At least for now, Thursday night was a one-game blip for the San Diego Padres.
An offense that has raked coming out of the All-Star break bounced back from a 4-1 loss to the San Francisco Giants in the opener of a four-game series, mashing a dozen hits en route to a 7-0 win on Friday night.
San Diego will try to take a series lead on Saturday night while perhaps tying the slumping Philadelphia Phillies for the National League’s final wild-card spot.
The Padres are 8-6 since the break and have averaged 5.9 runs per game, getting contributions up and down the lineup. Their big-money stars, aside from Xander Bogaerts, who’s been in a three-month funk, are barreling balls they didn’t for much of the prior six weeks.
“Our numbers on the board, it doesn’t look like we’re doing the best,” center fielder Jackson Merrill said recently. “That doesn’t show the last few weeks. We’re taking good at-bats to help each other.”
Fernando Tatis Jr. has opened the last four games with hits and everything else has fallen into place. Even the bottom of the lineup, which has hit with the thump of a pitcher at times, is chipping in.
Rookie left fielder Jase Bowen flashed the power stroke that got him called up two months ago from Triple-A El Paso, launching his first big league homer Friday night.
“The best moment I’ve ever had in my life,” Bowen said.
Meanwhile, San Diego even has its pitching lined up in a positive manner after three pitchers combined for a two-hitter that included five shutout innings by bulk reliever German Marquez to end the game.
Walker Buehler (6-5, 5.13 ERA) aims to make his third straight solid start after allowing a whopping 20 earned runs in 11 innings during his first three outings in July. He gave up just two earned runs in 5 1/3 innings Sunday in a no-decision performance during his team’s 5-3 win in Miami. Buehler is 8-3 with a 3.25 earned run average in 16 career outings against San Francisco.
The Giants counter with fellow right-hander Tyler Mahle (3-9, 4.96), who’s coming off one of his top games of the year Monday night. Mahle rolled through six shutout innings of a 3-0 win over Milwaukee, yielding just three hits and two walks while fanning three. He’s 1-2 with a 4.19 ERA in four career starts against San Diego.
Mahle said he was helped Monday night by a four-seam fastball that clocked in at 1.7 mph higher than normal.
“The first pitch of the game, usually I can try to throw as hard as I can and a lot of games it’ll be 90, 91,” he said. “I looked it and it was 93, and I was surprised by that.”
Things didn’t go quite as well for San Francisco on or off the field Friday night. From announcing that injured center fielder Harrison Bader’s pay would be withheld while the club investigates his foot injury following a scooter accident early Sunday morning, to only managing three base runners during the game, it was a bad 24 hours for the Giants.
Manager Tony Vitello said a return this year for Bader, who’s been out since May 29 with plantar fasciitis, was a long shot before the scooter accident.
–Field Level Media
