San Diego Padres star Manny Machado might be having a down year, but he just reached an impressive career milestone.
The third baseman cranked his 300th home run Saturday and it came in style, putting the Padres up 4-3 against the Philadelphia Phillies. Take a look at this absolute moonshot, via MLB:
No. 300 for Manny Machado is a big one! pic.twitter.com/FeLzrL999b
— MLB (@MLB) July 15, 2023
An absolute no-doubter from Machado. He knew it was a mile gone once it left his bat. The blast traveled 427 feet and left the barrel at 108.5 mph. The definition of a bomb.
In smashing No. 300, he's now just the 11th active player to reach that number, via MLB.com. Among them are Nolan Arenado, Evan Longoria, Miguel Cabrera, Mike Trout, Freddie Freeman, and many others.
While Manny Machado is slashing .261 with 16 homers in 75 games, he's really coming into his own as of late. The veteran is batting .389 in the month of July with seven home runs in only nine games. Needless to say, he is getting red hot.
To be honest, that's exactly what the Padres need, too. It's common knowledge this offense is failing to live up to expectations and it's a big reason they're below .500 and out of the playoff picture. On a more positive note though, San Diego is on a four-game winning streak and has started to score more runs.
With the second half underway, the likes of Xander Bogaerts, Juan Soto, and Fernando Tatis Jr, who is having a decent season already, need to follow suit and start producing like Machado, or else, missing the postseason is very much possible.
