Jake Cronenworth homers, but Padres lose series to Royals 

SAN DIEGO — On the eve of the 2023 season, Padres third baseman Manny Machado spoke about the new expectations in San Diego and what it all meant. The tone had shifted, and that was a good thing, he said. A season ago, he even noticed booing from fans when the team underperformed, and you know what? He liked that.

“That means the world to us, seeing that there’s expectations for us to go out and perform every single day,” Machado said before the season. 

After a series like this one, it’s clear those expectations are still there. The boos told that story. It’s also clear San Diego has yet to live up to those expectations. The Padres dropped Wednesday’s series finale against the Royals, 4-3, at Petco Park. With the loss, they fell to 20-24, fourth place in the National League West, and their home fans let them know how they felt about it — as loudly as they have all season. 

“It’s not like we’re playing any better to deserve better,” said Padres shortstop Xander Bogaerts. “We’re not. It’ll continue until we start playing better. We’ve got to clean it up, all aspects of the game.”

Machado — who sported a splint on his left hand after he was diagnosed with a small fracture of a metacarpal bone — reiterated the same opinion he’d held before the season.

“I don’t blame them for booing,” Machado said. “We’re not playing well right now. There’s an expectation that we had coming into the season. … Collectively, as a group, we’ve got to go out there and be better.”

For nearly 40 minutes after Wednesday’s loss — in which the Padres stranded a whopping 12 baserunners, twice loading the bases with fewer than two outs without scoring — the home clubhouse remained shuttered to media. Inside, the players held a meeting, the specifics of which weren’t revealed afterward.

But if the exact message remained internal, the basics weren’t hard to glean.

“We have to clean a lot of stuff up,” Bogaerts said. “Once we do all of that, we’ll be fine. But there’s a lot of stuff that we have to clean up, and that’s starting with attention to detail.”

Bogaerts promptly added that the struggles aren’t due to lack of effort or preparation. Nearly every Padre reiterated as much. If anything, they’re searching too hard to find answers, particularly on offense.

Perhaps that’s what’s led to the team’s dreadful start to the season with men in scoring position. The Padres are currently hitting just .196 with RISP, which qualifies as an historic low. No team in recorded history has posted a RISP batting average below .200. On Wednesday, the Padres finished 2-for-9, though both of those hits were aided by Royals defensive blunders.

“We have a ton of really good hitters on this team,” said Jake Cronenworth, who launched a solo homer in the fifth inning. “But when it comes down to it, you need to go up there and believe that you’re going to do it — and believe that if you strike out…