Good morning from New York,
An awful lot of good things happened last night for the Padres.
Manny Machado hit a two-run homer that won the game. Blake Snell didn’t spiral when he had plenty of opportunities to do so. The Padres clinched a series victory over the first place team in the National League East.
You can read about all this in my game history (here). And we’ll talk more about Machado later.
Now let’s talk about left-hander Adrian Morejón who struck out four of the five batters he faced and hit a 100 mph half-hit on one of his pitches while protecting a two-run lead in what ended up being a 2-1 win. .
Because Morejón is a big deal.
“This is a guy we have high expectations for,” manager Bob Melvin said.
Melvin knows this not so much from the half-dozen times he’s seen Morejón pitch in person. He knows this largely because there is a widespread belief in the organization, including AJ Preller, that Morejón will start and win many games for many years for the Padres.
Last night was Morejón’s sixth appearance this season. He has a 3.00 ERA and 0.89 WHIP in nine innings and has stranded all three runners he’s inherited.
Shoulder injuries in the minor leagues and Tommy John surgery last year have slowed his ascent. But what was seen early last season and then again last night reinforces the belief the young Cuban, the jewel of the organization’s record-setting international class of 2016, is what the Padres have long believed he is.
None of the 10 fastballs the 23-year-old Morejón threw, striking out the arm in a 15-pitch seventh inning, were slower than 98.2 mph. He was between 96.6 and 98.3 mph on nine fastballs in the eighth inning.
“I felt really good,” Morejón said through translator Danny Sanchez. “I think tonight and then maybe my first outing was probably the best I’ve felt all year. I really try not to focus on speed, but more on my control and mechanics. So yeah, I think I felt really good there. … I think the first (season appearance) was a little bit of the excitement of coming back (from Tommy John) and what it meant to be back. I think tonight, it’s just a little bit of all the hard work I’ve been doing with Ruben (Niebla, the Padres’ pitching coach) — working on my mechanics, things like not getting my shoulder out. I think tonight was the result of all that.”
The only hitter Morejón didn’t hit was Tomas Nido, who infielded a fastball to the other end for a soft line drive single.
Morejón committed six errors in 10 swings against the fastball.
“His stuff is electric,” Machado said. “He’s definitely going to be one of the biggest pieces we have in the second half.”
Big hits
Now for the Padres’ best player – the one who has pitched them many times this season and whose struggles with an injured ankle have coincided with the team’s struggles.
Machado had one of the Padres’ four hits against Chris Bassitt last night. It was a line drive over the wall in left field that put the Padres up 2-0 in the sixth inning.
“Thanks, Manny for being Manny,” Snell said.
Machado said after the game his ankle “feels better.”
In this was an implicit admission that the ankle has even been an issue, which he has steadfastly refused to address publicly.
“You know, I don’t think it’s 100 percent, but I don’t think it will be,” he said. “Every night you go out there and whatever your 100 percent is that night, just try to give it your all.”
Machado suffered a sprained left ankle (and other injuries he won’t specify) in the first inning of a June 19 game at Colorado. He missed nine games and hasn’t been the same since returning. (“Same” is relative, as Machado at 80 percent is probably still the Padres’ most dangerous player.)
Before hitting his team-leading 16th home run last night – which was also his 10thth Game-winning RBI, tied for fifth-most in the majors, and his 17thth pace RBI, which is tied for fourth – Machado was hitless in his previous 10 at-bats.
He has homered four times since play resumed on June 30, but is batting .188 with a .273 on-base percentage in 75 plate appearances (67 at-bats). He was hitting .328 with a .400 OBP at the time of the injury.
The Padres were 17 games over .500 when they began that streak in Colorado on June 17. Since then, they are 13-18. The two wins here have moved them to 12 games over .500 (54-42).
Homer sweet homer
We talked in yesterday’s newsletter about how houses offer a different perspective.
The Padres are 0-for-14 with runners in scoring position in their last two games. But their three occupants change the way we look at what they’ve done on offense.
The slugger is what the Padres have been missing most of the season. Forget about having to string together string hits all the time. Home runs are the easiest way to score, especially against pinch hitters like Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt, the pitchers the Padres beat the last two nights.
All four of their runs by Scherzer and Bassitt came on home runs.
“It’s a really good frontcourt club on the other end,” Machado said. “We had great games against Max yesterday. (Bassitt) had a perfect game going five there and was shooting the ball really well. We were able to get him a shot, he made it a mistake. We were able to take advantage of that. That’s what good baseball is. That’s what we’ve been able to do the last two nights.”
The Padres now have 80 homers, still sixth fewest in the majors. They have achieved in 58 of their 96 games. They are 39-19 when they homer and 15-23 when they don’t. They are 29-10 when they hit multiple home runs or get multiple runs from a single homer.
Melvin said, “Anytime we can get a swing of the bat (and) more than a run, we feel pretty good about it.”
Hmm. They should do this more.
Taking hits
Austin Nola has been hit in the face by more foul tips than all but two catchers in the majors.
According to Inside the EdgeNola’s 16 sacks are tied with Philadelphia’s JT Realmuto for second most behind Cleveland’s Austin Hedges’ 19.
Fortunately, there have been significant advances in recent years in the protection afforded by catcher’s visors.
Nola uses the Force3 Defender mask, which has a spring mechanism between the screen and face padding that absorbs some impact. But we’re still talking about a ball being redirected at what is often greater than 100 mph into a person’s head.
Nola shrugged and said, “It’s part of it. It’s baseball.”
But he is not without concern.
“You know, we just hope and pray that when we’re done with the capture, nothing happens to your head,” he said. “We hope that the studies and research that they are doing there behind the scenes are working with masks.”
Good things
- Trent Grisham flew through the air and hit the ground on his back after landing on the back of Bassitt’s leg at first base while trying to beat out a grounder in the seventh inning. Grisham played center in the bottom of the seventh, but was replaced by Esteury Ruiz for the final two innings. Said Melvin: “If we have to give him a day tomorrow, we will. But I don’t think it’s something that will last long.”
- The Padres are 4-1 against the Mets this season and secured a winning record in the season series. When tonight’s game ends, the Padres will have won six of the seven season series that have ended in 2022. They were 8-8-3 in the season series last year.
- Jurickson Profar, who singled two batters before Machado’s homer, scored his 51st.str the progress of the season. He is on pace for 86, which would be four more than his career high in 2018.
- Nabil Crismatt walked the first batter he faced in the sixth inning and then threw seven straight. After giving up a leadoff single in a changeup, he ended the inning on four pitches — a home run by Pete Alonso and a two-out groundout by Mark Canha. Crismatt was the only Padres pitcher to retire Alonso, who was 3-for-4.
- The Padres have gone 2-1 in six games this season. They have yet to lose 2-1. Notice a certain player as a common theme in those wins.
Playing it
Luke Voit stood near the on-deck circle before the start of the second inning and looked at the video board at Citi Field while being treated to an in-game promo.
“Trying to help with the over-under,” he said after the game.
Okay, that’s it for me. Remember, the game is on ESPN tonight, so it’s a later Sunday kickoff (4:08 p.m. PT).
Talk to you tomorrow.
