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<\/p>\nGood morning from San Francisco,<\/p>\n
The Padres won yesterday for the 11th time in 14 games.<\/p>\n
A team probably could not be feeling all that much better heading into a 13-game stretch in which it will play the division foe immediately behind it and immediately ahead of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe additions we made, how deep the lineup is,\u201d Jake Cronenworth said. \u201cBullpen, starting pitching is clicking. Nice to get Michael (King) back and (Yu) Darvish back and Nestor (Cortes) and the way Dylan (Cease) is going now. It\u2019s a super important two weeks, and we need to take advantage of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Padres left Petco Park late yesterday afternoon for the airport and a short flight to San Francisco.<\/p>\n
Today, they will play the first of 13 consecutive games against National League West opponents. Specifically, they will play seven games against the Giants and six against the Dodgers.<\/p>\n
The Padres can overtake one. They can bury the other.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what you want; you want to be in the driver\u2019s seat,\u201d reliever Jason Adam said. \u201cAnd when you\u2019re playing in division, you\u2019re in the driver\u2019s seat. You don\u2019t have to scoreboard watch or anything like that. You just get to play your games. Take it day by day, pitch by pitch, and try to win a ballgame.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Padres have improved their standing since the last time they saw the Giants and Dodgers<\/p>\n
When they departed San Francisco the first week of June, the Padres were in the same position they are now \u2014 holding the fifth of six NL playoff spots \u2013 but were just a game ahead of the Giants.<\/p>\n
Sunday\u2019s 6-2 victory over the Red Sox put the Padres three games ahead of the sixth-seeded Mets. The Padres are seven games in front of the Giants, who have gone 24-31 since the teams last met.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Padres play the next three days at Oracle Park, play Friday to Sunday at Dodger Stadium and then go home to host the Giants for four games and the Dodgers for three.<\/p>\n
The Dodgers have come back to the Padres in the standings.<\/p>\n
They Dodgers won five of the seven games the teams played in mid-June to get to 3\u00bd games up on the Padres. That is just 1\u00bd games better than they are now. But that advantage swelled to nine games by July 3.<\/p>\n
The Padres are 20-12 since then, the Dodgers are 12-18.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny division game, obviously, is important,\u201d Cronenworth said. \u201cBut I think having 13 of them in the next two weeks, it\u2019 gonna be a battle. It\u2019s gonna be a grind. Six on the road, seven at home, two good teams, and it\u2019s gonna be similar to these games we just played here this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n
You can read in my game story (here<\/a>) how Sunday\u2019s game went \u2014 with Cease lasting until the seventh inning and three relievers (including one outside the Big Five) locking down a victory that was powered by what Mike Shildt called \u201cas consistent of an offensive game as we\u2019ve had in a while.\u201d<\/p>\n Bouncing back<\/p>\n On June 23, the Padres lost 10-6 to the Nationals in a series-opening game that wasn\u2019t even as close as the score might suggest.<\/p>\n The defeat followed two victories, quashing the Padres\u2019 chance to win a third consecutive game for the first time in nearly three weeks.<\/p>\n \u201cThe win streaks are nice,\u201d Cronenworth said that night. \u201cStarting off the season super smoking hot is nice. But winning series is more important at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n The Padres won the next two nights to take that series before losing the next two series, at Cincinnati and Philadelphia.<\/p>\n They are 7-1-2 in the 10 series since then.<\/p>\n The past two, they have dropped the opener and won the next two games.<\/p>\n \u201cAre we gonna answer back?\u201d Fernando Tatis Jr. said yesterday. \u201cWe\u2019re not gonna sit and feel sorry for ourselves. We\u2019re gonna clean it up.\u201d<\/p>\n The Padres did that pretty well.<\/p>\n After being stymied for six scoreless innings Friday by Walker Buehler, who had a 5.74 ERA and had not shut out a team over six innings since May 18, 2024, the Padres scored four runs in 4\u2154 innings against Lucas Giolito on Saturday and five runs in 5\u2154 innings against Brayan Bello yesterday. Giolito had a 2.45 ERA over his previous seven starts. Bello had a 2.66 ERA over his previous 14 starts.<\/p>\n \u201cWe get punched in the mouth (in) Game One,\u201d Cronenworth said, \u201cand then come back and have two really awesome games.\u201d<\/p>\n Hanging in<\/p>\n Tatis had a productive weekend.<\/p>\n After going 0-for-5 on Friday to run a six-game skid to 2-for-26, he had two hits Saturday and two more yesterday and was also hit by a pitch, walked, scored twice and drove in a run.<\/p>\n The 94 mph fastball that Bello got Tatis with yesterday, nailed him square on the left hip. It was one of the more straightforward and least-scary of the many inside pitches he has seen this season.<\/p>\n Tatis grimaced, walked it off and headed to first base.<\/p>\n Not so much because of that pitch but because I had been meaning to since Friday night, after the latest of the up-and-in fastballs that knocked him down, I asked Tatis yesterday for the first time in a while about how tired he was of being pitched inside.<\/p>\n Quite tired, it turns out.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah,\u201d he said. \u201cI could charge the mound. But there\u2019s a reason why I\u2019ve been holding myself. If I go out there, it\u2019s not like I\u2019m just going to talk to him. If I go out there, I\u2019m probably going to lose it. And at the end of the day, I\u2019m probably going to lose more than what I can accomplish by doing that. So, I\u2019m just trying to stay in the game and find a way to beat them.\u201d<\/p>\n That was the focus this weekend.<\/p>\n \u201cJust finding a way to beat them,\u201d he repeated.<\/p>\n Asked if he thought pitchers had succeeded in messing with his head to some extent by pitching in on him, Tatis allowed more than he had before.<\/p>\n \u201cProbably,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause in the areas I\u2019ve been hit in my hand, some of them have still been there, still hurt. Obviously, you baby flinch when you\u2019re at the plate. But I\u2019m not putting that as an excuse. I just gotta find a way to go out there and perform. Find a way.\u201d<\/p>\n While Tatis has a .407 on-base percentage over his past 35 games, he has homered just twice and has a .394 slugging percentage in that span.<\/p>\n Asked if he has physically been hindered by any of the times he was hit, he said, \u201cProbably strength-wise a little bit. But not much. Nothing too crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n Rarity plays<\/p>\n There were times yesterday that Cease\u2019s slider didn\u2019t so much look like it fell off a table when it reached the plate as much as it appeared to have been vacuumed downward.<\/p>\n But maybe that was something of an optical illusion.<\/p>\n \u201cI think because I was able to show it less,\u201d Cease said. \u201cBecause I\u2019ve showed other stuff, it plays up as well. The slider was really good. But when you mix in a bunch of different stuff, I think it keeps them off of it. Because if they see the same pitch a bunch, then it\u2019s easier for them to recognize it.\u201d<\/p>\n Yesterday was the second straight start in which Cease used his slider and fastball less than 70% of the time. He had in each of his 18 starts before that used those two pitches at least 80% of the time. In 10 of those 18 starts, he used the fastball and slider at least 90% of the time.<\/p>\n \u201cI had a good mix today,\u201d Cease said. \u201cI threw a lot of variety of pitches for strikes.\u201d<\/p>\n He used his sinker a career-high 15% of the time yesterday and his sweeper a season-high 9% of the time.<\/p>\n Cease had become essentially a two-pitch pitcher because the fastball and slider were the pitches he felt comfortable with, and the slider is among the best pitches anyone in the major leagues possess.<\/p>\n He held the Dodgers to three hits over seven scoreless innings on June 10 throwing his slider 49.5% of the time and his four-seam fastball 42.7% of the time. That is how good those pitches are.<\/p>\n But he also had a 4.79 ERA before his past two starts.<\/p>\n The results the past two Sundays \u2014 no runs in five innings on Aug. 3 and two runs in six-plus innings yesterday \u2014 suggest he is finding his groove being less predictable.<\/p>\n Stepping up<\/p>\n Mason Miller was throwing alongside David Morgan in the bullpen as Adrian Morej\u00f3n walked Alex Bregman to start yesterday\u2019s eighth inning.<\/p>\n What happened next would determine which of the two right-handers entered the game to protect a four-run lead against one of MLB\u2019s top offenses \u2014 the prize of the trade deadline who has saved 49 games over two seasons or the rookie who has worked almost exclusively in games the Padres have trailed.<\/p>\n \u201c(Morej\u00f3n) was going to need to get one of the two,\u201d Shildt said of what was required to keep Miller in the bullpen.<\/p>\n Morej\u00f3n got the next batter, Jarren Duran, to ground into a fielder\u2019s choice. So in went Morgan.<\/p>\n He struck out cleanup hitter Trevor Story on three pitches and ended the inning with a Masataka Yoshida groundout.<\/p>\n Morgan then went out and retired the Red Sox in order in the ninth inning on 12 pitches, the last of them a 98.5 mph fastball that finished off a strikeout.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s got a really good arm,\u201d Shildt said. \u201c\u2026 He\u2019s got real weapons. And the biggest thing is he\u2019s not going to make it bigger than it is. He\u2019s going to go out and he\u2019s going to be on the attack.\u201d<\/p>\n Morgan threw 14 strikes among his 19 pitches, including a first-pitch strike to all five batters he faced.<\/p>\n \u201cSuch a stud,\u201d Adam said of Morgan. \u201cJust a great head on his shoulders coming in there. Huge situation, getting multiple outs. He\u2019s gonna be a stud for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n Miller was the only one of the five highest-leverage relievers available late yesterday after Morej\u00f3n and Adam already worked. Robert Suarez and Jeremiah Estrada were not available due to their recent workload, including throwing more than 20 pitches apiece on Saturday.<\/p>\n Given that the Padres have needed to stretch their relievers so much, yesterday might have been another step toward Morgan getting the call more often in close games.<\/p>\n Said Shildt: \u201cMorgan is turning into that guy that we can clearly trust.\u201d<\/p>\n I wrote last week (here<\/a>) about Morgan\u2019s propensity for throwing strikes. And if you missed Annie Heilbrunn\u2019s Q&A with Morgan this week, check it out here<\/a>.<\/p>\n