San Diego Padres manager Mike Shildt likes to call his team the “Grit Squad”. When they started the season 14-3, grittiness was not really needed. When they beat the Colorado Rockies 21-0, grit was not what they relied on. During points of this season, the Padres slugged and ran and defended themselves into impressive and overwhelming games.
During the past month the grittiness that Shildt has referred to has shown itself more noticeably. Their record of 14-13 for the past month has consisted of losing streaks, come-from-behind wins, multiple games where they were shut out and very few lopsided victories.