PHOENIX — The retractable roof over Chase Field was open, the temperature was in the low 90s and the wind was blowing at least slightly when Fernando Tatis Jr. made contact in the first inning Saturday. Those atmospheric conditions explained how a fly ball that exited Tatis’ bat at 89.6 mph traveled far enough to clear the outstretched glove of a leaping Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and, just beyond that, the left-field wall. Or perhaps there was a better reason.
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“It’s because it’s Fernando Tatis, I think,” Padres manager Bob Melvin said after that night’s 5-3 win against the Diamondbacks. “I’ve never seen the ball go out at less than 90. I can’t remember. Maybe Colorado.”
You’ll have to forgive Melvin. The man has watched a lot of baseball. Just four years ago, he was managing the A’s in a game at Minute Maid Park when Robinson Chirinos delighted the home fans with an 87.2 mph lollipop that somehow ended up in the Crawford Boxes.
Melvin’s point still stood. Since Statcast tracking technology went online in 2015, there had been a total of 70 major-league home runs with an exit velocity below 90 mph. Before this weekend, there had been one such home run in 2023, an 88.8 mph clout by Kyle Tucker (also at Minute Maid Park).
As for Tatis, in his oft-interrupted and oft-impactful career, he had never procured a home run with such little force. But he had, in a 2021 game (also at Chase Field), come relatively close with a 92.9 mph fence-scraper off Arizona’s Zac Gallen. (That same afternoon, he also supplied a 105 mph homer against Gallen and finished with four hits in a dramatic return from a shoulder dislocation.)
Saturday’s home run, off Merrill Kelly, was an immediate callback to Tatis’ first career home run in 2019, also off Kelly. It was his first home run since his return from a drug suspension and his first major-league home run since Oct. 3, 2021. And it was a reminder that the ball tends to jump off his bat differently than it does for others.
“He’s just so strong,” infielder Jake Cronenworth said. “My 89 just gets, like, right over the second baseman.”
“I just hit it right, and when you learn how to hit the ball, you don’t need to really get all of it,” Tatis said. “I didn’t get it all my best, but I got a good angle and I saw it going out pretty good off my bat.”
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The Padres, coincidentally, didn’t play their best baseball at Chase Field — Friday, Gallen threw seven surgical innings and ushered them to their third shutout loss in six games — but they played arguably as well as they have all season. And the final outcome was pretty good: An inconsistent offense tallied at least five runs in each of the other three games, Joe Musgrove’s season debut brought the roster another step closer to full strength and Sunday’s 7-5 victory brought the Padres (12-12) back to .500.
A couple of hours later, the Padres took off for Chicago, and their first off day in almost three weeks, in high spirits. Maybe it wasn’t a coincidence that their second series win of 2023 came in Tatis’ first series in 18 months. Here are four more observations from four days in the desert.
Off day, sweet off day
On April 9, in the fourth game of an 18-game stretch without a break, the Padres beat the Braves in Atlanta, then flew to New York for a matchup with the Mets. They arrived at their hotel rooms around 4 in the morning.
“It’s just felt like a blur ever since,” Melvin said after Sunday’s win.
The Padres, through the season’s first 25 days, are the only team to have played 24 games. Tatis played in only four of them. Musgrove pitched in just one of them. Considering their late additions, and a grueling slate filled with competitive opponents, a .500 start did not seem so terrible. And the idea of a break had rarely felt so good. Monday will bring an especially needed reset for the relievers and position players — and the first of four breaks in 15 days.
Of course, few people are going to feel sorry for a club with the sport’s third-highest payroll. Expectations will only continue to climb: This weekend, with Tatis and Musgrove back in their dugout, the Padres approached a full complement of talent.
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“This is the team we’ve been looking for for months now,” third baseman Manny Machado said.
Now, we’ll see how quickly they can reach peak form.
Staffing shuffle
On Monday, Ryan Weathers threw six innings of two-run ball against the Braves to lower his earned-run average, through three starts, to 2.81. On Wednesday, Nick Martinez logged his second seven-inning start and yielded no runs. On Friday, the day before Musgrove’s return to the rotation, both pitchers were informed they would temporarily work as relievers.
The situation isn’t ideal. But neither is the schedule nor the recent state of the bullpen. A six-man rotation simply wouldn’t be practical over at least the next two weeks. And the Padres could use a little help bridging the gap to Josh Hader, who on Sunday picked up his majors-leading eighth save. Martinez and Weathers understand all this. Both have shown they can be effective in a relief capacity.
“They did a good job with it last year in terms of transparency and communication, so I don’t see any reason why we can’t do that again,” Martinez said. “They expressed that it was temporary, and whatever the team needs right now, I’m able to fill that void in both roles.”
“I kind of knew going into it, especially with all the off days we have coming up now, kind of my role would change a little bit,” Weathers said. “Doesn’t mean I won’t start again, but just whenever they hand me the ball, that’s my time to go.”
Martinez will be available out of the bullpen Tuesday at Wrigley Field, and the Padres intend to use his ability to supply length. That plan would allow him to return to the rotation sooner than later, particularly if an unforeseen circumstance arises. (On Sunday, the team survived a scare when Yu Darvish was forced from the sixth inning of a fine start by right hamstring cramps. Darvish is expected to make his next start.)
Weathers came out of the bullpen Saturday to pitch a scoreless inning and preserve a one-run lead. The Padres are still figuring out how they will utilize Weathers in relief; the lefty overhauled his repertoire in the offseason and has raised his stock as much as anyone in the organization. And though he has pitched in relief before, the 23-year-old is still figuring out how to quickly recover between more frequent outings. Weathers has been picking the brains of the more experienced relievers around him.
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One thing that seems to be helping: contrast bath therapy, or the practice of alternating between hot and cold baths. In this case, the hot comes first.
“It just makes the cold even worse,” Weathers said with a laugh. “But yeah, you just do a couple of rounds, two minutes apiece. Just kind of get your body fresh.”
More hot and cold
After a recent 2-for-25 cold spell at the plate, designated hitter-first baseman Matt Carpenter went 2-for-3 with a home run and a walk over two abbreviated starts against the Diamondbacks. Then, on Sunday, he went 3-for-3 with two doubles while driving in five of the Padres’ seven runs. He resembled the resurgent veteran who last season briefly rampaged through the Bronx, driving the ball to all fields and even doing damage against left-handers.
“I felt like I was trending in the right direction,” Carpenter said, “and today, this series, was able to see some of it pay off.”
The Padres are still waiting for several others to experience similar satisfaction. Machado, whose back tightened up before Thursday’s series opener, has a .536 on-base plus slugging percentage. (Sunday was positive; Machado singled, hit a couple of other balls hard and made a diving snag of a line drive.) Ha-Seong Kim delivered a crucial, two-run single Saturday, but still owns a .608 OPS. Juan Soto (.752) remains too pull-happy for the Padres’, and his own, liking. Nelson Cruz (.709) has been badly fooled by a recent stream of breaking pitches. Austin Nola (.403) has looked overmatched at the plate since coming back from a fractured nose in spring training. Xander Bogaerts (.962) has extended his season-opening on-base streak to 24 games. He has been the only qualifying hitter with an OPS above Cronenworth’s .781 mark.
So, the Padres are still waiting for the kind of offense they promised with their blockbuster winter. In the meantime, their series against the Diamondbacks showed the strength of their infield defense. Bogaerts and Cronenworth, in particular, appeared to save multiple runs with a number of nifty plays around the diamond.
On the pitching side, Hader and second-year big leaguer Steven Wilson (0.66 ERA in a league-leading 12 appearances) have been the early MVPs in the bullpen. Wilson’s performance as an emerging high-leverage reliever is of particular note. Setup man Robert Suarez (elbow inflammation) is still not close to throwing after a recent setback. Drew Pomeranz could soon return to the majors for the first time since 2021, but the Padres will proceed cautiously with the lefty.
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El Niño season is on
As returns go, this was not one of Tatis’ explosive comebacks from recurrent shoulder injuries in 2021. In four games against Arizona, Tatis went 3-for-18 with the aforementioned home run, one walk and four strikeouts. He occasionally dazzled with his raw ability in right field but also displayed his inexperience at the position, like when he overthrew a cutoff man in a key situation.
Of course, they were his first four major-league games in 18 months. And the Padres saw enough to not temper their excitement. In the series, Tatis put eight balls in play with a higher exit velocity than his home run. Meanwhile, amid the boos and cheers from bipartisan crowds at Chase Field, his familiar aura remained intact.
“He’s one of those mood makers that goes out and has fun so that kind of lifts us up,” Darvish said through interpreter Shingo Horie. “And I think the opposing pitchers obviously don’t enjoy facing him too much. So it’s great to have him back.”
“You could hear it and feel it, the energy he brings for the fans,” Carpenter said. “He’s a fun player to watch, and I think that — I know that we’re going to see a lot of great things from him this year.”
The Padres are counting on it. No one is going to feel sorry for them, especially this year.
(Top photo of Fernando Tatis Jr.: Joe Camporeale / USA Today)
