Grisham smacks a home run out in the bottom of the first, to give the Padres some run support early. This will be the biggest test so far, in a season that has seen the Padres only 2 runs away from a 3-0 start.
The Biggest test, because, even if Lucchesi looked good last week, he still has to stay emotionally and psychologically sound to continue his progression back towards normalcy.
Starling Marte still proves to be one of the best on the team against the Padres, as his looping shot to right scores the runner as it is misplayed by Oliveras. Escobar knocks home Marte who somehow made it to third on the error in the field, which officially doesn’t seem to be counted as an error. The Diamondbacks are up 2-1.
A neutered effort by SD in the bottom of the third yields nothing as Pham ends the inning stranding Tatis.
Profar reaches on a walk in the top of the fourth. Myers sneaks one past the 3B by getting into it well, and Profar lands on third, with Myers n second. It would have been close at the plate, though Profar probably would have been able to score. As it sits the padres score anyways as Garcia lays down a beauty of a hard bunt on the first base side. He reaches, the run scores 2-2 game, with Myers on third, and Garcia on first. Small ball factors again in this shortened season. It sure feels like Jayce Tingler read Sun Tzu recently because he is fighting the war on all fronts this season. The Padres look really good here in the fourth.
A batter is hit, Padres are being gifted a lot by Weaver here.
Oliveras lines one to center to grab another run. Bases are loaded. 3-2 no outs in the bottom of the fourth inning. Weaver still on the mound. Tatis Jr. is up.
Garcia on third Mejia on second, Oliveras at first. Grisham on deck, Machado behind him.
Tatis goes to the wall with a bases clearing triple. Padres are oozing run support, now up 6-2. The Tatis of 2019 hopefully has arrived in to the 2020 season. What a great result. Grisham has run yet another count deep. AZ will definitely need to address this to stay competitive this season. There are ridiculous amounts of pitches being wasted here. The Padres haven’t been scoring dozens of runs each game, but the pitch counts sure seem like they have.
Cal Quantrill comes in after Lucchesi as he had in the pre-season prior. There are runners on first and second for the DBacks. Quantrill looks like he is struggling here. Tim Hill gets up in the bullpen. Cal strikes out Escobar. But that’s only the second out. AZ still threatening. Looks like Quantrill will get out of this inning unscathed.
Lefthander Tim Hill has been strategic and run into little difficulty in the first 2/3 if the top of the 6th. He seems like a very utilitarian pickup from KC so far in 2020. He runs full to Peralta. Here’s the payoff pitch. Mejia grabs the dribbler and puts him out at first.
Are the Padres Cruising? Have we said that too often in the first 4 games? Is there such a thing as cruising too much? As padres Fans, they’ll take any amount of Cruising after such a dismal run in the recent years.
Perdomo comes into the game in the start of the seventh, but he botches a defensive play so badly he allows the runner on first. It’s counted an error. He tried to barehand it after an awkward stumble late from the mound, and then somehow kicks the ball off the field. Luckily the runner didn’t make it to second.
Wil Myers grabs a weirdly hit ball from Ketel Marte, and he opts to go for the lead runner throwing over his head, nearly making a throwing error. Tatis manages to reel it in and get the force out at second.
The next play is nearly a double play, but Vargas makes the bag just a half step ahead of Tatis’ throw. Starling Marte is up with 2 out, and a runner on first.
Padres players look tired. But they manage to get the lead runners. Fundamental baseball is taking over for tired bodies it looks like. This season could take its toll harder than a full season if teams aren’t careful enough to prioritize rest for certain players. So far this Padres squad looks deep enough in most places to allow for this, as we’ve seen with guys like Hosmer, and the Catchers (Mejia/Hedges), but any bout of COVID-19 may cause some concerns depth-wise.
Clarke Strikes out a very performant Grisham, up now is Manny Machado, who has yet to really find his consistency of years past. Hitting just .231, he has still made an impact in 2020. Unfortunately, not on this at bat. He flies shallow to center left and walks back to the bench. Pham’s impact this year, also is much better than his slash line appears. He has been a great impact player in the first 4 games. Today being his worst outing, with an 0-4 showing. We move to the 8th inning.
Strahm gets up in the pen, as Perdomo seems to be doing ok, with pretty efficient pitch count and a man out in the 8th. And maybe someone spoke too soon, as Perdomo walks the batter in 4 pitches. Leave it to baseball to make you look crazy or at least completely wrong.
Me: Perdomo is doing great.
Baseball: Hold these balls.
Me: redacted.
Perdomo Strikes out Cole Calhoun for his first K in an inning and 2/3’s. Josh Rojas enters as a pinch hitter for his first appearance of the season. He sees the pitching coach out to the mound. Clearly, they anticipate something this author cannot. Maybe there is some fresh intelligence on Rojas that is “need to know” only. Perdomo goes 0-2 on Rojas. That 3rd pitch was awfully close maybe a bit high, but the 4th pitch gets him. Perdomo keeps a clean sheet.
Craig Stammen comes in and on 6 pitches he finishes the game. Padres lead the NL West and top MLB alongside Oakland for the best record through 4 games.
Cal Quantrill walks away with the win and Weaver with the loss. Padres 6 Diamondbacks 2.
Padres set to face the Giants who looked much better in person against one of the three best teams in baseball (Dodgers), than they do on paper. The next game is tomorrow at Oracle Park in SF. The game will kick off a 3-game series, after which the Padres will face the Rockies at Coors Field on the road.