NEW YORK — The Padres are who they are on offense.
They know they are at their best when they accept that and commit to scratching and clawing and taking what the game gives them.
But they also believe they are capable of being more.
They were both on Wednesday. They had to be.
They relied on both small ball and the long ball, twice manufacturing a single run to take leads and then getting four runs in a bunch from a Manny Machado grand slam to take their final lead en route to a 7-4 victory over the Mets.
And if not just in time, it was about time.
““Everybody is watching,” Fernando Tatis Jr. said before the game. “You can see where we need improvement, where we need to make adjustments real quick. We are a good team. We just need to execute.”
They went out and did so expertly – at