OAKLAND — Get “that dog.” Get in the zone. Get out of your own way.
Those were Blake Snell’s notes as he assessed yet another uninspiring start last week at Petco Park.
Of course, a little help from his friends never hurt.
Tommy Pham hit his fifth leadoff homer of the season, Wil Myers threw a runner out at the plate and the Padres’ bullpen fired four more shutout innings, all of it helping the beleaguered Snell pick up the victory in an 8-1 win over the Athletics on Tuesday night at the Oakland Coliseum.
As trivial as that stat is to some, it matters when the season has been as troublesome as Snell’s first year in a Padres uniform.
So do the baby steps taken to sidestep a dangerous Oakland team that knocked him around four a season-high seven runs in four innings last week in San Diego.
He had traffic in every inning, yes. He walked three more batters. He lasted only five innings.
But Snell did not break this time.
Not after staring up at runners on second and third before recording his first out of the game.
Not after loading the bases in the second.
Not with Craig Stammen warming in a hurry after Starling Marte bombed a 113 mph, 408-foot homer to left in the fifth and Jed Lowrie walked with two outs, prompting a mound visit from Padres manager Jayce Tingler.
The intent did not appear to be to make the move to the bullpen just yet.
Given a bit more latitude with a 6-1 lead, Snell got out of the inning on Yan Gomes’ fly ball to center and passed the ball to the bullpen that, after four shutout innings Tuesday, is working on a string of 17 straight scoreless innings.
Snell struck out six, allowed the one run on Marte’s first homer with the Athletics and scattered six hits and three walks while throwing 65 of his 105 pitches for strikes.
It was just the ninth time that Snell had completed five innings in 20 starts.
He has recorded an out in the sixth inning just four times this season.
The Padres’ scoring started with a blast: Pham’s leadoff homer, his trophy for winning a nine-pitch at-bat against the same Sean Manaea who fanned nine over six shutout innings in last week’s A’s win in San Diego.
They nickeled and dimed Oakland’s left-hander from there to hand Snell a six-run cushion by the time he climbed the mound in the fifth inning, including a three-run second inning in which Jake Marisnick, Pham and Jake Cronenworth all singled in runs.
Austin Nola added a two-run double to close the book on Manaea (4 1/3 IP, 5 ER) in the fifth inning for one of his career-high-tying four hits and Trent Grisham, snapping an 0-for-20 rut, drove in two runs with a single in the seventh, his second hit of the game.
All told, the Padres went 6-for-10 with runners in scoring position, contrasting Oakland’s 0-for-13 effort in the same scenario.
Ten of those at-bats came with Snell on the mound.
He stranded runners on second and third with three straight outs after Mark Canha and Marte went single-double to start the game.
Snell walked his first two batters with one out to load the bases in the second when Myers provided the biggest bail-out of the night on Canha’s towering fly ball to semi-shallow right field.
Myers camped under the ball and uncorked a one-hop throw to the plate, where Nola made a sweeping tag on Josh Harrison to end the inning.
Snell set the side down in order the next two innings after the leadoff hitter reached second base, Marte with a single and a stolen base in the third and Ramon Laureano’s leadoff double in the fourth.
After Snell limited the fifth-inning damage to Marte’s home run, Craig Stammen, Emilio Pagán, Matt Strahm in his 2021 debut and Miguel Diaz teamed up for four scoreless innings.
Of course, there was no one on base when Pham touched Manaea for a solo homer to left-center, a 105 mph, 401-foot line for his fifth leadoff homer of the year, tied for second with Will Venable (2011) for the most in a season.
The only Padre to hit more leadoff homers in a season: Fernando Tatis Jr., naturally, with six as a rookie in 2019.
