Good morning from New York,
Yesterday was a rarity.
And that is something.
For the first time this season, the Padres went the final four innings of a game without getting a hit. They had only gone hitless in the final three innings once.
No one in the clubhouse was embracing that as any sort of consolation after a 5-1 loss to the Mets. The Padres had a horrible game at the plate yesterday. Arguably their worst of the season. There were certainly fewer hits (two). There were almost certainly more uncompetitive at-bats.
They scored one run for the second consecutive game, and for the second straight game that run came on a Jackson Merrill homer.
Ugly.
But, really, an outlier.
By this time last season, the Padres had four games in which they did not have a hit in the final four innings and six games in which they did not have a hit in the final three innings.
Here are some other comparisons between this year and the first 74 games of last season:
The 2024 Padres are not competing against the 2023 Padres. But it sure does seem much of the angst over this year’s team is residual fear from having watched last year’s team.
This Padres club is, in reality, competing against a half-dozen other might-be-OK teams in the National League. Right now, the Padres have the fifth-best record in the NL. Six teams make the playoffs.
They might be messing around too much. They should be better than .500, for sure. They may end up paying for this prolonged net inertia.
They probably need another starting pitcher. They probably need at least one more right-handed reliever they can count on. As has been noted, they are working on those things.
They certainly need Manny Machado to stop missing (and stop taking) pitches in the heart of the strike zone.
At 37-37, the Padres are just two games better in the standings than last year’s team at this point. But they are playing far better than that team.
The fact yesterday stood out so radically signals this is a different team.
The fact you could believe this from Fernando Tatis Jr. says this is a different team:
“We know that’s not going to happen again,” he said yesterday. “There’s good hitters in here. We haven’t had good results. This is a lineup that is going to keep putting the ball in play. Today didn’t go our way. We’re going to come back tomorrow and try to be our best version.”
You can read in my game story (here) about yesterday’s offensive performance and about how rookie Adam Mazur didn’t necessarily get burned by the fire he was playing with but did throw a lot of pitches and take the loss.
Musgrove’s progress
Joe Musgrove stood on a mound yesterday for the first time since going on the injured list two weeks earlier with inflammation in his right elbow.
He did not throw.
He spent almost a half-hour doing flexibility exercises and working to retrain his body as he attempts to slightly alter his delivery in order to take some stress off his arm.
“I feel good,” he said afterward. “But it’s hard when I haven’t done the one thing that caused me pain.”
Musgrove plans to play catch for the first time either Wednesday in Philadelphia or Thursday in San Diego.
“I think within that first day, we’ll be able to tell if we should continue progressing or if it needs a little more time,” Musgrove said.
Musgrove, who last pitched in a game on May 26, is likely out at least until late July considering he will need to build up and have at least a couple rehab starts. That is if all goes well. There could be delays.
And it remains possible the bone spur in Musgrove’s elbow will require arthroscopic surgery, which typically requires a six-week recovery process for a major league pitcher to return to action.
“I haven’t thought too much into that,” Musgrove said. “I’m really kind of just looking forward to when we get home to being able to throw and just seeing where I’m at.”
Musgrove believes the spur, which he has had for more than a year, is not the main issue. He has also dealt with triceps tendinitis and a bone bruise in the elbow, which he believes is the bigger impediment.
Musgrove said he was feeling as good as he had all season after his final start. It wasn’t until he threw a slider at the end of his bullpen session before his next scheduled start that he felt the pain return.
He believes his new slider is a part of the problem and is considering how to alter either the grip or wrist action. But he has also always had a very high-stress finish. One of the things he is working on is how to alter that finish. It has to do with his front (left) hip and how he is landing so that he can not have his arm absorb so much of the final portion of his delivery.
“I don’t know that there’s one specific thing that we could say fix this and it won’t happen again,” he said. “… But I do think that that delivery, like the release point and like how it’s coming out of my hand right now, now that it’s aggravated, I’ve got to try to make some kind of adjustment to not re-aggravate it without having months of rest time and let it calm down. I gotta find a way to adjust.”
Left in
Merrill sat nine of the Padres’ first 20 games against left-handed starters. He has started the past six.
He has a home run against a left-handed starting pitcher in each of the past three games.
From yesterday:
Jackson Merrill – San Diego Padres (7)
pic.twitter.com/m9260ghn7J— MLB HR Videos (@MLBHRVideos) June 15, 2024
“I don’t think it’s me being more comfortable against lefties,” Merrill said. “It’s that I’m actually hitting against lefties. The beginning of the year, I wasn’t starting against lefties. I was on the bench. I’m getting the opportunities now and showing I can do it.”
Merrill is still batting just .205 against left-handers, but that number was .193 seven games ago.
The Padres were selective about which lefties to start him against early, but they did not strictly platoon him. And he was rarely lifted for a pinch-hitter against left-handed relievers. It was lefty Alex Vesia against whom Merrill got the game-winning single in the 11th inning on April 12 at Dodger Stadium.
“He’s going to be an everyday guy, he’s going to show the ability to do it,” Shildt said. “He’s clearly shown that ability, and now he’s opened up his game and is driving the baseball regardless of handedness.”
Campusano’s rest
There are 3½ months remaining in Luis Campusano’s first season as a regular catcher in the big leagues.
He has shown signs of the workload catching up to him, as he has already started almost as many games behind the plate this season (50) as he had in his previous three season (55).
While he had a recent burst in which he went 6-for-15 with two doubles over five games, Campusano is batting .141 (9-for-64) since May 15.
So the Padres felt now was a good time to steal him three days’ rest.
The team was off Thursday, and Kyle Higashioka caught the past two days against the Mets. Campusano will catch today for Dylan Cease.
“He’s caught a lot,” Shildt said. “We’re catching Higgy a little more, and he’s earned it. … Campy has caught a lot relative to his experience in the big leagues. He’s caught normal relative to an everyday catcher. So it’s a learning thing, so we’re balancing it.”
Higashioka, who was starting successive games for the first time since April, started June by going 6-for-17 with four home runs. He was hitless in four at-bats the past two games.
Tidbits
- Merrill’s home run, hit a projected 411 feet, was the longest of his seven so far.
- Luis Arraez went hitless in four of his first 30 starts with the Padres. He was 0-for-4 Saturday, his third time going without a hit in the past six games.
- Machado played third base for the first time since injuring his hip on June 5.
- Enyel De Los Santos allowed his ninth home run, most by any reliever in the major leagues. All of those home runs have come in his past 19 appearances. He did not allow a homer in his first 13 games this season.
- The Padres have spent 23 days at .500, 31 days with a losing record and 20 days with a winning record. They were a season-high three games above .500 (32-29) on June 1.
All right, that’s it for me.
Early game today (10:40 a.m. PT) and then a train to Philadelphia.
Talk to you tomorrow.