It’s funny how quickly the swagger disappears when you get humiliated 8-0 in front of your home crowd. Shut out. Shut down. Shut up.

The Padres have turned into the villain. With cocky gestures and silly “look at me” antics every single time they hit a home run or make an amazing play—you know, what they are supposed to do—players like Fernando Tatis Jr and Manny Machado have become the bad boys of baseball.

On Tuesday, they erupted for six runs in the second inning and with every one of them, especially the two-run homer by Tatis, there was cocky, in-your-face showboating. They took a commanding 6-1 lead over their archrival Dodgers. Until an inning later when Los Angeles got a grand slam to make it 6-5.

The Padres won Game 3 to go up two games to one and the showboating continued. They expected it would stretch into Game 4 where they were going to waltz into the next round over the Dodgers depleted pitching.

Getting punched in the face 8-0 tends to throw a wet blanket over the silliness.

Now, the Padres have to go back to Los Angeles and play the pivotal Game 5 in front of a hostile crowd on Friday, tail between their legs.

They’ve managed to do something nobody ever saw coming. They’ve made Dodgers fans out of everyone. Because nobody likes a jerk. And the Padres are full of them.

*****  
TODAY’S GAMES: 

5:08, Cleveland 2 @ Detroit 1, TBS

7:08, New York 2 @ Kansas City 1, TBS