MIAMI — The Padres' starting rotation might be rising back to its expected level of performance, a development the team considers imperative if it is to have a chance of fulfilling its championship aspirations.
Friday night’s starting pitcher took care of a significant part of the offense, too.
Joe Musgrove not only had his best night on the mound in a while by giving the Padres their second quality start in two nights, he doubled and scored what stood as the deciding run in a 5-2 victory over the Marlins at loanDepot park.
For the second straight night, the Padres took a 3-0 lead and then stopped scoring while the Marlins fought back.
It was a one-run game from the third inning until the eighth, when the Padres finally padded their lead by scoring a pair of runs in part by their own doing and in part because a team that is 16 games under .500 did what it does.
The Padres had two baserunners in a five-inning stretch before Jake Cronenworth, leading off the eighth, had a pitch graze his elbow guard. He moved to third on Manny Machado’s double.
After Eric Hosmer struck out, repeating a trend from Thursday when the Padres left 14 men on base, Wil Myers chopped the eighth pitch of his at-bat to first baseman Jesus Aguilar, whose throw home to try to get Cronenworth was low and to catcher Sandy Leon’s right. Leon caught the ball but essentially threw it with his glove to the back wall while trying to make a hurried swiping tag, and Machado rounded third and sprinted home as Leon chased the ball.
Musgrove (6-7) had not gone six innings in exactly a month, a span of four starts. He became the second Padres starting pitcher in a row to go six innings, allowing a run in the second and one in the third before yielding only one single the rest of the way. That came with two outs in the sixth after he had retired nine straight.
Blake Snell had worked into the seventh Thursday, becoming the first Padres pitcher to make it a full six innings in 15 games.
This follows Chris Paddack going five innings on Wednesday and Yu Darvish 5 2/3 on Tuesday.
That’s not quite as good as what the Padres would like. But the 22 2/3 combined innings is the highest four-game total by Padres starters since June 9-13.
In the five games before the All-Star break, they got a total of 15 innings from the starters. Ryan Weathers left the last of those games without recording an out in the third when he got hurt trying to make a tag. But the starters’ ERA in those five games was 10.20, while it is 1.59 over the past four games.
Pierce Johnson relieved Musgrove and got in some trouble in the seventh, allowing a two-out double to pinch-hitter Lewis Brinson and walking Miguel Rojas before striking out Isan Díaz.
Drew Pomeranz walked the first batter he faced in the eighth before ending the inning with a double play grounder and strikeout.
Mark Melancon worked the ninth for his major league-leading 30th save, his first time reaching that mark since 2016.
The Padres built their lead quickly against Marlins starter Zach Thompson before the right-hander settled in and set them down with an abundance of curveballs.
Tommy Pham’s home run on the first pitch he saw gave the Padres a 1-0 lead, as he smacked it the other way over the wall in right-center field.
Cronenworth followed with his fifth triple of the season, which tied him for second in the National League, and scored on Machado’s groundout to shortstop.
Thompson got the first two outs of the second inning on eight pitches before Musgrove grounded a double down the left-field line. Trent Grisham followed with a single up the middle that got under a diving Rojas and scored Musgrove.
Thompson threw 58 pitches in the first two innings and just 37 the next three. The Padres managed just a walk and two singles before their two-run eighth.
