Padres stumble on a rugged road trip, dropping 7-2 to Minnesota as Joe Ryan seizes control for seven innings. San Diego’s bats leave runners in scoring position all day and muster a two-run ninth; the day is overshadowed by a hamstring scare for Fernando Tatis Jr. Machado draws the lone Padres walk, while a late Bryce Johnson RBI offers a flicker of life. The Twins’ balance—Buxton, Sheets, O’Hearn, Laureano—widens the cushion and leaves San Diego with questions before hosting Baltimore.

The Padres head home for a Baltimore series eager to reboot, hoping the lineup can click more consistently and that Tatis Jr. is ready to return. Fantasy managers will watch the health of Tatis and the continued production from Machado and Cronenworth, along with the strength shown by the Twins’ lineup in this one.

AL free-agent weekly: identify likely free agents and Sizing bids for a $100 FAAB budget. Grids compare upside (A–E) and projected value across 12- and 15-team formats, with September rosters in view. High-upside names like Wyatt Langford are noted, but the focus is on practical buys and dart throws that can reshape the back half of standings.

Key bets include Kyle Bradish’s return to form in Baltimore, Taj Bradley’s high-upside dart throws, and a mix of mid-rotation holds like Luis Garcia and Parker Messick. On the hitting side, Ryan Mountcastle and Nolan Jones offer hot-streak paths, while pay-after-run risks like Payton Tolle and Dillon Dingler provide power-speed upside in shallower formats. September bullpen and closer options (Shawn Armstrong, etc.) add late-season ballast.

Padres lose Bogaerts for the rest of the season due to a broken foot, creating a late‑season shortstop vacancy. Iglesias or Cronenworth would likely step in, while moving Jackson Merrill or Fernando Tatis Jr. to short would be a high‑risk experiment with defensive concerns. The plan to shift Merrill is explicitly denied by the Padres, per Nightengale. In the meantime, San Diego may lean on a mix of Iglesias, Cronenworth, and outfield alternatives like Laureano, Sheets, and O’Hearn to cover Bogaerts’ absence while pursuing a World Series push against Minnesota.

Padres stay hot and sit one game behind the Dodgers in the NL West after a 12-3 eruption that stretched over two hours and 58 minutes. San Diego slugged Minnesota’s pitching staff from the sixth through the eighth, turning a tight game into a bullpen-workout for the Twins and forcing 226 pitches in nine innings, a historic number. Taj Bradley worked five frames for Minnesota before the Padres' order woke up, and the bullpen chaos that followed opened the door for fantasy-friendly gains from Padres bats.

The historic pitch-tally and the finish in Minnesota lift the Padres into real division contention, but the piece also signals a deeper workload story: if San Diego’s lineup stays productive, streaming opportunities rise. Yet the Twins’ extreme pitch count underlines how volatile a high-scoring outburst can be for fantasy managers, especially with late-inning bullpen usage looming in the schedule ahead.

Twins baserunning has flipped from a liability to a weapon, led by a green-light culture that has pushed several players into aggressive steals. Back-to-back four-steal games and a surge to 19 steals in 16 games highlight a season-long shift in risk tolerance under Baldelli.

Rookie Luke Keaschall, Trevor Larnach, and Matt Wallner have become catalysts, while Kody Clemens and Kody Funderburk have stepped into opportunistic roles. The Padres and other clubs faced the speed push as Milwaukee, Boston, and Tampa Bay were noted for struggles against the surge.

For fantasy managers, stolen-base upside has ticked up for Twins’ speed-leaning pieces, but the risk of outs remains a factor as the roster embraces a high-velocity path to offense.