MIAMI \u2014 The Padres need help.<\/p>\n
And almost every indication from inside and outside the organization is that president of baseball operations A.J. Preller is still looking for every reason to make moves at the trade deadline that make his team better and turn it into a legitimate contender.<\/p>\n
On Friday night, the Padres were able to at least keep pace in a playoff race they are nominally a part of because of an addition they made last month.<\/p>\n
Luis Rengifo, an infielder who has reached the journeyman portion of his career, came off the bench in a tie game in the eighth inning and hit a two-run homer that lifted the Padres to a 4-2 victory over the Marlins.<\/p>\n
The signing of Rengifo to a minor-league contract was a flier in a season that has hinged on them.<\/p>\n
Rengifo played six games in Triple-A before being called up July 8 when Samad Taylor was placed on the injured list with a right oblique strain.<\/p>\n
He has gone about joining Ty France and Taylor as role players signed to minor-league deals who have at times been the biggest contributors on a team whose stars have largely had subpar seasons.<\/p>\n
Rengifo, who began his career in 2019 with the Angels and was released by the Brewers in June after signing with them in February, arrived in San Diego with a simple aim.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust contribute to win games,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He certainly has, batting .435 (10-for-23) and driving in seven runs in the past four games.<\/p>\n
He is the 20th player in franchise history to have 10 hits in his first seven games with the Padres. The last to do it was Rengifo\u2019s close friend Luis Arraez in 2024.<\/p>\n
Friday was Rengifo\u2019s third consecutive game with two RBIs, though his two-run single in the second inning Thursday and his two-run homer in the ninth inning Wednesday were footnotes in losses in Atlanta.<\/p>\n
But the Padres (51-53) were able to come back and hold on Friday for their third victory in eight games so far on this trip that concludes Sunday.<\/p>\n
They avoided falling four games below .500 for the first time this season and remained four games behind the Diamondbacks in the race for the final National League playoff spot.<\/p>\n
It was a rare game in which the Padres\u2019 offense and the pitching staff were synergistic.<\/p>\n
And it was a staff effort.<\/p>\n
The Padres have been taking a more holistic approach to getting through games, essentially leaning into their starting pitchers\u2019 struggles by limiting them to a certain number of batters even if their pitch count is not terribly inflated.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just trying to piece it together, use all 13 (pitchers) and figure out a way to get through the game,\u201d manager Craig Stammen said. \u201cLimited exposure or get guys in the right lanes, however you want to call it. It\u2019ll probably be more of the norm going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Friday was as drastic a measure as they had taken, pulling starting pitcher Germ\u00e1n M\u00e1rquez after he had faced just 12 batters.<\/p>\n
M\u00e1rquez had allowed a solo home run to Joe Mack with two outs in the second inning and had thrown just 37 pitches when left-hander Kyle Hart took over with one out in the third.<\/p>\n
By the time Mason Miller came on to start the ninth and earn his 26th save, he was the sixth Padres pitcher.<\/p>\n
With All-Star Max Meyer having gone on the injured list with a neck strain this week, it was known from the outset Friday that the Marlins were going with a bullpen game.\u00a0They used seven pitchers to get through what turned out to be their ninth straight defeat, which dropped them to 52-52.<\/p>\n
A pair of Manny Machado singles and a couple productive outs in the fourth and fifth innings helped the Padres go from down one to up one.<\/p>\n
Jackson Merrill\u2019s sacrifice fly scored Machado after he and France hit one-out singles in the fourth. Machado\u2019s next hit followed a leadoff walk by Xander Bogaerts and a sacrifice bunt by Sung-Mun Song.<\/p>\n
After those pieced-together runs, the Marlins again struck with power to tie the game 2-2.<\/p>\n
With one out in the fifth, Wandy Peralta replaced Hart and had his second pitch hit on a line 432 feet to center field by Heriberto Hern\u00e1ndez.<\/p>\n
Peralta got through the sixth before Bradgley Rodriguez took over. He left runners on second and third with two outs for Adrian Morej\u00f3n, who ended the seventh with a strikeout before working the eighth.<\/p>\n
He was awarded his team-leading eighth win because France led off the top of the eighth with a double and the switch-hitting Rengifo stepped in for Luis Campusano against right-hander Tyler Zuber.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve gotten a lot of good contributions from guys we weren\u2019t necessarily counting on at the beginning of the season,\u201d Stammen said. \u201cTy just continues to hit. He\u2019s just a really good hitter. Samad Taylor, when he came up, and now Luis Rengifo, just some big hits in big moments and got us going. It\u2019s what we need right now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 The Padres need help. And almost every indication from inside and outside the organization is that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,1334,74,76,75,2611,127,1696],"class_list":["post-411630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-latest-headlines","tag-mlb","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}