Good morning from San Francisco,
The Padres threaded the needle between letting the game come to them and taking it to their opponent in yesterday’s seventh inning.
“Nothing out of the world,” Fernando Tatis Jr. said. “Just moving the line, taking good pitches when they’re the right pitches, and it just kept going up.”
You can read in my game story (here) about how the Padres came back from three runs down in the sixth inning and two runs down in the seventh to beat the Pirates 6-4.
It was very much like many of their games early in the season and unlike most of their games recently. Actually, considering the 12 straight batters who made outs midgame, yesterday was in totality very much like recent games and very much like games early in the season.
“I mean, just the way we won I think was just huge,” Manny Machado said. “No matter the victory. I think it was just the way we played baseball. It was the key. We gotta continue doing that. It’s been a rough couple weeks, rough month, but this group grinded it out, and we keep continuing to grind.”
Almost as an aside, and only occasionally, over the past few weeks have players and others in the organization alluded to maybe “trying to hit the three-run homer with no one on” or “trying to do too much” or not being patient.
They mostly kept saying they were happy with their at-bats as a whole. And the truth is, not everyone on a team takes good or bad at-bats in a game. It was also true that they have faced a spate of excellent pitchers. All of it made for a run of impotence that was surprising for how long it dragged on and how low the output was.
Yesterday’s seventh inning was an interruption of what had become normal and a return to their former normal.
“It was just, like, not trying to do too much and not everyone trying to be a hero,” Tyler Wade said. “It was trusting the guy behind you if you’re not getting your pitch. And that’s literally all. It was keeping the line moving and trusting the guy behind you.”
It often is when things go right that what hasn’t been going right is most easily acknowledged.
Wade’s single off pitcher Caleb Ferguson’s glove was one of three hits the Padres had in the seventh inning. They also walked four times, more than they had in 24 of their previous 55 games this season.
“These are things we’ve done the past year-and-a-half,” Jake Cronenworth said. “It’s kind of who are are now.”
Yes, we all would have agreed back on May 10.
The Padres tied a team record for hits in a nine-inning game with 24 of them and beat the Rockies 21-0 that day in Colorado. It was their MLB-leading 20th game (of 38) with at least 10 hits, and they led the majors with a .269 batting average and ranked fourth with a .284 batting average with runners in scoring position.
In the 18 games between then and yesterday, the Padres reached double-digits in hits once, ranked 29th with a .206 batting average, ranked last with a .167 average with runners in scoring position and scored two or fewer runs eight times.
Padres manager Mike Shildt said after Saturday’s 5-0 loss, in which the Padres had three hits and five total baserunners, that the night was not “representative” of what their offense is about.
Of yesterday’s seventh inning, he said, “It’s what we are looking to do consistently.”
He also fairly reminded us, “Easier said than done.”
Maybe the Padres made it look too easy for a while.
They had shown an uncanny ability through the season’s first six-plus weeks to manufacture runs. And it wasn’t that they never did so the past two-plus weeks. They won Friday despite getting just three hits, none of them home runs. They came back from a 6-0 deficit Tuesday against the Marlins, scoring runs in the first five innings of that game.
But it no longer seemed all that likely that they would score.
They still had just eight hits yesterday. They were 1-for-13 from the second through the fifth innings, as they saw a 1-0 lead become a 4-1 deficit.
But they got a run closer in the sixth and then had the necessary big inning by sending 10 batters to plate.
“We gotta do it from the first inning,” Machado said. “That’s when we’re at our best. But definitely a good starting point. That’s (how) this team is made up. And everyone through that lineup could do that day in, day out. So hopefully we can get back on that path and ride it out to the end of the season like we know we’re capable of.”
Trending toward the Hall
Machado’s first-inning home run yesterday was the 349th homer of his career and the 1,965th hit of his career.
It is perhaps a matter of a few weeks before Machado becomes the 79th player in history to have both 350 home runs and 2,000 hits.
That he is doing so in his age-32 season bodes well for his eventually having Hall of Fame credentials.
He will be just the 12th player to have reached those marks that young.
Eight of the 11 that have done so are in the Hall of Fame. Miguel Cabrera and Albert Pujols will be once they are eligible, and Alex Rodriguez’s PED use what has kept him out of the Hall.
The key for Machado will be staying healthy for the better part of his 30s. Each of the above-listed Hall of Famers finished their careers with at least 2,415 hits and 493 home runs.
Morgan on the attack
Every pitcher tells himself to do what David Morgan is doing when they are called up to the major leagues.
A bunch of them just can’t do it.
Morgan is throwing strikes at a 70% clip in his three appearances.
“You don’t get outs without throwing strikes,” Morgan said yesterday. “Been doing it in the minors. When you get called up, you can’t be afraid of these guys. You’re here for a reason. I think that’s the biggest thing that guys start to spray the ball (when) you start seeing some familiar names in the box, you start seeing some some special talent in the box, and you get a little nervous. But you’re not going to stick around if you don’t throw strikes. … It’s what got me here. It’s the only way to stay. So got to trust the stuff.”
Morgan entered yesterday’s game at the start of the sixth inning with the Padres down 4-1. When he left two outs into the seventh, that is still where the deficit was.
Save for a game-tying three-run homer Morgan allowed in his second appearance — on a pitch that got way too much of the strike zone — the 25-year-old right-hander has been doing exactly what the Padres need. Yesterday was his third appearance and the second in which he was part of the bullpen bridge to a comeback.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” he said. “Those are the moments you want to pitch in. You you want to help the team win. I’m glad that I’ve been able to do that so far.”
Darvish progress
Yu Darvish has progressed to throwing off a mound to a catcher in the bullpen.
He did so Saturday – about a half-dozen pitches at something like 90% intensity — and is scheduled to do so again today or tomorrow at Oracle Park.
That he went as hard as he did Saturday and is planning another bullpen session with an even higher pitch count and intensity is considered highly encouraging.
There remains no timeline for his return, and the Padres are still leaving the pace of his rehab up to Darvish.
“I’m just excited,” he said yesterday morning. “You know, feel good. Just sucks when I get hurt (and) I can’t throw the balls. But now it’s good, so I’m happy.”
Darvish has not pitched this season after being shut down in mid-March with elbow inflammation. He worked his way back to making a rehab start in Triple-A on May 14. By all s, his stuff was excellent in that 51-pitch, four-inning outing. He hit 97 mph with his fastball.
But his expected season debut was put on hold, as he experienced what was termed “tightness” in his elbow and was not comfortable returning. He did not want to put the Padres at risk when he was not sure he could do what it took to pitch in a major league game and recover to make consecutive starts.
Asked yesterday to characterize what he is going through, Darvish said, “I can’t talk about it. It’s pretty complicated.”
Then he said something that helps explain the process he and the Padres are working through as he adjusts to pitching with his new normal – at almost 39 years old and possibly with an elbow that is at times stiff or tight or just feels differently than what he is accustomed to.
“We need to find a new routine,” Darvish said.
That means his between-starts throwing regimen and workouts and perhaps even how hard he throws in games.
Darvish is highly in tune with his body, even more so than the typical pitcher. And he has developed a highly structured and intensive program to stay ready in the season.
The reality is many pitchers cut down on their physical workload as they near 40. Some even abandon the typical between-starts bullpen session.
These types of changes are all things Darvish and the Padres are working through.
In bunches
The Padres play just their ninth game against a National League West opponent tonight.
Thus starts a stretch in which the Padres will play NL West foes in 14 of their next 17 games — four against the Giants, seven against the Dodgers and three against the Diamondbacks.
In the 37 games after that, their only NL West games will be a four-game series against the Diamondbacks.
And when that run is done, they will play division opponents 16 times in 19 games — six against the Dodgers, seven against the Giants and three against the Diamondbacks.
Then, in their final 31 games, they play the Rockies seven times and Diamondbacks three times.
Tidbits
- You can read Jeff Sanders’ notebook (here) for an update on Gavin Sheets after his collision with the left field wall in the fourth inning. Also in there is an update on starting pitcher Michael King, who spoke to the media for the first time since going on the injured list.
- Tom Krasovic’s column (here) from yesterday is a fun read — with talk about the Pirates’ appreciation of the Petco Park crowd, the pitch Jackson Merrill hit for his RBI double, interaction between Andrew McCuthen and young Padres fan and more.
- Elias Díaz was 0-for-12 as pinch-hitter this season before his RBI single in yesterday’s seventh inning.
- Merrill doubled twice yesterday, his first game of the season and eighth of career with multiple extra-base hits.
- The Padres were 4-for-10 with runners in scoring position yesterday. They are 12-2 when having at least 10 at-bats with runners in scoring position and 13-1 when having at least four hits.
- The Padres’ 19-10 record in games decided by no more than two runs is second-best in the major leagues behing the Guardians (18-7).
- Adrián Morejón replaced Morgan with two outs and runner on first base and got a groundout to end the seventh inning. That made him the winning pitcher when the Padres took the lead for good in the bottom of the inning. It was the second straight appearance in which Morejón (3-2) got the win.
All right, thats it for me.
Talk to you tomorrow.
