Good morning,
Last night’s 6-2 win over the Giants was full of rarities.
The Padres’ third victory in a row — their first three-game winning streak since they won four straight from April 9 to 12 — ended up featuring some timely hitting and some more runs scored because of aggressive baserunning.
But all they ended up needing was Manny Machado’s three-run homer in the first inning.
Not only was it Machado’s first home run in 54 at-bats, it was the Padres’ first homer this season with more than one runner on base. That’s for real. They had not had anything more than a two-run homer before last night. And Machado’s 399-foot blast was just their seventh home run with anyone on base, tied for fewest in the majors.
“To be able to play with the lead from the beginning, that was nice,” Jayce Tingler said.
Novel concept. The Padres have scored in the first inning of eight of their 28 games this season. They have won five of those games. Last night was the 13th time they scored before their opponent. They have won eight of those games. This was just the eighth time they have never trailed in a game.
As the Padres have reminded us, good teams find a way to win. Last night certainly wasn’t the ideal offensive production. But it was efficient. It was just the second time in the past four seasons they have scored six or more runs on six or fewer hits.
Machado’s homer came after Trent Grisham led off the bottom of the first with a single and Fernando Tatis Jr. worked a walk. Between Machado’s home run and Jurickson Profar’s homer leading off the eighth inning, the Padres were 1-for-21 with two walks.
Profar’s homer was followed by a single by Grisham, Tatis beating out a double play relay and an intentional walk to Eric Hosmer. Tatis and Hosmer then executed a double steal, and Jake Cronenworth drove them both in with a single.
The Padres have manufactured far more runs with aggressive baserunning — the most aggressive and best in the majors, as I noted in this story a few days ago — than they have by extra-base hits. They have maintained all season that the big hits will happen.
“We’re one click away from getting this going,” Machado said last night. “Once we do, this train is going to be going for a long haul.”
Here is Jeff Sanders’ story on the game, during which the Padres’ pitching staff lowered its major league-leading ERA to 2.80 and the offense moved up and into a tie for 16th in the majors at 4.11 runs per game.
“Up to this date, as of April, the bullpen and pitching staff has carried us,” Machado said. “I think it’s about time the offense starts chipping in.”
Crazy (early) times
Latest dose of perspective about the fact that five months remain in the season.
The Padres were in fourth place on Wednesday morning. This morning, three games later, they are tied for second place with the Dodgers, a half-game behind the first-place Giants.
“It’s the best division in baseball,” Machado said. “… Everybody is playing very good baseball It’s going to be tough.”
Actually, the Dodgers have lost 10 of their past 13, and the Giants have lost the past two nights at Petco Park and four of their past seven. The Padres have won six of eight.
Working hard
Machado was taking batting practice alone on the field yesterday afternoon about four hours before first pitch. And then still about three hours before first pitch.
It wasn’t unprecedented, but it was notable.
“Trying to find a hole,” he quipped. “I found one. Over the fence, I guess. That’s the only way it works.”
So, he has noticed that entering Saturday he had put a major league-high 46 balls in play that had an exit velocity of 95 mph or higher. Just 20 of those were hits, and just three were home runs.
His home run had an exit velocity of 104.1 mph, and he grounded out at 112 mph and 101.4 mph last night. So his total of hard-hit balls is up to 49, and his average on those balls is down to .429. Just six of the 26 players with at least 35 hard-hit balls have a lower batting average than Machado does on those balls.
If there is one thing we’ve learned about Machado in his three seasons in San Diego it is that he has an unfailing belief he will get his hits — and that he eventually does.
“I’ve been around this game a long time,” he said. “You can’t worry about those. Eventually, they’ll fall. As long as you’re having good quality at-bats day in and day out, eventually they’ll fall.”
Whatever specifics he was working on yesterday, he said it was something that with the help of hitting coach Damion Easley and first base coach Wayne Kirby has been coming together for several days.
Don’t know, won’t say
The Padres have become increasingly less transparent under Tingler. But this is next level.
We don’t know who their starter is for today’s game. It is Joe Musgrove’s turn in the rotation. Dinelson Lamet is eligible to come off the injured list. For all we know, it could be Ryan Weathers, who threw 19 pitches on Wednesday. If they put someone on the injured list, they could recall Nabil Crismatt to start.
“We’ll announce something in the morning,” Tingler said late last night. “We’ll see where some of the guys are at. … Obviously, we’ve got a lot of things going on with different guys. Not going to get into detail We’ve got some guys coming back off injury, and we’re going to leave it at that.”
While in most instances like these, the team does have a high degree of confidence what it will do, we can give the Padres the benefit of the doubt here. They could just want to make sure Lamet is still feeling up to starting this morning and want to protect against having to explain publicly if he isn’t ready to go.
The reality is the Padres are trying to figure out how to get their starting pitchers through the season when none of them threw more than the 82 2/3 innings Yu Darvish did in 2020. Additionally, besides Darvish, none of their starters has a history of throwing a lot of innings.
“It’s just the sheer (amount) of innings and how many innings we’re playing and have to throw,” Tingler said yesterday afternoon. “We know it’s going to take more than a 26-man roster. We’re trying to be responsible and at the same time playing to win. … Understanding the workload and it’s a long season. Trying to think what’s best short-term, what’s best long-term.”
Heck, maybe this guy will start today:
Hill’s fast progress
Tim Hill throws against the Dodgers last season.
(K.C. Alfred/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
In Friday’s game, his 15th appearance of 2021, left-hander Tim Hill threw harder than he had all season.
His two fastest pitches of the year — at 93.6 and 93.4 mph — were thrown to the first batter he faced, Darin Ruf, and immediately preceded the foul ball that was initially ruled a grand slam.
Hill, who entered with one out and the bases loaded, struck out Ruf, a pinch-hitter, and then struck out Mike Tauchman.
Maybe soon, teams will stop sending up right-handed pinch-hitters against Hill. Right-handed batters are 2-for-27 against Hill, a .074 average. Left-handers are 8-for-24 (.364) against him. (Last year, Hill had more even splits and was better against left-handed hitters.)
“Obviously from his arm angle, naturally you think lefty specialist,” fellow reliever Emilio Pagán said yesterday. “But the way he commands his fastball to the top of the zone, that’s something very unique from somebody that throws from that angle. He’s very confident against righties, and he’s gotten the chance to pitch to them more this year than he did last year. He’s riding the confidence wave. He’s got tremendous stuff. He’s got an elite fastball, especially from throwing basically his back hip. It’s fun to watch, man. He commands the ball. He commands up, down, in, out. And he’s starting to spin his slider more consistently. I honestly think this is the tip of how good Tim Hill can be and I’m excited to see what he accomplishes moving forward.”
I wrote last week about Hill’s reliability and revamped slider. Certainly, his being able to disguise that pitch better and use it more is making his fastballs more effective. But his fastballs — a four-seamer that rises as he throws from his side-arm angle and a two-seamer that sinks — are also averaging 91.4 mph, up from 90.7 last season.
Hill’s 1.42 ERA in 12 2/3 innings is tied for 15th best in the majors among relievers with at least 12 innings pitched, and he has stranded 13 of the 18 runners he has inherited.
His strikeout rate is up, from 23.1 percent his first three seasons to 30.9 percent this season. He has struck out 11 of the 30 right-handers he has faced. Of his 17 total strikeouts, 12 have ended on a fastball.
Yeah, but …
Ask any of the Padres relievers, it seems, and they will tell you that what they’re doing as a group right now isn’t that different or impressive.
“The few years I’ve been in the big leagues, it’s kind of how it’s been,” Pagán said yesterday, echoing what Hill said earlier in the week and others have indicated. “The game has changed over the last couple years to more of a bullpen type game. … I can’t say I see anything different.”
OK. Good for them, putting their heads down and getting the job done and all.
But they’re full of it.
The bullpen has thrown more innings than any team in the majors and over the past 19 games has had to throw at least eight innings four times and at least seven innings in another two games.
No Padres bullpen has had to work that much that often in such a short span since 2018.
Tidbits
- Tommy Pham started for the first time since leaving last Sunday’s game against the Dodgers with a calf strain. He picked up where he left off, lining a 112.7 mph single off the left field wall in the second inning. He finished 1-for-2 with a walk and is 7-for-22 with four walks over his past 10 games. He has in that span raised his batting average 48 points to .188 and his on-base percentage 31 points to .321.
- Grisham, leading off for the first time in eight games, was 2-for-4 with two singles and is 9-for-23 in a six-game hitting streak. Seven of the nine hits, including both last night, have been to the opposite field. The left-handed hitter has pulled just one of those hits to right field.
- The Padres have committed a major-league high 24 errors, including the one by Cronenworth in the fifth inning that contributed to one of the Giants’ runs.
- Cronenworth was 5-for-42 entering Wednesday’s game in Arizona, just the second time he did not start this season. He came off the bench to get a pinch-hit home run that night and is 2-for-7 with a walk in this series.
- Maybe you saw my story Friday about Austin Adams being, in the words of pitching coach Larry Rothschild, “all or nothing.” Last night, Adams struck out all three batters he faced in the seventh inning (on 11 pitches) and is now tied for 11th in the majors with a 41 percent strikeout rate and is sixth in the majors with 17.28 strikeouts per nine innings. What’s the “nothing” to which Rothschild alluded? Adams has hit six batters. He and Rothschild have some interesting comments in the story.
- Profar entered last night’s game seeing an average of 4.36 pitches per plate appearance, ninth most in the majors. But his first home run of the season came on the first pitch in the bottom of the eighth inning. It was also the only pitch he saw last night, as he entered to play left field as part of a double switch in the top of the eighth.
- Wil Myers left two more batters on base last night and, with 48, is three off the major league lead held by the Astros’ Kyle Tucker.
Check it out
I love bringing this free newsletter to you. More people are signing up for Padres Daily every day. Literally. It grows every day. That makes me happy.
What I’d like to ask now is that you also consider subscribing to the Union-Tribune. It’s not free, but it practically is.
Here’s the deal: Four weeks for $1. Even if all you read about is the Padres, that comes out to about a penny per story. We post anywhere from three to six stories a day on the team during the season.
Sign up here.
Enough about me
Sorry there was no newsletter yesterday.
I got the second vaccine shot on my way home from the airport Thursday and it kind of knocked me out Friday.
I’m happy to be back. Talk to you tomorrow.
May 02, 2021 at 09:30PM
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/padres/newsletter/2021-05-02/padres-manny-machado-bullpen-jurickson-profar-austin-adams-dinelson-lamet-trent-grisham-padres-daily
Padres Daily: A rare kind of night; A hard Machado hit finds a hole; relievers are full of it - The San Diego Union-Tribune
https://news.google.com/search?q=hard&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
No comments:
Post a Comment