With one of the more eye-popping starting lineups in baseball, the San Diego Padres have fallen very short of expectations so far this year. Padres star Juan Soto is now calling out the reason why, claiming that his squad opts to ‘give up' when the going gets tough, reports The San Diego Union-Tribune's Kevin Acee.

“We've got to play as a team. We've got to go out there grind every day. Grind every at-bat. … It's been really inconsistent. Some days we do, some days we don't. We gotta do it every day. Days like this series, we just give up. Like literally, we just give up instead of keep grinding, keep pushing. We've got to forget about yesterday and keep moving.”

These are some really concerning quotes from Soto, although he definitely has a point that the Padres do not play up to the standards they should be holding themselves to. With guys in their lineup like Soto, Fernando Tatis Jr, Manny Machado, and Xander Bogaerts, this team should be very disappointed that they find themselves at 55-60 and falling out of the playoff race.

The Padres can all but give up on competing for the NL West, as they are 13 games back and the Los Angeles Dodgers are not going to be slowing down anytime soon. However, the NL Wild Card race is now looking more and more precarious for San Diego; they are 4.5 games back from the final NL Wild Card spot amid teams like the Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants streaking towards the finish line.

If the Padres have any desire to make it to the postseason in 2023, Juan Soto is right that they need to find some consistency as soon as possible.