Good morning,
Not many people will disagree that it is sort of silly to call the Padres and Mariners rivals.
But here they are, paired by process of elimination. There simply is not another American League team that would make more sense as their interleague rival.
If only it wasn’t so for the Padres. Because the Mariners have absolutely owned this “rivalry” for going on four years.
You can read my game story (here) from last night about how the Padres squandered ample scoring opportunities and Cal Raleigh hit a decisive home run off Adrián Morejón in the seventh inning.
The Mariners’ 4-1 victory was their second in two days and 11th in the 14 games the teams have played since 2022.
The Padres have a better record against the Dodgers (17-28) in that span.
Here are some of the teams’ statistics in the series over the past four seasons:
The Mariners (25-19) are at least good this year. They lead the Rangers by 1½ games in the AL West, are tied with the Padres for 11th in MLB with a .728 OPS and, despite having been hit hard by injuries to their starting rotation, have a staff ERA of 3.78 that ranks 13th in the majors.
You can surmise by the chart above that the Padres have struggled against Mariners pitching in recent years.
Theoretically, the Padres caught a break with Mariners starters Logan Gilbert, George Kirby and Bryce Miller on the injured list. In particular, the Padres have not hit Gilbert in the past. But they were stymied Friday by a pitcher making his fourth career start and last night by a pitcher who brought a 6.91 ERA into the game.
Now the Padres (27-17) face Bryan Woo (4-1, 2.84) in today’s finale.
Not only has Woo been good, he has been incredibly efficient.
The right-hander has gone at least six innings in all eight of his starts this season and has not thrown more than 100 pitches in a single one of those outings. He has six quality starts and has pitched into the seventh inning four times, throwing 91 or fewer pitches in three of those.
He’s sick of it
Jackson Merrill singled on a grounder up the middle in his first at-bat yesterday, stopping a hitless streak that spanned three games and 12 at-bats.
He grounded out and then struck out twice in his final three at-bats. He has grounded out four times and struck out six times during this 1-for-16 run.
Merrill was batting .467 with a 1.259 OPS in the 15 games before what can now be called a skid. (Not yet a slump, just firmly a skid.)
“Baseball,” Merrill said. “It’s just a weird game. I was on fire, and then immediately sinking. I was smacking it too. Baseball is so hard. That’s why I love it.”
Merrill has swung and missed more (27%) and chased more pitches out of the zone (43%) during these four games than he was previously (15% and 32% respectively).
Of the 10 balls he has put in play the past four games, just two have been hit hard (95 mph or harder). In his first five games after his May 6 return from the injured list, 11 of the 17 balls he put in play had an exit velocity of 99.8 mph or greater.
It might not be all that pertinent, however, to read into what he is doing at the plate the past four games. There is apparently a more basic reason he slipped into this funk.
Merrill missed Sunday’s game in Colorado with a stomach bug that hit multiple players during and after the Padres’ last road trip.
He returned Monday and went 3-for-4 with a triple and made two diving catches in center field.
“I was excited to be back,” he said. “It was my first game back, so I kind of just owned it and blacked it out. After that, I just felt like the next two games I grinded out — just sick, not at 100% at all.”
One way to tell the difference between an explanation and an excuse is when you have never heard an excuse from the person offering the explanation.
Merrill doesn’t make excuses. He also hates to allow for weakness.
As for his being unproductive the past two nights, he praised the Mariners’ pitchers.
“They’ve got good arms,” Merrill said. “I can’t take away from the fact they have good arms. But I hate making the excuse, ‘Oh, he was good. He got me.’ I’ve hit off good pitchers. It doesn’t matter.”
Pivetta pushes through
Merrill wasn’t the only to get run over by a bug.
Multiple other Padres players who became ill — it is believed to have been a foodborne virus that spread — said it hit them hard and lingered for several days.
One of those who got sick was Nick Pivetta, who stayed home Monday and Tuesday after his start Sunday in Colorado.
That he missed two days of preparation for last night’s start would seem significant, since starting pitchers are such creatures of habit and their preparation is so important.
So he probably deserves a little bit of extra credit for yielding one run on two hits over six innings last night.
Predictably, though, Pivetta would not allow anything regarding how being ill affected his preparation for last night’s start.
“There have been a lot of guys dealing with illness,” Pivetta said. “It’s our job to show up and go out and compete. … Everybody gets sick. Everybody has to show up and do their job, especially position players who show up every night and sometimes they’re expected to play (sick) that night. For me, I was lucky enough to have five solid days off, have such a great training staff, do the proper things I needed to do and get my body back to regular.”
Pivetta is now nine starts into his first season with the Padres, and his 2.86 ERA is nearly three-quarters of a point (0.73) better than his previous low this far into a season.
“I just try to take it day by day, start by start, trying not to get too far ahead of myself,” said Pivetta, who has never had lower than a 4.04 ERA over a full season. “Just focus on the little things as the week goes on, make sure I’m … doing the right things and trying to put the team in the best position to win.”
If you have not noticed, Pivetta is exceedingly polite but does not share a lot for public consumption.
I don’t know this to be the fact with Pivetta, but his reticence to be open is consistent with some others I have encountered who played a significant amount of time (and largely did not meet external expectations) in larger markets, especially on the East Coast. Pivetta’s first eight seasons were spent in Philadelphia and Boston, two cities where the fans and media are, shall we say, not all that patient nor forgiving.
(Partial) Yu Darvish update
What we know is that the plan is for Yu Darvish to head to Toronto with the Padres after today’s game. He and multiple other people confirmed that yesterday.
What neither Darvish nor anyone else will say is what the plan is for him once he gets there.
It seems Darvish, who has been working back from an elbow issue since being sidelined in mid-March, will not make another rehab start. And the Padres appear likely to use a sixth starter on the six-game trip to play the Blue Jays and Braves.
Stay tuned.
Sheets’ surge
The Padres’ only run last night came on Gavin Sheets’ home run in the fourth inning.
It was his sixth home run of the season, and it came in his 32nd game (131 at-bats).
He finished with 10 home runs last season, and his sixth did not come until his 58th game (187 at-bats).
Now, he did have 10 home runs in 2023, as well, and he got his sixth in his 32nd game (96 at-bats). But he was batting just .250 at the time compared to his current .290 average.
Last night’s homer allows me the opportunity to implore you to read the Q&A (here) with Sheets conducted by Annie Heilbrunn this week. The Padres’ regular DH talks about a lot of things, including a reignited love for the game.
Working
Yuki Matsui made his 18th appearance last night, giving the Padres seven relievers to have appeared in that many games.
That is nearly an entire bullpen.
The Rangers and Dodgers are the only other teams to have had even six relief pitchers make at least 18 appearances.
What this speaks to is that the bullpen as a whole has been fortunate enough to stay healthy, that a bunch of pitchers have been willing to work a lot and that the relievers’ workload has been handled effectively by manager Mike Shildt, pitching coach Ruben Niebla and bullpen coach Ben Fritz.
, I said I was going to make an effort to give more attention to the bullpen on a regular basis. If we’re going to point out every time they blow a lead or go through a rough stretch, we should do a better job acknowledging when they come through.
Tidbits
- Xander Bogaerts had his second three-hit game of the season. His 3-for-4 night raised his batting average to .252 and his OPS to .710 for the season. He is batting .268 with a .790 OPS over his past 16 games.
- Bogaerts also stole second base twice. It was just the second time in his career he has had three hits and two steals in a game. The other was in 2016.
- Left fielder Jason Heyward started for the first time in three games and went 1-for-4. That raised his batting average four points to .177. His single on a 104.9 mph ground ball through the left side was third-hardest-hit ball of the season.
- Jake Cronenworth’s on-base streak ended at 10 games after he went 0-for-4 last night.
All right, that’s it for me.
Early game today (1:10 p.m.) and then a flight to Toronto.
Talk to you tomorrow.
