3 thoughts after the season's first Padres-Dodgers series
The San Diego Padres lost their weekend series at home against the Los Angeles Dodgers, but they showed everyone that they're not far from catching up to baseball's top team.
On Sunday, the San Diego Padres avoided being swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers in what was easily the best series of the young MLB season.
A quick recap, for those who may have missed any of these games.
Dodgers 11, Padres 6 (12 innings): The first game of the series featured a solid spot start from rookie LHP Ryan Weathers and some 9th inning heroics from Manny Machado, who fought off back spasms and helped manufacture the tying run to send the game into extra innings. The main reason this one ended the way it did? The Padres ran out of bullpen arms and the Dodgers, who have several starters working as relievers in their bullpen, didn’t.
Dodgers 2, Padres 0: A true pitchers’ duel between Clayton Kershaw and Yu Darvish, with Kershaw getting the win and Darvish the loss despite giving up just 1 run over 7 innings. The San Diego offense was very quiet until the 9th inning and the Padres were still just one game-saving diving catch in center field from tying it. If you weren’t convinced after Friday night that the Padres were nearly as good as the Dodgers, Saturday should’ve sold you.
Padres 5, Dodgers 2: Another stellar performance from both starters, but the Padres bullpen outdid the Los Angeles relief team this time. The Padres trailed 2-1 after 6 innings, needing clutch hits from Eric Hosmer and Tommy Pham to take the lead that the bullpen would never give back.
Okay, onto my thoughts!
Maybe Eric Hosmer is okay?
Right off the bat, this is not a complete defense of Eric Hosmer. His terrible defense has somehow gotten significantly worse (I doubt there’s a worse starting first baseman in MLB), making him just one more reason why I can’t wait for the designated hitter to return to the National League, but he’s been a star with the bat this year. Kind of.
Eric Hosmer has an average launch angle of -0.8 this year. Yeah, that’s a negative number. A negative launch angle means that, on average, he’s hitting the ball on the ground when he makes contact. This should be no surprise to anyone who watches Padres games.
What’s crazy is that Hosmer is actually getting results despite playing a different style of baseball from every other hitter in the league. He’s got a batting average over .300 and an OPS over .900. He’s also been the Padres’ most reliable clutch hitter so far this season, hitting .400 with men in scoring position.
I don’t really know how to explain it. All of his metrics says that he should be a terrible hitter, and that it’s only a matter of time before it all collapses on him offensively, except one. He’s hitting the crap out of the ball. Over 52% of the balls he makes contact with are “hard hit” (exit velocity of 95mph+), which would be a career high by a lot.
He seems to be feasting on fastballs, hitting an absurd .455 on them so far, which was how he hit with the Royals. With the Padres, it looks like he’s been trying to sit offspeed, perhaps in an effort to get under something and get a better launch angle. This year, it looks like he’s looking for fastballs and hitting them as hard as he can (launch angle be damned) and it’s working so far.
Why I feel bad for Ryan Weathers
On Friday night, unexpectedly called into service to start against the best team in baseball after the injury to Adrian Morejon, rookie Ryan Weathers was everything the Padres could’ve hoped for.
He pitched 3.2 innings, and he probably gets through 4 innings if not for yet another Eric Hosmer fielding error. He gave up 0 runs, 1 hit, and 2 walks. Rookies, especially those that aren’t the prized gem of the team’s farm system, are not supposed to be able to do that against the Dodgers.
In a meritocracy, Weathers would be getting consideration over Chris Paddack for the 5th spot in the rotation after Dinelson Lamet returns later this week. However, this is going to be a long season and there will likely be inning restrictions on Weathers, Lamet, and eventually MacKenzie Gore. If Paddack isn’t around to throw 150+ innings this season, things get really dicey towards the end of the season and heading into the playoffs.
Despite him acing every test, Weathers just might need to stay in the bullpen this season with the occasional spot start (possibly even in the playoffs) and dream about having a regular spot in the rotation next year.
Manny Machado coming into his own
I don’t know how to accurately describe what I’ve been seeing from Manny Machado this season, but anyone who has been regularly watching the games probably doesn’t need to be told. After years of being a great player and teammate, Manny has seemingly turned into the team’s leader, as well.
Watch any young player on the team, and they’re usually hanging around Machado to get advice and hopefully earn his praise. This is as true of the players with nine-figure contracts as it is with the ones on minimum salary. Even Ha-Seong Kim has taken a shine to Machado, who has also become the go-to quote for media members that want to talk about any Padres infielder.
Watch the Padres during the in-between moments. In between at-bats or innings. During batting practice. Walking off the field after a heartbreaking loss. These days, you’ll see the guys turning towards Manny Machado. Not just that, Manny seems to be doing a great job of picking guys up, getting them focused, and setting a good example.
I couldn’t help but think of Ken Caminiti, a fan-favorite in San Diego for regularly playing through pain and injury, while watching the bottom of the 9th on Friday. With two outs in the 9th inning, trailing by one run after the Dodgers scored in the top of the inning, Manny Machado made a run happen.
Despite fighting through back spasms the entire at-bat, he worked a walk. Jayce Tingler and the team trainer came out to check on him, and Manny let them know that he wasn’t getting pulled from the game. Then he took a big lead at first base.
You could see him grimace every time Kenley Jansen threw over to first to try and pick him off, which made it all the more surprising when he stole second. I wasn’t sure he’d be able to get up after running full speed and diving in the dirt, but he did. And then, after a wild pitch, he was on third base. 90 feet away from tying the ballgame, which is exactly what happened when Hosmer hit the crap out of a groundball through the infield and into the outfield.
For a player that has prided himself on playing every day, occasionally playing at less than full-effort to stay healthy, it was a sign to his teammates that this series was worth more. That the Dodgers were a team worth going all-out to beat. And there he was again in the lineup on Saturday and Sunday, playing well and probably in a bit of pain, because that’s what leaders do.