SAN DIEGO — The San Diego Padres won their eighth straight game, took over the best record in baseball and, at least as importantly at this point in the season, worked a pitching piggyback again in the interest of preserving a couple important arms.
Ryan Weathers started and Dinelson Lamet pitched in relief, this time with Craig Stammen between them to get the Padres most of the way through a 6-4 victory over the Mariners on Saturday night at Petco Park.
Weathers allowed one run in four innings, Stammen threw yet another scoreless inning and Lamet allowed an unearned run in three innings.
With the Los Angeles Dodgers’ victory over the San Francisco Giants earlier Saturday, the Padres stand alone with the best record in the major leagues (28-17). The Giants and Dodgers are 28-18.
Playing without Manny Machado for a second straight game because of an ailing shoulder and with center fielder Trent Grisham also watching from the dugout while resting a bruised heel, the Padres continued to score runs at a rate that was seemingly unimaginable a couple weeks ago.
In winning 11 of their past 12 games, they are averaging 6.9 runs a game. Saturday was the sixth time in that span they scored at least six runs. In their first 34 games, they averaged 3.8 runs and scored six or more runs 10 times.
A five-run fifth inning began with Jorge Mateo’s single up the middle and a sacrifice bunt by Joe Musgrove. Mateo then stole third and jogged home when catcher Tom Murphy’s throw went wide and skipped down the left field line in foul territory.
Tommy Pham drew the second of his career-high four walks and went to third on Jurickson Profar’s single. After Jake Cronenworth struck out, Fernando Tatis Jr. was intentionally walked to load the bases.
Eric Hosmer went the other way to line a single into left field. Third base coach Bobby Dickerson waved Profar home, and left fielder Jarred Kelenic’s hurried throw went wide of the plate and got past Murphy, who chased down the ball and threw to pitcher Justus Sheffield covering the plate. It appeared Tatis beat the throw anyway, but his feet-first slide knocked the ball from Sheffield’s glove for good measure.
Austin Nola followed with a single that scored Hosmer.
The Mariners’ first run came on Mitch Haniger’s homer leading off the third against Weathers.
The rookie left-hander would have had to be extraordinarily economical with his pitches to extend the Padres’ season-high streak of quality starts beyond four games.
After a 20-pitch first inning was followed by a 20-pitch second inning, it was more a question of whether he would make it through the fourth.
He did. He was at 59 pitches after three innings but took just eight to get through his final inning.
Stammen ran his scoreless streak to 13 innings (over 11 games) before Lamet came in and worked beyond two innings for the first time in five appearances this season.
As significant as anything, Lamet was hitting 96-97 mph with his fastball in the sixth and was still at 94-95 and even touched 96 in the eighth. The run he allowed came in the eighth when a long drive by Kyle Seager went off Mateo’s glove in center field and Seager advanced to third on a passed ball and scored on a sacrifice fly.
Austin Adams got one out but also allowed a run and hit a batter in the ninth before Mark Melancon came in to earn his MLB-leading 16th save. Melancon’s throwing error allowed the final run to score.
This was the third game Weathers and Lamet combined for a majority of the innings in a game. Six days earlier against the Cardinals, Weathers started and threw four scoreless innings before Lamet relieved him and allowed a run in two innings. On May 4, it was Lamet who started and threw two scoreless innings with Weathers following and allowing a run in three innings.
The situation is this: Lamet is building up innings after missing the postseason in 2020 and starting the season late this year because of an elbow issue; and the 21-year-old Weathers likely has about 70 innings left this season.
The arrangement could now be altered for a time.
Saturday was the second of 20 games without a scheduled day off, and the Padres appear to be leaning toward going with six starters for a turn or two through the rotation.
“With both guys, our goal is to get through the year healthy,” Tingler said Saturday afternoon. “Right now, if those days you can look up and they can do a lot of heavy lifting for the game, great. I think we’re going to do what’s right for both guys on the health side. We’ll get through today, re-evaluate where we are.
“I am interested in for this run possibly going to a six-man rotation and buying an extra day for some of the guys. We’ll see how we get going today and continue to evaluate where we’re at, but I’d say both guys potentially have the opportunity to start some games for us going forward, but we’re going to go day-to-day with it.”
