Connect with us

Published

on

PEORIA, Ariz. — San Diego Padres star Manny Machado, who underwent offseason surgery to alleviate tennis elbow in his right arm, has been throwing for roughly six weeks and has spent the last week or so ramping up the intensity on the field.

Swinging a bat and fielding ground balls isn’t a problem, Machado said. The biggest question, which hovers over his availability for the Padres’ season-opening two-game series from South Korea on March 20, is “what my arm can tolerate throwing wise.”

“Just building up my arm, building up the arm strength,” Machado said from the Padres’ spring training complex Tuesday afternoon. “I’m on a great program right now. Arm feels good how I’m building it up. It’s just staying on that plan.”

Machado, 31, spent a sizeable portion of his offseason in San Diego to work with the team’s physical therapists. He missed his family and his boat in Miami, but he felt it was important to focus on his rehab coming off a relatively down season that saw him hit the injured list for the first time in nine years and finish with a .782 OPS — 51 points lower than his career mark heading into 2023.

Machado also thought “communicating with the city” was important.

“It’s big for them to see that we’re in this with them at the end of the day,” Machado said. “You just have to embrace everything that comes with it.”

Despite a star-laden roster, the Padres fell well short of enormous expectations last year, finishing shy of the postseason with an 82-80 record bolstered by 14 wins over their past 16 games. The front office went into the offseason with plans to cut payroll, but Peter Seidler, the revolutionary owner who spent big on the roster, died Nov. 14.

Less than a month later, superstar outfielder Juan Soto was traded to the New York Yankees in exchange for pitching depth.

Star closer Josh Hader has since signed with the Houston Astros and reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell will eventually join a different team, too. The Padres, meanwhile, still have massive holes in their outfield and could use another starting pitcher and perhaps an extra hitter who can fill in at first base. But Machado expressed confidence in a group that he still headlines, alongside Fernando Tatis Jr., Xander Bogaerts, Joe Musgrove and Yu Darvish.

“Obviously no one can replace Soto,” Machado said. “He’s the top player in the game. He’s irreplaceable. I’m not saying that. But we believe in the guys that we have.”

The Padres finished the 2023 season with a plus-104 run-differential, trailing only the Atlanta Braves and the Los Angeles Dodgers for the NL lead. But they finished just 9-23 in one-run games and were one of the least clutch teams in the sport, prompting many to wonder if the massive expectations they entered the 2023 season with ultimately became a burden.

Machado dismissed that.

“At the end of the day, we just gotta play better,” he said. “That’s ultimately what it comes down to. … We know we have it. It’s there. We just gotta take it out from within. And the group that we have here, I think a lot of guys are hungry. They’ve been hungry all offseason. We’ve been communicating.”

The Padres can absorb Machado initially spending time as the team’s designated hitter by moving Ha-Seong Kim from second to third base and Jake Cronenworth from first to second base. That would require more additions to the lineup, which Padres general manager A.J. Preller is still striving to make.

The Opening Day payroll currently projects to somewhere in the neighborhood of $150 million, about $100 million less than where it stood at the start of last season. Preller said he still has the payroll flexibility to add and has been exploring the trade market for help, particularly in the outfield.

“I feel good with the team we have,” Machado said. “We lost some big key pieces, but we believe in the guys that we have in here, with what our capabilities are. Obviously myself, Boggey and Tati, we have to perform better than we did last year. But other than that it’s just going out there and just thinking as a team. At the end of the day, it’s believing in each other.”

Continue Reading

Sports

Logano gets 1st win this season in OT at Texas

Published

on

By

Logano gets 1st win this season in OT at Texas

FORT WORTH, Texas — Reigning NASCAR Cup champion Joey Logano overcame a lot to get his first victory this season.

It came a week after Team Penske teammate Austin Cindric‘s win at Talladega, where Logano had a fifth-place finish that became 39th after a postrace inspection found an issue with the spoiler on his No. 22 Ford. There was also Logano’s expletive-laden rant on the radio toward his teammate in the middle of that race that the two smoothed out during the week. Oh, and he started 27th at Texas after a bad qualifying effort on the 1½-mile track.

But Logano surged ahead on the restart in overtime Sunday to win in the 11th race this year. He led only seven of the 271 laps, four more than scheduled.

“After what happened last week, to be able to rebound and come right back, it’s a total ’22’ way of doing things. So proud of the team,” Logano said.

On the final restart after the 12th caution, Logano was on the inside of his other teammate, Ryan Blaney. But Logano pulled away on the backstretch and stayed easily in front for the final 1½ laps, while Ross Chastain then passed Blaney to finish second ahead of him.

“Just slowly, methodically,” Logano said of his progression to the front. “Just kept grinding, a couple here and a couple there and eventually get a win here.”

Logano got his 37th career victory, getting the lead for the first time on Lap 264. He went low to complete a pass of Michael McDowell.

“I mean, there’s always a story next week, right?” Logano said. “So I told my wife last week before we left, I said, ‘Watch me go win this one.’ It’s just how we do stuff.”

On a caution with 47 laps left, McDowell took only two tires and moved up 15 spots to second. He ended up leading 19 laps, but got loose a few laps after getting passed by Logano and crashed to bring out the caution that sent the race to overtime. He finished 26th.

“We were giving it everything we had there to try to keep track position,” McDowell said. “Joey got a run there, and I tried to block it. I went as far as I think you could probably go. When Blaney slid in front of me, it just took the air off of it and I just lost the back of it. I still had the fight in me, but I probably should have conceded at that point.”

Odds and Ends

William Byron, Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott remained the top four in season points. … Elliott left Texas last spring with his first victory after 42 races and 18 months without one. He hasn’t won since, and now has another long winless drought — this one 38 races and nearly 13 months after finishing 16th. … A crew member for Christopher Bell crawled in through the passenger side of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and was fully in the car to reconnect an air hose to the driver’s helmet during a caution in the second stage. It took two stops during that caution, and twice climbing into the car, to resolve the issue.

Fiery end to Hamlin streak

Hamlin had finished on the lead lap in 21 consecutive races, but a fiery finish on Lap 75 ended that streak that had matched the eighth longest in NASCAR history. He was the first car out of the race.

After the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota lost power, something blew up when Hamlin recycled the engine. Flames were coming from under the car and it was engulfed in smoke when it rolled to a stop on the inside of the track, and Hamlin climbed out unharmed.

Youngest pole sitter

Carson Hocevar, the 22-year-old driver who is McDowell’s teammate with Spire Motorsports, was the youngest pole sitter in Texas. He led only the first 22 laps of the race, losing it while pitting during the first caution. He finished 24th after a late accident.

Stage cautions

Both in-race stages finished under caution. Cindric won Stage 1 after Hamlin’s issues, and Kyle Larson took the second after a yellow flag came out because of debris on the track after the right rear tire on Chris Buescher‘s car came apart.

Larson got his 68th overall stage win and his sixth at Texas, with both marks being records. He has won a stage in each of the past five Cup races at Texas, starting in his 2021 win there.

Continue Reading

Sports

Jets’ Scheifele misses G7 because of injury

Published

on

By

Jets' Scheifele misses G7 because of injury

Winnipeg forward Mark Scheifele did not play in Game 7 of the Jets’ first-round Stanley Cup playoff series against the St. Louis Blues on Sunday due to an undisclosed injury, coach Scott Arniel said.

Arniel ruled out Scheifele following the team’s morning skate. He was hurt in Game 5 — playing only 8:05 in the first period before exiting — and then did not travel with the Jets to St. Louis for Game 6. Arniel previously had said Scheifele was a game-time decision for Game 7.

Scheifele, 32, skated in a track suit Saturday, and Arniel told reporters the veteran was feeling better than he had the day before. Scheifele, however, was not able to participate in the Jets’ on-ice session by Sunday, quickly indicating he would not be available for the game.

Winnipeg held a 2-0 lead in the series over St. Louis before the Blues stormed back with a pair of wins to tie it, 2-2. The home team has won each game in the best-of-seven series so far.

The Jets’ challenge in closing out St. Louis only increases without Scheifele. Winnipeg already has been dealing with the uneven play of goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, a significant storyline in the series to date. Hellebuyck was pulled in all three of his starts at St. Louis while giving up a combined 16 goals on 66 shots (.758 SV%). In Game 6, Hellebuyck allowed four goals in only 5 minutes, 23 seconds of the second period.

Hellebuyck was Winnipeg’s backbone during the regular season, earning a Hart Trophy and Vezina Trophy nomination for his impeccable year (.925 SV%, 2.00 GAA).

Continue Reading

Sports

Stars expect Robertson, Heiskanen back in semis

Published

on

By

Stars expect Robertson, Heiskanen back in semis

Stars coach Pete DeBoer expects to have leading goal scorer Jason Robertson and standout defenseman Miro Heiskanen available in the Western Conference semifinals after both missed Dallas’ first-round series win over the Colorado Avalanche.

Following their thrilling Game 7 comeback victory over the Avalanche on Saturday night, the Stars await the winner of Sunday night’s Game 7 between the Winnipeg Jets and St. Louis Blues. If the Blues win, the Stars will have home-ice advantage in the best-of-seven series.

“I believe you’re going to see them both play in the second round, but I don’t know if it’s going to be Game 1 or Game 3 or Game 5,” DeBoer said after Saturday’s series clincher. “I consider them both day-to-day now, but there’s still some hurdles. It depends on when we start the series, how much time we have between now and Game 1. We’ll have a little better idea as we get closer.”

Robertson, 25, who posted 80 points (35 goals, 45 assists) in 82 games this season, suffered a lower-body injury in the regular-season finale April 16 and was considered week-to-week at the time.

Heiskanen hasn’t played since injuring his left knee in a Jan. 28 collision with Vegas Golden Knights forward Mark Stone. Initially expected to miss three to four months, the 25-year-old defenseman had surgery Feb. 4 and sat out the final 32 games of the regular season. In 50 games, he collected 25 points (five goals, 20 assists) and averaged 25:10 of ice time, which ranked fifth among NHL blueliners.

Continue Reading

Trending