SAN DIEGO _ The first week of the season was a hootenanny, with all the 100-proof moonshine and fistfights.
The second week was the morning-after headache and black eye.
The Padres on Friday began their third week of baseball, after their first day off in this truncated tempest of a season.
"For all the guys, it was a chance to recharge, hit the reset button, get ready for ... 17 ahead of us in 17 nights," manager Jayce Tingler said. "It was a well-needed off day."
This season is flying by.
Friday night's game certainly did, thanks to Zach Davies retiring the first 13 Diamondbacks he faced and the Padres getting all their runs on homers by the batter leading off in three innings.
Kirby Yates recorded the final out of their 3-0 victory just two hours, 27 minutes after Davies threw the first pitch.
The Padres, who entered the game having scored two runs in the first two innings all season, got going quicker than usual Friday, if only because Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jake Cronenworth kept going.
Tatis hit Luke Weaver's first pitch in the bottom of the first inning an estimated 434 feet to left-center field. Cronenworth hit Weaver's first pitch in the second inning over the wall in right field.
It was Tatis' team-leading fifth homer and continued his streak as the only Padres player to reach base in all 14 games this season. Cronenworth, a rookie who has started the past five games at first base while Eric Hosmer has been on the injured list, has a hit in six straight games.
Rookie Edward Olivares, pinch-hitting for Abraham Almonte, led off the fifth inning with his first career home run, though he didn't hit his 399-foot blast over the wall in right-center until the third pitch of his at-bat against Alex Young.
Meanwhile, Davies kept Arizona off the bases until there was one out in the fifth. Consecutive singles by Eduardo Escobar and David Peralta were followed by two quick outs. Davies got through 5 2/3 innings, having allowed three singles and struck out six.
Craig Stammen got the final out of the sixth, Emilio Pagan and Drew Pomeranz followed with hitless innings, and the Diamondbacks managed just a dribbled infield single against Yates.
It was a welcome straightforward respite from the type of game they have been playing.
The Padres entered Friday losers of four of five, having fallen to 7-6 and from first place to third in the National League West.
They are trying to keep their head above water in a relentless schedule.
Friday's game was the first of 17 in 17 days. By the time the Padres get their next day off, they will have played 30 games in 31 days, something that would not be allowed in a normal season. When not trying to squeeze in as many games as possible in the heart of a pandemic, teams generally have four or five days off in a given month.
"We don't look too far ahead," Tingler said. "We're just kind focused on the Diamondbacks. But the realistic nature, the part that is shocking is understanding after these 17 games go down before the next off day, we're going to be at the halfway point. That feels really quick, right? After playing 13, now we're going to do 17, and there's the halfway point."
The Padres have played only teams in the NL West and will do so until Aug. 17. Five of their first 13 games were decided by one run. The score in eight of their games was within two runs in the seventh inning.
"Yeah, I would say very intense," infielder Greg Garcia said. "Especially because we have only played in our division and those games always seem to be intense. We understand that each game really matters even more so than any other year."
The pennant race began July 24.
That is how Tingler is managing, and except for there being no fans in the stands, that is the energy seemingly expended in each game.
"It feels like you're in a playoff race with whatever it's been to go, 60 to go, 47 to go," Tingler said. "It does feel different than the first moth of the season, where you're trying to get off and get going but you know you've got time to adjust and settle in. It does feel very similar to some of the last two months of the season when you need to play good ball and make a move. It feels like you're in a playoff hunt."
As it had been before during and while the Padres were losing two of three to the Dodgers this week, in part because of plays they didn't make in the field and scoring opportunities they didn't cash, Tingler's theme before Friday's game was that the Padres weren't playing their best.
"The one thing we feel good about is we've got the ability, we've got the talent to play with some of the better teams in the league," he said. "The most important things is understanding we believe our best ball is in front of us. It certainly wasn't behind us in the last 13 games."
