The San Diego Padres ended their 2021 season with a bitter taste in their mouths.
After having a firm grip on the second NL Wild Card spot, the Padres went into a tailspin down the stretch, not only losing their grip on the Wild Card spot, but also falling well out of contention and finishing below the .500 mark with a 79-83 record.
The Padres hope to turn things around in 2022, and with some new additions and a new manager, they look like a team that is ready to compete.
Padres owner Peter Seidler commented on the Padres late season collapse, stating that if they were to fall off a cliff, they might as well have it be dramatic.
SD Padres owner Peter Seidler on last year’s disappointing season. ‘If you’re going to fall off a cliff, you might as well make it dramatic. And we did.’’
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) March 15, 2022
In Dramatic Fashion
The Padres collapse certainly was quite dramatic.
After a solid 2020 season in which they reached the postseason, they were off to a pretty good start in 2021 and had a firm grasp on that final Wild Card spot in the NL.
But of course, things didn’t pan out.
San Diego began to slide and ultimately finished 11 games behind the surging St. Louis Cardinals in the Wild Card race.
Rarely does a collapse of that magnitude happen.
Such a late season slump hasn’t been seen since the collapses of the Atlanta Braves and Boston Red Sox at the end of the 2011 season, where both teams were eliminated from the Wild Card race in dramatic fashion on the last day of the regular season.
The Padres will look to turn it around in 2022 but will have to start without Fernando Tatis Jr. as he rehabs from the injury he sustained while riding a motorcycle during the lockout.
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