SAN DIEGO — The Padres have changed the trajectory of their season in time to welcome the Dodgers to Petco Park on Monday.
After limping home from what their manager called a “terrible” road trip, the Padres on Sunday completed a four-game sweep of the Reds with a 3-2 victory at Petco Park.
That they can again string together hits and score multiple runs is highly significant. It would be difficult to win games going along at 2.8 runs a game, as they averaged over a 16-game stretch from May 30 through Tuesday.
But given that they have re-established that they might be who they thought they were offensively, having hit .291 with a .973 OPS in their past five games, the most consequential turn of events Sunday was Dinelson Lamet looking like his old self over five shutout innings.
The right-hander, who is still building up stamina after a tardy start to his season, struck out seven and got past lead-off singles in the second, third and fifth innings while throwing a season-high 81 pitches.
Lamet (2-2, 2.81) has been mostly trending toward longer and sharper outings as he works back from an elbow issue that prevented him from pitching in the postseason and, after a winter of rehab and rest, caused him to start spring training late. But this was the first time he truly looked like he brought his pre-2021 slider to the mound with him. While it had looked good in some earlier games, the break on the pitch he throws anywhere from 83 to 89 mph was so harsh early Sunday that any success by the Reds was shocking.
The Padres gave Lamet a 3-0 lead on manager Jayce Tingler’s kind of inning — a single against the shift, a sacrifice bunt, a walk and a triple, plus an error trying to throw out an aggressive runner.
Manny Machado’s one-out single the other way through a hole created by the shift started things in the third. Machado advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Jake Cronenworth, and Eric Hosmer followed with a walk.
Wil Myers then lined a 1-2 change-up to the corner in right field, easily scoring Machado and Hosmer. Right fielder Tyler Naquin’s throw down the line was cut off by first baseman Joey Votto, who changed direction and threw to third base trying to get Myers. His throw hopped past third baseman Eugenio Suarez, and Myers resumed running to home without drawing a throw.
That was it for the Padres, who were 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position.
The Reds were worse, going 1-for-10.
Votto led off the second inning with a single before Lamet struck out the next three batters — the first finished with a 98 mph fastball, the second with two straight sliders after going up and in at 95 mph to back up Eugenio Suarez and the final one on three pitches.
Lamet threw three balls among his 22 pitches in the first two innings. He had all seven strikeouts by the end of the third.
The third inning is when he faced his biggest hurdle. After Kyle Farmer’s leadoff single and a strikeout by Reds pitcher Luis Castillo, a walk to Jonathan India put runners at first and second and brought up the major leagues’ leading hitter, Jesse Winker. His average dropped from .343 to .341, as he became Lamet’s seventh strikeout victim. The inning ended on Naquin’s fly ball out to left field.
Lamet got successive groundouts after a one-out single in the fourth and left Farmer at first after his single started the fifth.
Tim Hill pitched a perfect sixth. Craig Stammen left the bases loaded by getting India on a double play grounder to end the seventh. Emilio Pagán allowed two runs on a single, double and a pair of run-scoring groundouts.
Mark Melancon upped his major league-leading save total to 22 with a hitless ninth, getting Winker on a pop fly to shortstop, with Ha-seong Kim running out to shallow center field to catch it with a man on first base.
