Baseball is a long slog.
Unique from the other major American sports, our pastime is set apart for, among other reasons, the immense length of the MLB season. Across six months of play and 162 games, a given season contains winning streaks, losing streaks, and tiny, tectonic shifts in momentum.
By this point in the season, frankly, it can be hard to even know where we started. And when a team plays September baseball as sloppy, inconsistent, and lackluster as the Padres did this week in Arizona, it’s enough to cause even the most ardent MLB fan to start looking forward to the start of football season.