Padres notes: Gary Sanchez good and rested; Michael Wacha watch
Gary Sanchez is clearly swinging on fresh legs.
That’s likely as much about the arrival of Luis Campusano‘s bat as a true partner in a timeshare behind plate as is it was a much-needed All-Star break.
The 30-year-old veteran homered twice in Sunday’s 5-3 win over the Rangers, continuing a hot streak that has seen Sanchez pair five homers and a .263/.356/.711 batting line in his first 12 games of the second half.
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“He got off to such a hot start offensively and he was catching every single game, day games after night games,” Padres manager Bob Melvin said. “It has helped him some that he’s been able to DH and not catch every day.”
Indeed, Sanchez homered six times in his first 13 games as a Padre, pulling more and more time away from the struggling Austin Nola as he got more and more comfortable with the entire pitching staff.
Perhaps one byproduct: Sanchez’s production had tailed off to .159/.256/.232 over 23 games leading into the All-Star break.
Campusano replaced Nola on the roster on July 18. Since then, both catchers have six starts apiece behind the plate and they’ve alternated between DHing and catching the last five games.
Sanchez caught the first and third games of the sweep, going 1-for-3 with an RBI on Friday, going 0-for-2 with a bases-loaded walk as the DH on Saturday and putting one ball onto the third deck of the Western Metal Supply Co. building on Sunday and another over the wall in center to give him 12 blasts on the season.
While Campusano hasn’t been as explosive outside his four-hit game in Detroit, he’s certainly been consistent, hitting .297/.333/.432 in 10 games since coming off the injured list. He was 0-for-4 on Sunday as the DH but went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored on Saturday as the catcher.
“I think it’s natural for your legs to maybe feel a little stronger when you’re not catching every day,” Sanchez said through interpreter Danny Sanchez. “But at the end of the day, I’m a catcher, so if the manager has me in the lineup catching every single day, I’m going to be ready.”
The bat certainly is staying in the lineup as long as it goes like this.
In fact, the Padres had become so enamored with Sanchez and Campusano alternating as the catcher/DH in the same lineup that they finally called up Brett Sullivan on Saturday as a third-catcher insurance policy.
Where Sullivan gets his reps remains to be seen, but facing lefties in two of their three games in Colorado makes it likely that this Sanchez-Campusano tag team will continue as long as both bats and pairs of legs remain fresh.
They are helping each other in that regard.
“Well, they’re getting rest on the DH days,” Melvin said. “ … A lot of it has to do with the lefties we’ve been seeing. Campy was swinging great against righties, too. Trying to play a hot hand. We’re doing the best we can every day here because every game is important to us.”
Wacha watch
Whatever A.J. Preller does over the next couple days, the Padres expect to welcome at least one starter to the rotation next month: Michael Wacha.
While the rest of the team will be at Coors Field, the 32-year-old will face live hitters on Monday at Petco Park, likely off Lake Elsinore’s roster as the Storm are off Monday.
Wacha expects the pitch count to mirror the 35-pitch bullpen that he threw on Friday. The course of action from there has yet to be determined, but Wacha will be diligent in checking off boxes as he returns the shoulder inflammation that’s barred him from this playoff push since July 1.
“It sucks to be on the IL and I’m itching get back out there,” Wacha said after playing catching Sunday morning. “But I want to be full go, no pitch limit or anything like that and not barking out there. I want to be 100 percent so I can give 100 percent for this team.”
Wacha has posted a 1.19 ERA over his past 10 starts, although the first sign of shoulder discomfort reared its ugly head when he did not recover quite the same after his last couple appearances. He was skipped after June 19 start (6 IP, 2 ER), threw five innings of one-run ball after an 11-day layoff and hit the injured list on July 4 with continued trouble with the same shoulder injury that sent him to the shelf in three of the last four years.
The discomfort this time, though, stemmed from inflammation in the front of the shoulder instead of the back, but Wacha believes the training staff has a handle on it.
“I’ve never felt that before; everything’s been on the backside of the shoulder,” Wacha said. “So it’s a little different, kind of going through it and different exercises to help strengthen it and stuff. … But these bullpens, these throwing sessions, being able to keep that intensity up, ramping up that intensity each time and being able to bounce back from it has been huge for the confidence for sure.”
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Source: The San Diego Union-Tribune
