The Padres are the hottest team in baseball, winners of eight straight and 12 of 14. Their second homestand was a whole lot better than the first — a perfect 7-0, culminating with a 5-2 victory over the Mariners on Thursday night.
Tatis’ Impact on Padres’ Offence
Fernando Tatis Jr. still hasn’t homered, his longest home-run drought to start a season. But lately, he’s been contributing in just about every other way.
On Thursday, Tatis reached base three times, including a two-run single that capped a four-run Padres second inning. Over the course of the homestand, he reached at a .429 clip.
Tatis also made an excellent sliding catch to rob Luke Raley of a hit to end the top of the second inning.
“He’s just a great baseball player,” said manager Craig Stammen. “He made a nice play in right field, got us some momentum, came in, he gets a two-RBI laser up the middle, runs the bases. … When we’re going good, he’s impacting the game quite often. We saw it this homestand, how much of an impact he can have.”
Tatis remains impactful in nearly every other way.
Buehler’s Performance Amidst Rotation Injuries
When the Padres signed Walker Buehler to a Minor League deal at the start of Spring Training, they probably didn’t envision him as their No. 3 starter. In effect, that’s what Buehler has become.
Nick Pivetta landed on the injured list earlier this week with right elbow inflammation. He joins Joe Musgrove and Griffin Canning there, with Yu Darvish already out for the season. There are serious injury and depth concerns in the San Diego rotation right now.
Buehler pitched six scoreless innings in his last time out. On Tuesday, he worked five scoreless frames, before Stammen sent him back out for a sixth. Buehler didn’t record an out in the inning and was charged with a couple runs.
“Frustrating to not put the finishing touches on it, I guess,” Buehler said. “But all in all, the two starts that I’ve made here in the homestand, I’ll be very happy with.”
Buehler’s fastball is not what it was when he was regularly blowing it past hitters half a decade ago. He seems intent on throwing the hard stuff, nonetheless — using 20 cutters and 19 four-seamers on Thursday night, to great success. His fastball even touched 96 mph — up four or five ticks from his start in Boston earlier this month.
“There was some miss for a long time, because you’re hesitant,” Buehler said. “You feel like every big leaguer should hit this 91 mph fastball 700 feet. So to get back to looking up and feeling good about the way it’s
Two weeks ago, as the Padres readied to leave Petco Park following a disappointing first homestand, new manager Craig Stammen made a vow.
“We’re going to play better here at Petco,” Stammen said. “This was probably an outlier.”
The Padres’ second homestand was a whole lot better than the first — a perfect 7-0.