Good morning,
That was just about the perfect way for this Padres team to beat the Rockies 2-1 last night and run their winning streak to five games for the first time this season.
This might be who the Padres are, as much as anything.
Jorge Mateo was on second base to start the 10th inning, moved to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored the winning run on a wild pitch.
The team that entered yesterday having scored more runs the than any team in the majors over the previous nine days had scored quite a few of those runs in ways we wouldn’t normally think about.
The Padres had six hits last night, but only one of them contributed to a run.
That was in the second inning, when Tommy Pham walked, went to third on Ha-seong Kim’s double and scored on Jurickson Profar’s groundout.
This sort of thing has happened a lot lately.
As much as the Padres’ lumber has woken from its slumber — they are hitting .279 with an .816 OPS while winning eight of their past nine games — they are making runs happen by many other avenues.
It can be comical when Padres manager Jayce Tingler gets going on a rant. The man repeats mantras like I have rarely come across in 30 years doing this job.
Thing is, as inane as his ramblings can get, it is often difficult to argue with his points. He is often, to use one of his frequent phrases, spot on.
Yesterday, he started talking about what kind of offense he wanted the Padres to be and listed virtually every conceivable way a team can move runners.
A sampling:
“… we can run the bases, turn walks, hit by pitches or infield hits into doubles and triples, we can go first to third on singles we can slug, we can drive the ball in the oppo gap, we can drive the ball dead center out of the ballpark, we can beat the shift, we can get a bunt down …”
There might have been more. I think I passed out.
But dang if his club isn’t doing just that lately.
It’s a product of striking out less and putting the ball in play more, running aggressively and running hard.
Of their seven runs Monday, one came with help from an infield single and then taking an extra base on an error, another scored on two singles and taking two bases on an error, and a third scored with help from an error. It was a clinic in putting the ball in play and at least creating an opportunity for things to happen.
The first four of their five runs Sunday scored after Manny Machado reached on an error and helped prevent a double play before three walks, two singles and a sacrifice fly.
Of their 13 runs Saturday, one scored on a groundout and another on a sacrifice fly.
Two of their five runs Friday were driven in by sacrifice flies, including the deciding run.
They would certainly like to hit more home runs. And winning without a bunch of slug requires sustained excellent pitching. It’s tough to be this good on offense playing this type of offense for six months.
But the Padres seem to be heating up, and they are shaping up to have an offense that reflects Tingler’s image.
“I know our best version of our offense is pressuring the zone,” Tingler said. “It’s an extension of one through eight and stringing tough outs all the way through. Our best version is not letting the pitcher relax or breathe because there’s an easy out. … We want to be an offense that can score a bunch of different ways. We want to be a versatile group and we don’t (strike out), and we battle every pitch. I think we’re capable of winning a lot of different ways.”
A difference maker
Blake Snell went six innings!
With greater command and more fastballs than we had seen from him all season, Snell struck out a season-high 11, walked a season-low one batter and allowed one run and five hits.
In doing so, he ended a stretch of 29 consecutive starts in which he did not get through the sixth inning.
“Fans would look at it as a relief,” said Snell, who last night made his ninth start for the Padres. “But I pitched a lot of great games I was pulled early. … I felt there were a lot of games last year I could have gone six-plus, but that’s just how it went. But it was good to go six. I’m telling you, just give me some time. We’ll get it going. … It’s good to go six, at least to get people to stop talking about it.”
Don’t think for a second last night’s accomplishment wasn’t important to Snell. Maybe not for the number, but certainly that he got there as he did.
In his comments above, he was referring to his time with the Tampa Bay Rays, who believe starting pitchers are only on rare occasions suited to face a lineup a third time in a game. However, Snell has historically struggled with pitch efficiency. He certainly has with the Padres.
He entered last night’s game throwing strikes just 59 percent of the time and throwing pitches in the strike zone just 43 percent of the time. His slider, curve and change-up were strikes just 52 percent of the time, which was the fourth-lowest mark for non-fastballs in the majors.
He threw strikes on 69 percent of his pitches last night and was in the zone 51 percent of the time. He got strikes with 70 percent of his non-fastballs, including three of the seven times he went out of the zone with one of those offerings in the final two innings, getting the Rockies to chase after he had established the fastball.
He used his fastball 44 percent of the time in his first eight starts. He threw it 57 times (59 percent) among his season-high 97 pitches last night. He threw it 11 times in 13 pitches in the first inning and 37 times in 52 pitches over the first three innings.
“Just the consistency in the zone, letting the fastball play,” Snell said of his success last night. “That’s what is going to get them to start swinging and being a little bit more aggressive than (the) patient they were the last (eight) starts I had. If I can command the zone, I’m good.”
He got eight misses on 11 swings (73 percent) against his slider. That was almost double the 39 percent miss rate he got on the pitch over his previous three starts.
The way he set that up was far more impressive than his going six innings. But, of course, that is why he went six innings.
Gore update
Many of you ask about top prospect MacKenzie Gore on a regular basis. The primary question is some variation of why he hasn’t been called up any of the times the Padres have needed a pitcher.
The short answer is that the Padres don’t think he’s ready. That’s what they say explicitly in private and in not so many words publicly.
“When we feel Mackenzie is ready to go and ready to perform up here at a consistent level, that’s when you will see him,” Jayce Tingler said recently, for about the 10th time. “He’s got his season going on right now. His outing last night was very encouraging. He just needs to continue to have starts like that, stack starts like that, get deep into games. When he gets on a roll with a couple of those that’s when the discussions will start go be very serious. … We want to make sure he gets polished, so when he gets up here he’ll have a great chance of not only performing well but staying up here.”
Gore allowed five runs in 3 2/3 innings last night pitching for Triple-A El Paso. He allowed six hits, walked one and struck out six.
Here is a story Jeff Sanders did yesterday, in which Gore talks about what he needs to do.
Tidbits
- Last night was the 10th time in 43 games that Padres pitchers have allowed one or zero runs. That equals last season’s total.
- Snell became the first Padres pitcher besides Yu Darvish or Joe Musgrove to go six innings in a game this season. Thus, the past two games comprise the first time this season the Padres had consecutive quality starts.
- Jake Cronenworth was batting .254 two weeks ago. In 12 games since, he is 20-for-46 (.435) and has his season batting average up to .306. He was 3-for-4 with two doubles last night.
- Trent Grisham went 0-for-4 and had his hitting streak end at eight games.
- Austin Adams pitched a scoreless seventh inning to run his scoreless streak to 10 2/3 innings over 13 games. He has allowed two hits, walked two and hit three batters while striking out 21 in that span.
- Austin Nola, who was 1-for-4 while batting clean-up for the first time, is 7-for-17 in his past five games after beginning the season 2-for-19.
- Just one small illustration of why Mark Melancon is a pro is what happened en route to him throwing a scoreless ninth inning. Check out the sixth pitch, which was called ball four to Charlie Blackmon and put runners at first and second with no outs in the ninth inning:
It happens
I don’t know how many of you love — absolutely love — ridiculously obscure statistical occurrences the way I do.
But reader David Grobisen is one who does.
It took me a couple days, but I tracked down the answer to David’s question with help from Padres PR boy J.P. Nolan. And it turned out to be one of those times when something isn’t as rare as you think it might be.
Ryan Weathers and Ivan Castillo got their first major league hits Sunday. It was the second time this season that teammates got their first career hits in the same game, the first time being April 6 when Geraldo Perdomo and Matt Peacock of the Arizona Diamondbacks did it.
The last time Padres teammates got their maiden big-league hits in the same game was when Phil Maton and Josh Naylor did so May 25, 2019 against the Toronto Blue Jays.
All right, that’s it for me. Day game today.
Talk to you tomorrow.
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Padres Daily: This is how the Padres do it; joy of six for Snell - The San Diego Union-Tribune
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