PHOENIX — The feeling among the Padres players and staff Saturday night was embarrassment and anger. The feeling Sunday morning was resolve.
A statement was coming, some said.
If that is what was done with an 8-2 afternoon victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field, what they shouted was this: We’re not dead.
And also: He’s back.
Fernando Tatis Jr. returned from a 13-game stay on the injured list, played right field for the first time as a professional and at the plate did what he always does when coming off the injured list — he homered. This time he did it twice, putting the Padres up 1-0 in the third inning and 2-1 in the fifth.
Tatis has been on the IL three times this season. All three times, he hit a home run in his first game after being activated.
Adam Frazier followed Tatis’ second blast with a single up the middle, and two batters later Jake Cronenworth sent the first pitch he saw over the right field fence to put the Padres up 4-2.
Tatis drove in two runs with a bases-loaded single to push the Padres’ lead to 6-2 in the eighth inning. After Cronenworth’s bases-loaded walk made it 7-2, Tatis scored the final run on a wild pitch.
In right field, where he is expected to play the bulk of the time as the Padres attempt to limit his exposure to injury, Tatis caught three fly balls. The Padres have indicated he will also play shortstop, where he started in the All-Star Game. Cronenworth, also an All-Star, has moved from second base to shortstop.
His pair of home runs pushed his NL-leading total to 33 — despite his having missed 30 games while on the injured list.
Craig Stammen headed a bullpen game for the second time in six days with two scoreless innings before six other relievers closed out the victory that kept the Padres 2 1/2 games ahead of the Cincinnati Reds in the race for the National League’s second wild card spot.
Josh Rojas scored both of the Diamondbacks’ runs — hitting a single and coming around on Ketel Marte’s triple against Reiss Knehr in the third and hitting a solo homer off Pierce Johnson in the fifth. Rojas, who was batting .263 entering the series, went 10 for 15 in the four games the teams played here since Thursday.
The Padres scored three more runs Sunday than they had in their four-game skid. The first and last of those losses came by a score of 7-0 — to the Miami Marlins on Wednesday and here Saturday as Arizona’s Tyler Gilbert became the fourth pitcher in MLB history to throw a no-hitter in his first start.
