With a little more than three weeks left until the trade deadline, General Manager A.J. Preller is sure to be shopping for pitching.
His two most expensive starters are on the injured list and without a definitive timetable for a return.
The guy expected to be the ace is slumping.
Another key arm has already thrown more innings than he ever has in the majors.
Which makes every turn that Randy Vásquez takes in the rotation a critical entry into what figures to be a complicated equation.
Just what can the Padres expect from the 25-year-old right-hander?
Starts like Friday’s would be just fine, but bullpen help will clearly be on Preller’s list, too — even if Jurickson Profar and Manny Machado managed to save the day.
A half-inning after the bullpen coughed up six runs, Profar hit a game-tying homer and Machado hit a walk-off, two-run homer as the Padres rallied for a 10-8 win over the Diamondbacks in front of a Petco Park-record crowd of 47,171 to start the final homestand before the All-Star break.
It ain’t over ’til Manuel Arturo Machado says it’s over. pic.twitter.com/4LSUvemYtR
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) July 6, 2024
The Padres have been rolling of late, winning four straight series. They took a 7-2 lead into the ninth inning of Friday’s game and looked like they might avoid turning to leverage arms that had worked the previous two wins, let alone all the game-ending dramatics that began with Profar’s homer to right and ended with Machado’s blast after a Jake Cronenworth walk.
Enyel De Los Santos even recorded the first out of the ninth before back-to-back singles and a walk loaded the bases, forcing Shildt to call on closer Robert Suarez on what should have been a day off.
Alek Thomas hit Suarez’s first pitch to right field, a grand slam that cut the Padres’ lead to a single run.
Suarez fetched another out on a groundball, but Corbin Carroll followed with a double and pinch-hitter Randall Grichuk blasted the go-ahead home run into the Western Metal Supply Co. building.
What should have been a winning formula without all the late-inning dramatics was small ball early, rookie Jackson Merrill tripling and tying a career-high with three RBIs and Kyle Higashioka adding on in the sixth with a two-run homer.
More and more, Vásquez is contributing to that formula as 6⅓ innings of two-run ball positioned the Padres to win a third straight game that began with him on the mound.
He struck out six batters, including two after Joc Pederson led off the sixth inning with a leadoff single and one more to boot to start the seventh as Shildt asked the bullpen to protect a five-run lead.
It was Pederson who tagged Vásquez for a first-inning homer after Carroll’s leadoff double. The Diamondbacks threatened to add on in the first inning after Lourdes Gurriel’s two-out double, but Vásquez punched out Gabriel Moreno for the start of nine straight outs to settle into the game.
Including Friday’s quality start, Vásquez has a 1.76 ERA over his last three starts, all wins for the Padres.
Given all the support he had in Boston, Vásquez was on his way to a win for himself in his last start when a comebacker off his right elbow knocked him from the game after four innings of one-run ball.
X-rays came back negative.
Just a lot of pain and swelling at first, enough for the Padres to push his start back a day to Friday.
But Vásquez did not have any limitations as he returned to the mound and pitched into the seventh inning for the second time in his career, both this season.
Fittingly he walked off the mound to a warm ovation from the record crowd.
Small ball had everything to do with Vásquez leaving with a lead.
Machado led off the second with a double, moved to third on a groundball from Donovan Solano and scored on another groundball from Merrill.
Two innings later, back-to-back seeing-eye singles from Cronenworth and Machado set up a four-run rally to give the Padres the lead.
Both runners advanced a base on Solano’s fly ball to right-center and scored easily on the triple that Merrill pulled into the right-field corner.
David Peralta followed with a run-scoring double, Higashioka added a run-scoring single to open a 5-2 lead and the Padres catcher went deep in the sixth for his 10th homer of the season.
Nine of Higashioka’s blasts have come since June 1, tied with Merril for the most on the team over that stretch.
Higashioka also singled twice in the game, Machado went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and Luis Arraez and David Peralta each had two hits. The Padres’ early damage was charged Arizona right-hander Slade Cecconi (4⅔ IP, 5 ER).