BOSTON — Due to some quirks from a bygone period of scheduling, the Padres arrived in Boston this weekend with practically 11 years separating them from their most up-to-date look at Fenway Park. It didn’t take them lengthy to get acquainted with the place. In two video games, they’ve already executed a decade’s price of mashing.
San Diego obliterated the Pink Sox, 11-1, on Saturday afternoon, and has now scored 20 runs within the first two video games of the sequence. Manny Machado homered twice. Rookie Jackson Merrill went deep for the second time in as many video games. Even Brett Sullivan, the workforce’s light-hitting No. 3 catcher, yanked one round Pesky’s Pole in proper for his first of the season.
“Final week or so, we’ve turned it up a notch,” Machado stated. “It’s been enjoyable to be part of.”
Certainly, the Padres have unequivocally performed their greatest baseball of the 12 months over the previous 10 days. This recreation may’ve been their most emphatic assertion thus far. Boston right-hander Tanner Houck entered his begin with a 2.18 ERA. The immediately red-hot San Diego offense was undeterred. The Padres scored one within the second, two within the third, one within the fourth and 6 within the fifth — with eight of these runs charged to Houck.
San Diego has now received 9 of 10 video games at a time when the Nationwide League playoff image appears to be coming into focus. The Padres presently occupy the second NL Wild Card spot, 1 1/2 video games forward of the Cardinals. It’s nonetheless tight. However there’s lastly a small measure of separation from the chasing pack.
“We’re simply in search of continuous enchancment,” stated Padres supervisor Mike Shildt. “You get continuous enchancment, you then’ll get all areas firing collectively.”
The Padres might’ve been forgiven for merely doing their greatest to remain afloat by the All-Star break. Currently, they’ve been hit arduous by damage. They’re nonetheless with out second baseman Xander Bogaerts and right-handers Yu Darvish and Joe Musgrove. On Monday, Fernando Tatis Jr. joined them on the injured checklist with a stress response within the femur bone in his proper leg.
The wholesome Padres — or at the very least the Padres who’re wholesome sufficient to play — vowed to choose up their teammates. They’ve executed exactly that, with contributions from anticipated and sudden sources alike.
“The message has been clear since Spring Coaching,” Machado stated. “We’ve acquired to again one another up. We’ve acquired to choose up one another’s slack. When one man goes down, the following man has to step up.”
Machado has been on the heart of that push. At the same time as he performs by a proper hip flexor pressure, Machado has put apart his early struggles to raise his recreation. He’s batting .385 over the previous two weeks, together with two no-doubters on Saturday — one over the Monster and one to straightaway heart discipline.
Merrill, in the meantime, is on fairly an influence surge himself. With 9 homers in June, he equaled Ryan Schimpf (July 2016) for essentially the most by a Padres rookie in a calendar month. He’s acquired one recreation left — and, clearly, Merrill likes hitting at Fenway Park. (A childhood Pink Sox fan, Merrill known as his homer on Friday night time “most likely the dopest second of my baseball profession.”)
Then, there’s Sullivan, whose homer on Saturday might be most emblematic of the Padres’ next-man-up strategy. Starter Luis Campusano landed on the injured checklist with a left thumb bruise final week. Backup Kyle Higashioka has continued to rake in his place, with eight homers of his personal this month.
However Higashioka acquired the break day Saturday, earlier than he backstops knuckleballer Matt Waldron on Sunday afternoon. In his place, up stepped Sullivan — who made positive Higashioka touched his bats earlier than the sport, then known as Higashioka and his .854 June slugging proportion, “Barry Bonds.”
Evidently, it rubbed off. The Padres’ catchers stayed scorching. Sullivan laced a low line drive that carried into the second row inside Pesky’s Pole.
“That was fairly freakin’ cool,” Sullivan stated. “Particularly to simply assist out, maintain this practice shifting. The boys have been enjoying completely wonderful. To get Higgy the break day … I simply tried to do what he was doing.”
The contributions didn’t finish there. Michael King — a Rhode Island native who attended Boston Faculty — pitched six innings of one-run ball with an estimated 45 family and friends members in attendance. Luis Arraez reached base 4 instances. Ha-Seong Kim reached thrice.
The Padres, it appears, haven’t merely weathered the damage storm. They’re thriving amidst it.