SAN DIEGO — At the end of Sunday’s third inning, chaos reigned at Petco Park when Padres slugger Juan Soto hit a squibber off home plate and somehow ended up in third place.
Christian Bethancourt, the Padres’ heavily armed former catcher, pitched the ball upfield and threw it toward second base in hopes of catching a dangerous lead runner. Fernando Tatis Jr. slipped in safely as the ball splattered away from Wander Franco and the Rays shortstop ran into midfield behind him. Tatis spotted an opening and made his way to third base. He then recognized an offline throw from Franco’s hand and ran through a stop sign by third base coach Matt Williams, whom he had never seen.
When the dust finally settled, Trent Grisham had scored from second place. Tatis had scored from the start thanks to a miscatch error by Franco and a throwing error by Franco. Soto had run 270 feet at the request of an ill-fated fielder. So did Tatis, who, after crossing home plate, galloped jubilantly into the dugouts.
After seventy-one games, an originally touted attack deserves more attention for its historic struggles with runners in goal position than for its perceived pitch-tipping firepower. What is the Padres’ identity when they compete? It’s often been hard to tell, and a lack of certainty this deep in a season is never good. So the signs of the past few weeks – and particularly the last two games – have been telling.
The Padres won both games against a 51-win team while putting the ball in play and perhaps caring less about visuals. In Saturday’s 2-0 decider, they prevailed with another brilliant start from Blake Snell and a somewhat inelegant, ultimately fruitful half-inning in which they made balls on three consecutive throws, scored with a sacrifice fly and scored again with a swinging bunt . In Sunday’s series decider, they secured the win 5-4 with a bend don’t breakout from Joe Musgrove, a game-saving throw from Tatis, his exciting outing with menacing base running and more small balls from some of them the great players of the team.
In other words, while the Padres secured a streak and their first home win of the year at Petco Park, they managed to repeat some of what made Tampa Bay a standout success.
“Not only are they hitting home runs, but you look at their numbers when the runners are in goal position; “Often it’s about not doing too much, putting it in the game and using most of the stadium,” said San Diego manager Bob Melvin. “It’s not the sexiest thing in the world to shoot you in the gap between first and second place. And while it doesn’t hit very hard, it’s just as effective as anything else.”
The Padres hit several balls hard on Sunday afternoon but fell behind after pinning two runners at the end of the first half and watching the Rays capitalize on the same scenario at the top end of the second half. Then, at the end of the third period, Tatis rampaged around the bases. Manny Machado then hit the ball hard for a sacrificial flight. Consecutive doubles in the fourth round extended the lead to 4:2. In the fifth set, Trent Grisham went on foot, stole a base and scored a crucial deciding run when Machado landed a two-out single down the middle.
The Padres had already started showing more of that kind of offensive diversity, but their recent duel reinforced their value.
“Everything it takes to win,” Machado said.
“It’s the best team in baseball, so we knew we had our hands full. But we went out, competed every day and left everything on the field.”
It was necessary because the best baseball team kept coming back. The Rays racked up 12 hits that afternoon, all singles and most of them not hit hard. There were three consecutive at-bats in the second inning. Two came in the fourth as they loaded bases with no outs and Musgrove escaped with just one run allowed. Five came in the eighth when Padres setup man Nick Martinez delivered two runs under a torrent of groundballs and a bloop that narrowly missed second baseman Rougned Odor’s outstretched glove.
“At some point,” Martinez later recalled, “you just said, ‘Uncle!’ Hit someone.’”
The damage could have been worse. With an out, Tatis hit a slow single and thwarted the game-winning run with a 99.5mph hit on the finish, the latest in his growing collection of right field highlights. Martinez backed the piece and threw out his fist in agreement. As Melvin paced the home clubhouse and was thrown out of the stadium on a check swing in protest at an apparent missed call, he probably sighed with relief. After tagging a fast Manuel Margot, catcher Austin Nola marveled at the precision of Tatis’ throw.
“I just opened my glove and the ball went in,” Nola said. “I don’t know if you’ll find a better outfield arm in the big leagues. And also accuracy.”
“You know, it could have been one of those days, and Tati saved it for me,” Martinez said.
“Game of the game, both sides,” Melvin said.
An inning later, Padres seamer Josh Hader pulled off the relatively unusual feat of setting up a perfect frame against Tampa Bay’s second through fourth batters. The 28th sell-out crowd of the season at Petco Park cheered. The Padres had won their third straight series for the first time this season. They had bucked a troubling trend, at least temporarily, improving to 5-12 in one-run games. And they had shown special courage even against the toughest opponents.
“I think we play baseball better,” said Musgrove, who held the Rays to two runs in six innings. “We are more aggressive on the base paths. The defense is consistent; It’s been all year. I think we’re starting to ramp up now.”
“I think you can take a look back a few weeks ago: we played a lot cleaner,” Martinez said. “You know, aggressive in a good way, and I really think we’re picking up steam here.”
“It’s really big,” Tatis said of the series win. “I mean, this team came here and showed what they are capable of in the first game. And we as a team talked about it: we have to recover and also show what we are capable of.”
Here’s one thing they can do: The Padres have stolen at least a base in seven straight games, their longest such streak since April 12-18, 2021. Including Sunday, the Padres have stolen in their last 22 games, third, 30 bases stolen – highest total in majors in that span. They had stolen just 29 bases in their first 49 games of the season.
Now four of their biggest games await them. The Padres, who have won seven games out of ten and are now 35-36, will soon visit Oracle Park for a crucial series. The Giants, one of three teams ahead of them in the National League West, have won seven straight games for a 39-32 record.
“These division games are a real opportunity for us to win some games back and get back in the game,” Musgrove said.
Sunday was as good a template as any.
(Top Photo: Ray Acevedo / USA Today)