The Gaslamp Maulers were unveiled Sunday afternoon, leaving the Bronx Bombers dazed and me wondering if someone spiked my soft drink.<\/p>\n
Home run.<\/p>\n
Home run.<\/p>\n
Home run.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how the first inning began for Padres hitters against Yankees ace Gerrit Cole, the trio of Fernando Tatis Jr., Jake Cronenworth and Manny Machado launching a much-needed series-clinching win, 4-3, on a muggy afternoon in the East Village.<\/p>\n
The Padres will want to reprise those powerful swings should they reach the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Home run power matters more in October.<\/p>\n
San Diego\u2019s lack of it last fall contributed to a first-round playoff exit in Chicago.<\/p>\n
This year, the Padres have gone long far more often, an essential development for a team that needs improvement from starting pitchers outside of Sunday\u2019s winner Michael King and Walker Buehler.<\/p>\n
A season after their popgun crew hit just 152 home runs to land 28th of 30 teams, the Padres have exceeded that total by seven with 19 games still to go.<\/p>\n
The improved longball game extends deeper in the lineup, bringing rewards such as No. 6 hitter Luis Campusano\u2019s second-deck blast Sunday, off Cole in the seventh inning.<\/p>\n
The pull shot that expanded a 3-0 lead stood as the game-winner and made it 159 home runs this season, a hefty gain that has the Padres 19th in home runs despite Petco Park playing larger than most ballparks do.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank God,\u201d Tatis said of the offense\u2019s longball success. \u201cWe definitely need it. Especially in this ballpark.\u201d<\/p>\n
The surprise Sunday wasn\u2019t that any of three Padres veterans homered off Cole early on.<\/p>\n
He\u2019d allowed 11 longballs in 95 innings this season, although just two came in his prior seven starts.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t shocking that the outburst came so soon.<\/p>\n
The first inning is often the best time to ambush a pitcher, especially an ace.<\/p>\n
While Cole brought his normal mid-to-upper 90s velocity to the mound, he wasn\u2019t pinpointing his pitches.<\/p>\n
Tatis lauded the Padres\u2019 tactical approach of getting off firm swings at the game\u2019s outset.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first inning, everybody\u2019s finding the groove, trying to lock in,\u201d said the leadoff man, who Sunday reached the 20-home run plateau for the fifth year in a row despite suffering through the longest home run drought of his career to begin this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, whoever misses first is going to lose. After that first inning, we saw why he is one of the best pitchers in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Soon after King dismissed a Yankees trio in just 10 pitches, the home run barrage through Cole\u2019s 10th pitch prompted Yankees manager Aaron Boone and his infielders to huddle around Cole, only for Padres cleanup man Ty France to hammer Cole\u2019s second pitch to the wall where center fielder Spencer Jones gloved it.<\/p>\n
Jackson Merrill made it five straight rockets, testing Jones with a swerving line drive struck harder than France\u2019s 396-foot drive.<\/p>\n
Jones caught it. Cole settled in.<\/p>\n
But the Padres had enough cushion to claim their first series victory in the last five tries.<\/p>\n
Boone singled out Tatis\u2019 six-pitch at-bat as crucial to the bombastic sequence.<\/p>\n
Tatis did well to throttle down and clock Cole\u2019s fat curveball over the right-field wall for his 20th home run.<\/p>\n
He\u2019d seen four fastballs, each one hotter than 95 miles per hour.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a great at-bat,\u201d Tatis said. \u201cHe challenged me with a couple of fastballs. I found a way to foul them off. When I saw that curveball, I decided to pop it off, and the barrel just came through it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cronenworth summoned one of his best swings as a big leaguer.<\/p>\n
The lefty\u2019s drive of an outside fastball held true instead of slicing foul, clearing the short wall in left for the 32-year-old\u2019s first opposite-field home run in the big leagues.<\/p>\n
Machado got off one of his better swings this year in sending Cole\u2019s 97-mph pitch for his 26th home run.<\/p>\n
The tee shot knuckled as it climbed above the outfield before clearing the center-field wall and flying into a bullpen screen.<\/p>\n
Machado woofed at his teammates as he headed toward first base.<\/p>\n
Tatis was ready for the trivia question afterward.<\/p>\n
Proudly, he told reporters that the only other time the Padres hit three consecutive home runs to start a game was in 1987, when lefties Tony Gwynn, Marvell Wynne and John Kruk connected in Mission Valley.<\/p>\n
Key difference:<\/p>\n
Where the \u201987 Padres never got into the playoff race and finished 20 games under .500, the current Padres sit just half a game behind the Diamondbacks for the final wild-card spot.<\/p>\n
The two teams will meet in San Diego for three games to close the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s gonna be must-watch TV,\u201d Tatis said. \u201cLet\u2019s see how it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n
If the power surge continues, final-series success may not be necessary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Gaslamp Maulers were unveiled Sunday afternoon, leaving the Bronx Bombers dazed and me wondering if someone spiked…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1047890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,1370,1266,3549,1306,7264,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-1047889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-america","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-latest-headlines","tag-mlb","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-sandiego","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117227049178489553","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1047889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1047889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1047889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1047890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1047889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1047889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1047889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}