A.J. Preller may trade for a starting pitcher before Friday’s deadline. He may not. Whatever he does, the Padres’ general manager acknowledged this week that the pitchers already in the clubhouse needed to pitch better.
Chris Paddack on Tuesday did just that.
The third-year starter settled down after a three-run third inning, Fernando Tatis Jr. hit his 31st homer and Manny Machado added his 18th as the Padres came from behind to beat the Athletics 7-4 in front of a sellout crowd of 40,162 at Petco Park.
Tatis’ blast was a two-run shot a half-inning after Paddack’s lone troublesome inning. Jake Croneworth chased Oakland starter James Kaprielian with a two-run single in the fifth and Machado added a three-run homer before the end of the inning, staking the Padres to a 7-3 lead.
Adam Frazier, playing left field, singled twice and scored two runs as the leadoff hitter in his Padres debut, and Tatis, Cronenworth, Machado and Victor Caratini all collected two hits in support of Paddack, who completed six innings for the first time since July 2.
Paddack struck out six and allowed three runs on nine hits and a walk while throwing a career-high 102 pitches, 70 for strikes.
A day after landing in San Diego, Frazier made his first hit as a Padre count.
He beat out a two-out infield grounder to second in the third inning, extending the inning long enough for Tatis to thoroughly flex his muscles.
And that he did, mashing a 112 mph, 440-foot blast to left, over the second deck to cut Oakland’s lead to 3-2.
The home run was Tatis’ 15th at Petco Park, tied with Machado (2019), Justin Upton (2015) and Will Venable (2014) for the third-highest total in a single season at the Padres’ downtown venue.
Only Wil Myers, with 18 in 2016, and Franmil Reyes, with 17 in 2019, have ever hit more at Petco Park.
The Padres had to chip away at a lead after the Athletics’ one-out rally in a half-inning earlier, one started by Kaprielian himself with his first big-league hit.
Mark Canha followed with a single and Ramon Laureano was credited with an infield single when Tatis couldn’t quite make the flip to Cronenworth at second base on a slow roller back up the middle.
Instead of two outs and runners on the corners, the bases were loaded with still one out when Matt Olson drove a sacrifice fly to center to open the scoring.
Jed Lowrie followed with a single to left and Sean Murphy dumped a double over first baseman Eric Hosmer to open up a 3-0 lead.
Paddack escaped the third inning without any more damage and tossed three more scoreless innings before handing the ball off to the bullpen.
Left-hander Drew Pomeranz allowed a home run to Murphy in the eighth before Mark Melancon worked a scoreless ninth for his 31st save.
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