Sometimes this season — as baseball stumbled through 60 games to get to this adrenaline-and-27-cups-of-coffee-fueled month-long gauntlet that will crown a champion — Manny Machado would chat with opposing players who had reached third base.
If his San Diego Padres were home at Petco Park, the runner might say something that Machado must have already known, but probably appreciated hearing nonetheless.
“This city would be rowdy if the fans were able to be in the stands,” the runner would say. Or something like that.
“Because they know this city. They know this city,” Machado said Thursday, a few hours before what certainly would have been the loudest, rowdiest game at Petco this year.