That's what it looks like
The excitement around the Padres finally came through as the team scored 7 runs, including a walk-off 3-run home run, to beat a division rival.
Good news! The San Diego Padres won a baseball game.
Was it easy? No. Was it fun? At times! Was it a sign of things to come? It was.
When the Padres spent $100 million to lock up Joe Musgrove, it was because they imagined a lot of starts where he would go 7 innings and give up just 1 run. He hasn’t done that a lot in the last month or so, but he did it last night.
When the Padres spent $300 million to sign Manny Machado as a free agent, it was because they imagined a lot of games where he would go 2-5 with 3 RBI and a walk-off home run.
When the Padres traded most of their remaining top prospects for Juan Soto and Josh Bell, it was for nights like these. Juan Soto went 2-3 with a HR, a double, a walk and an RBI. Hitting 2nd, he got on base a ton and ended up scoring 3 times.
Josh Bell even got in on the action, finally. He went 2-4 with an important RBI.
Here’s what the top four spots did in the lineup for the Padres last night:
8-17 (.470), BB, 2 HR, 5 RBI, 7 runs
Obviously, you can’t expect a performance like that every night, but it’s good to know it’s there and the Padres should eventually settle into a rhythm where the top half in their lineup is producing 70% of this most nights.
7 runs on 11 hits with zero errors is what this is supposed to look like. It’s what Peter Seidler probably expects after agreeing to go over the CBT for a second straight year.
My guess on what was going wrong over the last week is pretty simple. The guys were trying to live up to the hype of being the most exciting offense / team in baseball after the Soto trade and they were pressing to try and be that team immediately.
Last night felt like them finally getting past that. Now we get to see what they can really do.
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