Padres rout Marlins with 'most needed' offensive outburst, finish with winning trip
The Padres’ Gary Sanchez, center, poses with a baseball wearing a sombrero after he hit a home run during the fifth inning of Thursday’s game against the Marlins.
For three innings Thursday, the Padres looked a lot like they have. And then, for the next three innings, they looked a lot like they thought they would and continue to believe they will.
“We’re gonna keep pushing,” Fernando Tatis Jr. said later. “We trust each other. We believe in every single guy that we have in here. … We know what we have. We know what we have. We’re just gonna keep fighting until we make it happen.”
They did so Thursday.
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After their first nine batters went down without reaching base, the Padres scored in three consecutive innings, capping that surge with their biggest inning of the season, and cruised to a 10-1 victory over the Marlins at loanDepot park.
The victory ended a winning road trip and moved the Padres to within four games of .500 as they took a flight home after 10 days on the East Coast.
As the Padres hitters turned looking bad into feeling good, Padres starter Joe Musgrove pitched his finest game of the season, allowing his only run in the third inning and his first hit in the sixth.
Musgrove was matched at the beginning by Marlins starter Jesus Lúzardo, who struck out five of the first six batters he faced and didn’t allow a baserunner in the first three innings.
Both pitchers took just 40 pitches to get through three innings.
“Quick couple innings on both sides of the ball,” said Musgrove, who allowed three singles in the sixth inning, which was his last of the day. “... Really quick, like 10-pitch innings on both sides. Just get the ball and get going, which is kind of nice as a starter to get that rhythm at the start of the game. And then some big runs in that fourth inning, and then added a few more and then the real long one in the (sixth). Our offense is starting to swing the bat well, we’re getting guys on base, we’re driving them in now. Having good at-bats.”
The Padres have still yet to show any real consistency, but the past week-and-a-half stretch has undoubtedly seen improvement. They left San Diego batting .184 with runners in scoring position and nine games later are at .200, still worst in the major leagues. They were 6-for-14 with runners in scoring position Thursday, two days after going 6-for-16.
“We started scoring some runs, string in some longer innings,” Xander Bogaerts said.
The Padres continue to be a study in extremes. They have scored at least seven runs in six of their past 10 games and had at least nine hits in five of those. They also scored three or fewer runs and had four or fewer hits in three of those 10 games.
“Again, we have to sustain it,” manager Bob Melvin said. “(But) once the doors open, hopefully it’s a floodgate.”
That’s what happened Thursday as the Padres won their second series in the three they played on this trip.
Just before the game turned, Musgrove lost the strike zone for a bit, walking the first two batters he faced in the third. And in between the free passes to No.8 hitter Jonathan Davis and No. 9 hitter Joey Wendle, Davis stole second and went to third when catcher Austin Nola bounced a throw into center field. Luis Arraez then lofted a fly ball to left field for the first out, scoring Davis.
Musgrove would retire the next eight batters he faced.
And the Padres started hitting.
Ha-Seong Kim led off the fourth inning with a double that hit high off the wall in left field and scored on Tatis Jr.’s ground-rule double that hopped the wall in right-center field.
Juan Soto followed by taking a 99 mph fastball off his left forearm before Bogaerts grounded out to the right side, moving both runners up. That allowed Tatis to easily score on Brandon Dixon’s sacrifice fly to center field.
Gary Sánchez, who was claimed off waivers Monday and started the past two games at catcher before serving as designated hitter on Thursday, led off the fifth with his second homer in two games.
Lúzardo lasted three batters into the sixth.
Tatis led off by drawing a walk, stole second and went to third on Bogaerts’ one-out double off the wall in right field.
Matt Barnes replaced Lúzardo and gave up four consecutive singles — by Dixon (which scored Tatis), by Jake Cronenworth (which scored Bogaerts), by Sánchez (which scored Dixon and Cronenworth, who had stole second) and by Jose Azocar. After retiring Nola, Barnes walked Kim and was replaced by Bryan Hoeing. Tatis greeted Hoeing with a double down the left field line that cleared the loaded bases and made it 10-1.
After sitting, standing and trying to stay loose in the dugout for more than 30 minutes, Musgrove took the mound in the bottom of the sixth. He gave up his first hit of the game on an infield single to Arraez, the MLB’s batting average leader. A line drive single to center field by Jorge Soler followed, and an infield single by Bryan De La Cruz loaded the bases.
Musgrove quickly ended the inning by fielding a comebacker from Jesús Sanchez and throwing home to start a double play. He then ended the inning with a strikeout.
With the big lead and 80 pitches in, Musgrove gave way to Drew Carlton, who worked the next two innings before Tom Cosgrove pitched the ninth, as mass substitutions on both sides ensued over the final three innings.
In virtually all the Padres’ assessments afterward was felt an underlying acknowledgment that they have a lot of work to do.
But what happened Thursday helped bolster a belief they have never stopped professing. It was affirming to stick with an approach and be the team that was expected to have such games far more often than they have.
“It’s most needed to lift our spirits,” Tatis said. “And it also rewards our hard work.”
Source: The San Diego Union-Tribune
