San Diego Padres third baseman Manny Machado, one of the more controversial players in the league due to his antics on and off of the field, went viral following a comment he made to a reporter prior to the Padres' Wild Card series matchup against the Chicago Cubs. Machado cut off sports reporter and San Diego Native Karthik Venkataraman during a press conference on Monday, taking a shot at the CBS 8 anchor's attire. "Aren't you from San Diego?" Machado asked.
"Why are you wearing blue?" Venkataraman replied, asking the All-Star if he liked it, to which Machado had a two-word answer. "Obviously not," Machado said before cracking a smile. Whether Machado's issue with the color stems from the Padres' rivalry with the Los Angeles Dodgers or the upcoming matchup with the Cubs is anyone's guess, but he clearly wants the local media to stand behind his team as they head into the Wild Card round for the third season in a row.
Machado has been a big part of the team's success this year, though his numbers don't quite reflect how influential he's been on the season. He had 30 homers and 91 RBIs, posting a .711 OPS over the course of 158 games — during which he posted 1.5 bWAR. The Padres and Cubs faced each other in last year's NL Wild Card series as well, with the Cubs narrowly advancing over San Diego.
The Padres finished the year with a better record than the Cubs, largely due to a strong second-half surge and some iffy late-season results from the Cubs. Chicago lost four of their final six games this season, though they were without All-Star third baseman Alex Bregman for all but one of those games. San Diego, on the other hand, had an incredible second half of the season, going 41-23 after the All-Star break, and saw some of their biggest stars — like center fielder Jackson Merrill and Fernando Tatis Jr. — perform to the best of their ability during the final couple of months of the season.
The Padres will have their hands full with Bregman and MVP-elect Pete Crow-Armstrong, but have a solid chance at taking down the Cubs in the first round of the postseason — especially with home field advantage this year. The first game of their series comes Tuesday at 7:00 p.m.
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