Good morning,
Last night’s 7-2 victory over the Astros was arguably the Padres’ most synchronized effort of the season, in terms of pitching and offense both excelling.
Randy Vásquez allowed two hits in five innings. He and three relievers threw a total of 98 pitches, the fewest the Padres have needed to get through a game in more than five years.
Four home runs provided all the scoring. Two of those home runs came from the No.7 spot in the batting order, the first by designated hitter Gavin Sheets and the other by pinch-hitter Austin Hays in his first game with the Padres.
The other two home runs were, together, the biggest takeaway from the game.
Jackson Merrill responded to the Astros taking a 2-0 lead in the top of the second by leading off the bottom of the inning with a home run. And in the fourth inning, Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a three-run homer to the second balcony of the Western Metal building that put the Padres ahead for good.
My game story (here) focused on the importance of Tatis being back to the guy who is capable of providing big moments.
I wrote in Saturday’s newsletter about Tatis providing a moment. That one did not help them win. But it was indicative of what has been building.
Tatis and Merrill are for the first time this season being the players they are capable of being. And they are doing it at the same time.
“When we’re going, it’s just special,” Tatis said. “And everybody just gets contagious (from) it. So we better keep it up, especially this time of the year.”
Merrill’s 1.127 OPS since July 19 is highest in the major leagues. Tatis’ .944 mark ranks 14th in that time.
Go back two days, to the first game after the All-Star break, and Tatis’ OPS is 1.004. He went 3-for-5 on July 17 and the next day hit the first of what is now six home runs in his past 21 games.
After going 0-for-8 in the first two games after the break, Merrill homered twice on July 19 and has his six more in his 20 games since then.
This is what the Padres envisioned from their two young, energetic stars. It can’t be this good all the time. But it should be this good more of the time.
“It’s important for every team to have their players hot at the same time,” Merrill said. “That’s how you get it going. That’s how you win games. So it’s fun to see right now, and we’ll keep it going.”
If they do, that makes the Padres exponentially better.
The best version
This season has been a process for Tatis.
He was batting .238 with a .319 on-base percentage 50 games into the season.
Changes he made around that time with his stance and simplifying his mechanics began to show up.
He started hitting.
He began a tear on May 24 that saw him bat .366 with a .400 OBP over the next 27 games.
The power was still lacking.
He hit his first home run on May 30 but hit just four over the next 40 games.
Throughout June and into July, with the mechanics having been locked in, he began working on getting the ball in the air.
Now here we are.
“He’s grinded out an entire season of ups and downs, (got) a little bit on an upswing here and then flattened out, and now it’s on just another upswing,” manager Craig Stammen said. “So we’re just enjoying it with him. He’s a great teammate to have, a great person to be managing, and he does a lot for the Padres.”
As good as it was that Tatis was getting on base 40% of the time for a while, it was not all he could be.
This version of Tatis, Stammen said, “takes our team to another level.”
Said Tatis: “Making the right adjustments at the right time, and just right on time for what we aiming for.”
Merrill, the spark
Merrill has said a few times this season that he is proud of how he has not let his struggles at the plate affect his attitude.
Some in the organization might quibble over exactly how much he avoided showing his frustration while batting around .200 through the middle of June. But the fact is the kid hates losing and knows what an important role he plays in the team winning.
And he is a kid. He turned 23 in April and is in his third big-league season after just 202 minor-league games.
It is also a fact that it is a lot easier to be energetic when the hits are coming.
The difference has been undeniable.
“When he gets going, there’s obviously a different energy that he has, that he brings to the table,” said Sheets, one of Merrill’s closest friends on the team. “One thing I thought he did this year really well is even when he was struggling, he still had that energy. But, you know, it’s hard to still force that energy when you don’t have results. We know how special a player is. He’s an unbelievable talent, and when you get him going — and obviously Tati has been going — it’s a great brand of baseball. It’s a fun, exciting brand and a lot of energy.”
Fast Freddy
The biggest hit of the game doesn’t happen if not for the hit before it.
And that hit doesn’t happen if Freddy Fermin doesn’t bust it down the first base line.
With two outs in the fourth inning, Fermin hit a grounder deep in the hole that shortstop Jeremy Peña backhanded and then made a jump throw back toward first base that arrived just after Fermin crossed the bag.
“That’s winning baseball right there,” said Tatis, who followed Fermin to the plate and hit his home run. “When stuff like that starts happening, good stuff is gonna happen on your side of the field.”
Fermin was 2-for-4 last night and has safely hit in six straight games. He is batting .451 (13-for-37) since returning from the injured list.
The Padres are not certain, but they suspect the dozen or so times Fermin has been rocked by a foul ball going off his mask and the one time he got hit in the side of the head by a warmup pitch had a lot to do with his batting .152 with a .520 OPS through July 2.
He went on the injured list July 3 with a head bruise. He had spent 10 days on the concussion IL in June. He did not have a concussion in July, but the Padres said they hoped that IL stint would allow him time to rest.
“I think the time period he had off benefited him a little bit for his legs also — his head and his legs, just to take a little breather,” Stammen said. “And our catching tandem of (Luis) Campusano and Freddy, they’ve been able to keep each other fresh at times and be able to carry the load. Freddy seems like he’s rounding into form a little bit, the guy that we saw a lot of last year. (He) is set up for a good last two months for us.”
Handy Randy
Jeff Sanders’ game preview (here) focused on the Padres’ plan to leave one spot in the rotation technically open.
That is the spot Vásquez has filled the past two times through the rotation.
What that likely means is if they face a team with a lot of left-handed batters, the Padres could use Kyle Hart as an opener.
One good thing that came from the Padres’ period of desperation, when they employed their kitchen-sink approach to getting through nine innings at a time, was that they discovered how playing the matchups game could work really well.
It is something they likely would employ at various points in a postseason series.
But last night, Vásquez pitched for the third consecutive outing like a guy who deserves to be starting.
His command was not as good as it had been in the previous start. But he was also never in trouble.
The two runs Vásquez allowed — on a one-out single and a two-out homer in the second inning — were the only two hits he surrendered. He did not walk a batter.
By night’s end, he had gotten 11 of his 15 outs via groundball (eight), pop fly (two) or strikeout.
“He really pitched a great game outside of that one pitch,” Stammen said. “I don’t think he made what you would call a mistake other than that sweeper that he left up that (Daulton) Varsho made a good swing on and hit it out of the ballpark. … He kept the game right there, gave us a chance to come back, for Tatis to hit the big homer and to give us a lead. And that’s what pitchers do. They stay in the fight, stay in the grind.”
Getting it done
Stammen noted that Vásquez, who had thrown just 62 pitches and retired the final 10 batters he faced, could have gone longer than five innings.
“Tight game,” Stammen said of what was a 4-2 score at that point. “We’ve got a great bullpen and went to them.”
Knowing the Padres almost certainly wanted to stay away from Adrian Morejón and would prefer to not use Mason Miller due to their recent workload, it seemed a bit of a gamble.
But all three relievers came through, following Vásquez’s 10 straight outs with 12 more in a row to finish the game.
Hart got through the sixth in seven pitches, retiring the American League’s best hitter, Yordan Alvarez, on a fly ball to end the inning. Bradgley Rodriguez worked two crucial scoreless innings for the second time in four days. Jeremiah Estrada closed out the game.
“It’s great when we don’t have to use them,” Stammen said of Morejón and Miller. “They need as much of a breather as anybody. We rely on them a lot. They’re throwing high-velocity pitches all the time, and that takes a toll on your body over the course of the season. So to be able to use those guys yesterday, however we wanted to, and then be able to give them a little breather today was huge. I know they needed it, and they can use it, and then now they’re fresh for a big series against Milwaukee.”
Now, Miller was warming up when Hays hit his two-run homer in the eighth to increase the Padres’ lead to five runs.
Afterward, Miller told Hays, “You’re my favorite player.”
New piece
This is the time of year that a contending team peruses the transaction wire to see if there are any scraps that could potentially be a championship link for them.
That is how the Padres picked up outfielder Austin Hays, a veteran who has been to the postseason four consecutive seasons with three different teams and has missed most of this season with calf injuries. He was released by the White Sox on Friday.
You can read Jeff Sanders’ pregame notebook (here) for more on Hays. That story also has the seemingly excellent news out of Joe Musgrove’s rehab start yesterday in Triple-A.
The Padres just need Hays to capably fill in against left-handed pitching, against which he now has an .822 career OPS after taking lefty Bryan King deep last night. But they wouldn’t mind if he turns out to be as good as the other ancillary players that have helped them immensely this season.
Sheets plays through
Sheets hit his first home run since June 30, ending a drought of 31 games and 84 at-bats.
For several seconds, the plantar fasciitis in his right foot was much less of a bother.
“It feels a lot better when you’re jogging the bases,” Sheets said.
Sheets was batting .236 with a .776 OPS on July 6. His 14 homers were second most on the team.
He has hit .102 (6-for-59) with no extra-base hits over his past 24 games. That included just seven starts in a 13-game span from July 22 through Wednesday.
Part of the reason for the left-handed batter sitting was that the Padres faced an abundance of left-handed starting pitchers. There was also his performance. And there was mostly the fact he has been dealing with a painful foot ailment for at least 2½ weeks.
Sheets wears a protective boot sometimes when he is not working, and he has played in the field once in the past two weeks.
He has actually seemed close at the plate for a while, just missing getting a hold of several pitches and maintaining his discipline.
And he has never considered not playing.
“All you want to do is play meaningful games in August and September and then get to October,” he said. “It’s something that I craved and I didn’t have for a couple years. That’s the beautiful thing about playing here is you get that. The foot is what it is. It hurts. It sucks. But, you know, it’s not worth missing this right now.”
Dogfight
That is the word you hear around the Padres organization the past few days about what is ahead.
Seems like it.
The Padres had to win two of three against the Astros to keep pace with the Diamondbacks, who took two of three from the Dodgers. The Phillies lost two of three to the Blue Jays this weekend, so the Padres gained a game on them.
The Diamondbacks and Padres are both 14-9 since the All-Star break. The Phillies are 9-13, though they had won five of six before losing the first two games of their series against Toronto.
Tidbits
The Padres are five games above .500 for the first time since they were 43-38 on June 27.
Last night was the eighth time in 21 games the Padres had 12 hits. They had 12 hits in eight of their first 98 games.
Last night was the Padres’ 32nd comeback victory, tied with the Dodgers for fifth most in the major leagues.
This one is for those who keep telling me this team resembles the 2023 Padres: Last night was the 17th time the Padres have come back to win a game they trailed by two or more runs this season. The ‘23 team did that eight times. The Padres might not make the postseason in 2026, but this team is not like that team.
Nick Pivetta might throw a bullpen today and could make a rehab start Wednesday. That would seem to be the only way he makes it back by Aug. 22, the drop-dead date by which he must return or have his $14 million player option for 2027 to convert to a team option.
Check out Annie Heilbrunn’s story (here) on the kindness shown by Morejón to a young fan. I had tears in my eyes about three-quarters of the way through. That is partly because I think so highly of Morejón and the man he has become.
Tatis’ home run left his bat at 111 mph, and his double had a 108 mph exit velocity. His 86 balls in play at 105 mph are second most in MLB behind the Rays’ Junior Caminero (98).
Yes, Manny Machado has cooled down considerably, batting .182 (8-for-44) with two doubles over the past 12 games. This comes after a 41-game stretch in which he hit .288 with 12 home runs and 12 doubles. This skid has not looked like the first two-plus months of the season. Yes, he is missing pitches he should do damage on and chasing a bit more. But it has not looked like it did then. He barrelled three balls last night, only one of which was a hit. It would not be surprising to see a surge soon.
Last night was Tatis’ team-leading 33rd multi-hit game. Merrill kept pace with his 31st.
Merrill’s OPS (.705) is above .697 for the first time since it was .743 on April 17.
Merrill is one of four MLB players with at least 18 home runs and 18 stolen bases this season.
All right, that’s it for me.
Talk to you tomorrow.