In their seemingly never-ending quest for some sort of sustained offensive surge, the Padres have spent a good portion of this summer gripping their bats so hard they might have created more sawdust than runs.
They pretty much just let Wednesday night’s 8-5 victory over the Angels happen.
The win, coupled with the Cincinnati Reds’ loss to the Chicago Cubs, put the Padres a game up in the race for the National League’s second wild-card spot as they head into an off-day and ensuing 10-day trip that will go a long way toward deciding their postseason fate.
The Padres entered Wednesday’s game having scored one run in their past 17 innings and have now scored in just two of their past 25.
But what an inning it was.
The Padres sent 12 batters to face three different Angels pitchers in last night’s second inning, scoring all eight of their runs. It was the most they had scored in an inning since an eight-run eighth inning against the Angels on Sept. 2, 2020, in Anaheim.
Five of those 12 batters walked, and one was hit. Four of the walks came in succession, the last three of them with the bases loaded.
Wil Myers led off the inning and drew the first of the walks, from Mike Mayers. Adam Frazier followed with an RBI double, his first extra-base hit since Aug. 12, a span of 20 games. By the end of the inning, Frazier would have his first two-hit game since Aug. 8, a span of 17 starts, and have driven in three runs, doubling his RBI total with the Padres.
Between Victor Caratini making the first out and the final out of the inning on fly balls to the track in center field, Frazier was thrown out at home after running from third on Yu Darvish’s grounder to shortstop.
With two outs, Sam Selman replaced Mayers. He hit Trent Grisham before Jake Cronenworth drove in Darvish with a single to left field and Selman walked Manny Machado to load the bases.
Angels manager Joe Maddon made his second trip to the mound, this time to bring in Jake Petricka, who proceeded to walk Fernando Tatis Jr., Eric Hosmer and Wil Myers. With Frazier up, Petricka bounced a pitch in front of the plate that shot up and to the backstop, allowing Tatis to score and the other two runners to advance as well. Frazier then grounded a single through the right side to make it 8-0.
The big inning provided a sizable cushion for Darvish to simply work his way through his best outing in a while.
The team’s erstwhile ace turned in just his second quality start since June, allowing a run on three hits and striking out seven in six innings before four relievers labored to push the game through its final three innings.
Dinelson Lamet struck out three batters in the seventh but gave up a single after the first of those and a two-run homer after the second.
Left-hander Tim Hill hit a batter between getting the first two outs of the eighth. Daniel Hudson was brought in to face right-handed hitting Jo Adell, who sent a 1-1 fastball the other way over the right-field wall to make it 8-5.
That at least gave Mark Melancon the opportunity to earn his major league-leading 37th save, which he did with a perfect ninth.
Darvish escaped trouble in the top of the second after Jared Walsh led off with a double and went to third on Jo Adell’s sacrifice bunt. After Darvish walked Jack Mayfield, Max Stassi hit a fly ball to right field that Tatis caught. Walsh took off from third base, giving Tatis his first real opportunity to throw out a runner trying to test his arm. He responded by doing so, as his 97 mph throw easily beat Walsh for the inning-ending out.
A lead-off triple by Brandon Marsh led to a run in the fourth inning, but Darvish otherwise shut out the Angels before departing having thrown 99 pitches.
The right-hander had allowed five runs in 2 2/3 innings in two of his past three starts, both of those against the Diamondbacks.
The Padres won 13 of Darvish’s first 16 starts, but Wednesday was just their third victory in his past 10 starts. After posting a 2.44 ERA in the season’s first three months (16 starts), he had a 7.57 ERA in nine starts between July and August. He went seven innings just once, allowing two runs on four hits that night. He did last six innings three times but allowed four runs twice and five runs once.
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