SAN DIEGO — The San Diego Padres boarded a Milwaukee-bound flight on May 23 riding a nine-game winning streak, their best run in more than a decade. They limped home from Chicago on Wednesday on a season-worst four-game skid, their starting catcher on the injured list, their left fielder sidelined with a tender jaw, their center fielder still not back form his heel injury and their star shortstop questionable with oblique tightness.
At least Fernando Tatis Jr.’s oblique is good.
Yu Darvish was for a while, too.
Down a day and a half with concern about that oblique, Tatis moved into a tie for the major league-lead in homers with a two-run blast in the third and Darvish collected his second career two-hit game in a solid if not short start in a 4-3 win over the Mets on Thursday night at Petco Park.
After starting the game with five shutout innings, Darvish ultimately coughed up two runs on James McCann’s sixth-inning homer, but Tim Hill fetched an inning-ending double play one batter after Tatis’ MLB-leading 15th error for dropping a throw at second base loaded the bases.
Craig Stammen pitched a perfect seventh, Emilio Pagan stranded the tying run at third base in the eighth after Billy McKinney’s run-scoring triple and Mark Melancon escaped a dicey ninth with a double play to convert his 18th save, tops in the majors.
Darvish was protecting a lead because Manny Machado led off the third with a walk and Tatis lofted a high fly ball off Taijuan Walker that sent Mets center fielder Mason Williams up against the wall. He timed a leap and even got his glove around the ball, but it popped out as Williams slammed against the padding and dropped over the fence.
Williams put his hands on his head in disbelief while Tatis jumped in excitement as he approached first base and completed his 17th trot around the bases this season. Only Ronald Acuna Jr. and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. have hit as many home runs as Tatis has in 40 games wrapped around trips to the injured list for a partially dislocated shoulder and a positive COVID-19 test.
Jurickson Profar added an RBI single in the fourth inning, a rally extended by Darvish’s double down the right-field line.
Tatis pushed the Padres’ lead to 4-0 in the fifth when he beat out an infield single and daringly scored on a wild pitch.
It was needed after McCann’s two-run homer a half-inning later shaved the Padres’ lead to 4-2. Darvish hit the next better, Dominic Smith, and was pulled for Hill with 90 pitches through 5 1/3 innings.
Hours earlier, Tatis was among the wait-and-sees as Padres manager Jayce Tingler rambled through a laundry list of medical updates, a situation so tenuous that he made out two lineups as he waited to see how his walking wounded would get through Thursday’s pregame activity.
That began with Trent Grisham sprinting in right field. He’s eligible to return form his heel bruise as soon as Friday, although there’s a chance Grisham could require a rehab stint in Arizona or with Triple-A El Paso as he has not played in a game since May 21.
Ha-seong Kim followed Grisham’s work in right field with activity of his own before joining Tatis for early work in the infield ahead of regular batting practice. Kim exited Wednesday’s game after a concussion scare following a collision in shallow left field with Tommy Pham, while Tatis had exited Tuesday’s game with oblique tightness.
Kim and Tatis started Thursday.
Pham, meantime, was out of the lineup, although a CT scan did not reveal anything broken or out of line with a jaw that required stitches after his scary run-in with Kim.
“He’s still pretty tender with that shot,” Tingler said.
Catcher Austin Nola also made an appearance on the field Thursday afternoon, albeit significantly slowed by the knee sprain protected by the brace he sported as he walked along the home dugout railing. His second stint on the injured list was expected to sideline him for at least a couple of weeks, meaning it will still be quite some time until the Padres again have their full lineup.
Twenty-four games have already passed since all eight projected starters heading into spring training were in the lineup on May 8 in San Francisco.
Tatis tested positive for COVID-19 the following day after the Padres departed Oracle Park. Wil Myers’ positive test arrived two days later. The Padres also lost three others for a week to contact tracing, Grisham to his heel injury on May 21 and even Machado for a week to a balky shoulder.
That didn’t stop the Padres from departing for Milwaukee as the first team to 30 wins and a one-game lead in the NL West. They’d even won four of the first six games on the last road trip — three in extra innings — before losing the finale in Houston and getting swept out of Wrigley Field.
“Ever since we’ve had the COVID problems,” Jake Cronenworth said, “whatever lineup we put in that day those guys have just been grinding it out and trying to win any way possible, whether it’s an ugly win or a couple of extra-inning wins in Milwaukee and Houston. I think it’s a testament to the guys that are going in that maybe don’t play every day having quality at-bats and playing good defense.”
The road ahead isn’t any easier.
Two-time NL Cy Young-winner Jacob deGrom is among the lively arms that Mets are throwing at the Padres during their four-game stay and deGrom likely will line up against them again next week at Citi Field in New York. The Padres will conclude this homestand with a series against the same Chicago Cubs that swept them this week. After an off-day on June 10, their first in 20 games, a 13-straight-games stretch concludes with three home games against the defending world champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
“We know this is the most grueling part of the schedule, so it’s going to be a test,” Tingler said. “We’ve got some guys that are banged up and we’re playing some really good teams. Any time you have a chance to learn how tough we are and how deep we can dig, that’s a good thing.
“We’re going to find out more about our club.”
