed a handgun at a cashier and took an undisclosed amount of money from the register at a Jack in the Box on Alta View Drive in the Bay Terraces neighborhood at 9:51 a.m. on Saturday.
There is currently no suspect in custody, according to SDPD. They are describing the suspect as a white man in his 30s, who is 5’11”, with a full beard and mustache. Police say he was wearing a green beanie/ski mask, khaki jacket, and brown pants.
Police confirmed no employees or customers were injured during the incident.
SDPD Robbery Unit Detectives are investigating.
Anyone with information is asked to call the SDPD non-emergency line or Crime Stoppers at 888-580-8477.
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