It was a sight not seen this year at Petco Park — until Wednesday night.
The San Diego Padres and their popgun offense finally erupted for a double-digit run total at home on Wednesday during a 10-4 rout of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
That gives San Diego a chance for a much-needed series win Thursday night when the team wraps up its four-game set with Arizona.
It was only the third time this season the Padres have scored 10 runs in a game and the first since a 10-5 win on May 5 at San Francisco. They rapped 13 hits on Wednesday night and scored in five straight innings.
The outburst backed up comments center fielder Jackson Merrill made Monday night after an 8-0 loss in the series opener to Arizona.
“Just have faith in us,” he said. “You never know when (it) can go the other way, so we could heat up really soon.”
Merrill played his part in Wednesday night’s surge with two hits and a pair of RBIs.
Luis Campusano homered, Miguel Andujar drilled a career-high three doubles, and Fernando Tatis Jr. singled twice, drove in a run and swiped two bases.
“It was very nice to add on,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said. “Get the lead and add on, get a comfortable lead and not have to use the high-leverage guys every time we’re ahead in a game.”
San Diego did this with Manny Machado sitting out after fouling a pitch off his left big toe Tuesday night and Samad Taylor (oblique) winding up on the injured list. Stammen said after Wednesday night’s game that Machado would be back in the lineup on Thursday.
Right-hander Griffin Canning (1-6, 6.71 ERA) draws the start in the series finale.
Canning absorbed a 3-0 loss Saturday night at the Los Angeles Dodgers despite allowing just two hits and one run in four innings as a bulk reliever. He’s 2-2 with a 4.50 ERA in four career outings against Arizona.
The Diamondbacks will counter with right-hander Merrill Kelly (6-8, 5.71 ERA), who’s coming off a 4-3 win over Milwaukee on Saturday night. He labored through five innings, permitting two runs on eight hits with two walks and six strikeouts.
Kelly is 9-6 with a 3.41 ERA in 18 career starts against the Padres.
Arizona has scored in the first inning of every game in this series. But in the last two games, the team has not been able to follow a quick start properly. It didn’t score for the rest of Tuesday night’s 4-1 loss and didn’t score again Wednesday night until it trailed 8-1 in the seventh inning.
All-Star pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez knows the Diamondbacks have to turn things around to prevent the front office from playing a seller’s role for the second straight trading deadline. They are 5 1/2 games behind Miami for the final NL wild-card spot, with four other teams to jump in order to get there.
“We got to go out there and (start) winning games because that’s the only way we’re going to make the front office change their approach to it,” Rodriguez said. “It’s in our hands.”
Arizona is just 14-20 over its last 34 games and has been hampered by a lack of power. The team’s 83 homers are 29th in the majors.
–Field Level Media
