The Padres play their 50th game of the season this afternoon. Needless to say -- at 22-27 entering today’s series finale at Nationals Park -- it's not the 50-game start they envisioned.

Then again, Juan Soto would know a thing or two about bouncing back from a rough first 50 games. His 2019 Nationals famously started the year 19-31, before reeling off five incredible months to claim the franchise's first World Series title.

Record-wise, the Padres' current predicament isn’t quite so dire. But they’re still in obvious need of a turnaround. So, based on his recollections of those 2019 Nats, what did Soto learn to be the key to a turnaround like that one?

"Just keep hoping, keep working," Soto said. "What makes everything turn over is when you start playing as a team, and you forget about your personal stats. Just go out there, try to help the team and enjoy the game. At the end of the day it’s a game. On the 2019 team, we [understood] that it’s a game, and we all came together as a team and tried to have fun. We [didn't] think about playoffs, not even World Series.

"We were always thinking, 'Come out, have fun, have a great time, go out there and beat some teams.'"

When Padres players held a clubhouse meeting last week, that mindset was one of the talking points. The expectations for this season were so vast, it had become harder to live in the day-to-day.

That's understandable. And it's why Soto's perspective is valuable.

"In 2019, you wanted to come to the ballpark not just because you're playing the game you love," Soto said. "It's more because you're going to have fun. Either way, you're winning, you're losing, you're going to have fun.

"That's what it takes. When you play a team game and you forget about everything else, you just come to have fun and play good baseball."

Lately, of course, the Padres haven’t done much of that. They’ve acknowledged that, no, it hasn’t been all that fun. They’re mired in a stretch in which they’ve won just four times in the past 16 games.

But if ever there were a team that served as testament to the need for patience amid a long season, it’s those 2019 Nationals. Soto has the World Series ring to prove it.

Which Padre led the team in hits during the 1998 World Series against the Yankees?

• It’ll be years (decades?) before we can fully assess the Soto trade. But it sure has been fun to see both ends of that trade thriving this week. Soto is obviously on a tear, and he looks like perhaps the most fearsome hitter on the planet again.

But there have also been moments where MacKenzie Gore and CJ Abrams flashed their upside. Gore struggled with his command, but he brought upper-90s heat with filthy offspeed stuff on Tuesday night. Later in that game, Abrams launched a two-run homer.

"They have really bright futures,” said Padres manager Bob Melvin. “[Abrams] is a shortstop with power. He's got speed. Still at a young age, he looks very confident out there. He's always been a real confident player. I think that's one of his best attributes is he always thinks he's going to get a hit. He always thinks he's going to make a play.

"And then, Mack, watching him from the other side, he's pretty good. … Hearing the guys talk about how his stuff plays when they come back [in the dugout], fastball's on you, it's on top of you, it's top of the zone with good extension. And then obviously he has two good breaking pitches. They're both going to be really good players."

Good players, indeed. The Padres were never going to acquire Soto without those.

• There are plenty of damning numbers regarding the Padres’ offense right now, mostly tied to their inability to hit with runners in scoring position. But perhaps the most disheartening stat is this one: The Padres haven’t overcome a deficit of any size to win a game since May 5.

This is an offense that should be highly capable of mounting comebacks. These Padres, with this collection of hitters, should never feel like they’re out of a game. And yet, the margin for error has felt razor thin for their starting pitchers.

“I wish I had an answer for you,” said Melvin after the Padres’ 5-3 loss on Wednesday night. “… It’s been a problem for us. We should be able to push through and answer the challenge late in the game. We definitely have the guys to do it. We just have not, to this point.”

• When Manny Machado went down with a fractured metacarpal in his left hand, I certainly didn’t envision Rougned Odor delivering Machado-level production. But here we are.

Since May 16, the day after Machado sustained the injury, Odor is hitting .412/.500/.706. His bases-clearing double on Sunday remains the Padres’ only hit with runners in scoring position in the past week (a 1-for-29 stretch).  Odor added a two-run homer on Wednesday, as the Padres’ comeback effort fell short.

“I’ve been feeling pretty good at the plate,” Odor said.

Meanwhile, Brandon Dixon, who has platooned with Odor in Machado’s absence, went deep on Tuesday against Gore.

• Nelson Cruz has been a big league hitter for nearly two decades. It blows my mind that in Year 19, Cruz could just pick up Jake Cronenworth’s axe-handle bat and start using it as though nothing were different. It feels like that change should seem drastic to a hitter. (Cronenworth credits his bat-handle switch for rejuvenating his career in the Minors.)

“It’s easy, I guess,” Cruz said. “It’s just the handle that’s different. But I feel like the balance is [better]. You can stay a little bit longer inside the baseball.”

In any case, Cruz is done using Cronenworth’s bats. Cronenworth’s bat manufacturer shipped a fresh batch to Cruz that arrived in D.C. this week. Same length and weight, but with Cruz’s name on it.

B. Tony Gwynn

Gwynn finished the 1998 World Series 8-for-16, doubling the hit totals of Rivera and Gomez, who tied for second.