Padres Daily: Starting to look good; thanks, Joe; testing Tatis’ arm

Good morning,

The Padres almost couldn’t help but win last night. And yet they didn’t quite make it as easy as it should have been.

It’s a strange thing to say after a game that featured an eight-run inning, but the Padres’ offense continues to grind its gears while heading into the stretch.

Strange but true.

Last night’s second inning was the only inning in which the Padres scored during an 8-5 victory over the Angels.

Even in that inning, the Padres didn’t really do much — at least not so much that you would think they scored eight runs.

“They didn’t beat us up physically with the bats,” Angels manager Joe Maddon said. “We beat ourselves pretty much.”

The details are in my game story.

So let’s talk here about reason to believe the Padres just might have what it takes to rally in the season’s final 3½ weeks and build on their one-game lead in the race for the National League’s second wild-card spot.

The starting pitching has been going strong long enough to have at least a kernel of faith.

“The way the starters have been throwing the ball,” Jayce Tingler said. “… you feel like they’re giving you a chance to win damn near every night.”

You might say, “We’ve been here before.” And you wouldn’t be wrong. But the rotation hasn’t been this good very often. Joe Musgrove has reached a higher level of consistency. And perhaps biggest of all, Blake Snell was a wild card much of the season but is pitching like an ace the past five weeks.

Last night was the fifth straight game in which a Padres starting pitcher went at least five innings, just the third such run of the season and the first since July 18-23.

It was the third straight quality start for the Padres, just the third time that has happened and the first since Aug. 7-9.

Significantly, Yu Darvish is the one who accomplished it last night, allowing one run in six innings for just his second quality start since June.

In their 11 total starts since Aug. 21, the Padres’ top four starters (Darvish, Musgrove, Snell and Chris Paddack) have combined for seven quality starts and a 2.67 ERA. The Padres have won seven of those 11 games, the only seven games the team has won in that span.

Now, the offense needs to score more consistently — or find a way to have the top two pitching staffs in the major leagues in WHIP and ERA, the Dodgers and Giants, hand them eight runs in a few innings.

But at least having the top four on the mound for the bulk of the remaining 22 full games finally inspires confidence.

The above is the projected rotation of the upcoming trip. The chart below is a potential rotation for the final 12 games. We don’t know this is how they will line up for those two weeks, but it shows how the padres can start Arrieta just once.

Thanks, Joe

Darvish played for the Chicago Cubs when Maddon was the Cubs’ manager.

Maddon is in his second season managing the Angels, and he and Darvish caught up Tuesday.

Good thing.

This is what Darvish recalled regarding a portion of his conversation with Maddon: “He actually told me, ‘You’re kind of a feeling guy. You should trust that and go with that.’ ”

Darvish did. In holding Maddon’s club to one run on three hits over six innings, Darvish said all he thought about was lifting his left leg at the start of his delivery.

“The rest I just do,” Darvish said.

That’s what he means by “feeling.” He said he doesn’t pay attention to the hitters.

“It’s more about just throwing what I want to throw,” he said.

He was able to do that more normally last night. His back and hip are ever better, as his two injured list stays are further behind him. He was able since his last start to smooth up some mechanical hitches he developed while pitching through those health issues. Being strong and comfortable while throwing with a consistent delivery made his pitches more effective, including the multiple variations of his slider and a fastball he threw harder than in recent starts.

It allowed him to just pitch.

“For me, I’ve been for the most part thinking as I’ve been pitching,” Darvish said through interpreter Shingo Horie. “It may be the first time for me to really let myself go out there and truly go by how I’m feeling. That’s what it was tonight.”

Darvish entered last night with a 7.57 ERA over his previous nine starts. It had been 10 starts since he went six innings and allowed as few as three hits. He did so five times in his first 15 starts.

Said Tingler: “That’s the Yu Darvish we know.”

Uh-uh

Someone was bound to actually test him. One runner had considered it while rounding second base but ultimately held up. No one had run made a bona fide attempt to get an extra 90 feet on a ball fielded by Fernando Tatis Jr. since he moved to the outfield in mid-August.

It finally happened last night.

So, one down. Literally.

Jared Walsh was at third base with one out in the top of the second inning when Max Stassi sent a high fly ball to right field that was caught by Tatis. While he was running in, Tatis’ momentum was carrying him toward second base, so he had to stop and turn his body back toward the left. He may have turned too far, as his throw sailed slightly wide of the plate.

But that arm.

Tatis’ 97 mph throw arrived far enough ahead of Walsh that catcher Victor Caratini could grab the ball on the first base side of the plate and lunge back to his left to get Walsh fairly easily.

Tidbits

• Adam Frazier hit a double on Aug. 8 that was his second with the Padres and 30^th of the season, tied for third most in the National League. He hit his 31^st last night. That Aug. 8 contest was also Frazier’s 42^nd multi-hit game, most in the NL at that time. He had his 43^rd last night.

• Before last night, the Padres had never beat the Los Angeles Angels in San Diego. The last time the team from Orange County came to Petco Park and lost was May 20, 2012, when they were officially known as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. While almost no one referred to them by their full name (except mockingly), it wasn’t until 2017 that the team officially dropped the “of Anaheim.” (Caveat: Last night was the Angels’ seventh game in San Diego since that 2012 defeat.)

• Manny Machado’s sixth-inning single extended his hitting streak to 11 games, his longest since putting together 11- and 13-game streaks in 2019. His career high is 16 games, set in 2016 while with the Baltimore Orioles.

• Jake Cronenworth has two hits in three straight games. He is 6-for-11 in those games.

• Tatis ended a hitless streak at two games with an infield single in the first inning. He has gone three games without a hit just three times in his career — twice this season and once in 2020.

• The Padres drew bases-loaded walks in three consecutive plate appearances for just the third time in team history. The other instances occurred in 2012 and 1984.

• Darvish reached on a fielder’s choice and scored his fourth career run and second of the season. This is the first time he has scored multiple runs in a season.

• My Union-Tribune colleague Annie Heilbrunn posted a thread on Twitter yesterday about Yu Darvish that touched a fair amount of people. Check it out:

That’s it for me today.

Talk to you Saturday after the first game of the big road trip.

Last night, remember, was the Padres’ final game against a non-contending team.

(padres.com)