With just over three weeks until the trade deadline, general manager AJ Preller will certainly be looking for pitchers this month.
Their two most expensive starters are on injured reserve and without a definitive schedule.
The guy we expected to be the ace is falling apart.
Another key arm has already thrown more innings than he ever did in the major leagues.
Which makes every turn Randy Vasquez takes in the rotation a critical data point as Preller decides how to play the chips he has left.
What can the Padres expect from the 25-year-old right-hander?
Starts like Friday’s would be ideal, but it’s clear that at least one relief pitcher needs to be on Preller’s roster as well, even if Jurickson Profar and Machado manage to save the day again.
A half-inning after the bullpen gave up six runs, Profar hit a game-tying home run and Manny Machado hit a two-run home run for a 10-8 victory over the Diamondbacks before a record crowd of 47,171 at Petco Park.
It’s not over until Manuel Arturo Machado says so. pic.twitter.com/4LSUvemYtR
– San Diego Padres (@Padres) July 6, 2024
“We’re making it normal, right?” Profar said. “We’re showing who we are as a team. We’re going to do it over and over again. We’ve got guys here. I’ve been telling you since Day 1, we don’t give up. We keep giving it our best.”
Especially lately.
The Padres had won four straight series before the All-Star break. Including Friday’s highlights, they’ve won 12 of their last 15, and a 7-2 lead in the ninth inning seemed like it could give Padres manager Mike Shildt his main goal after Vásquez’s strong start:
Stay away from the leverage that contributed to the previous two victories.
“At almost any cost,” Shildt later admitted.
Relievers Adrian Morejon and Jeremiah Estrada were both on the ground. Shorter Robert Suarez gave the team a boost after pitching Friday afternoon if a save situation presented itself and, incredibly, it did.
Heck, Enyel De Los Santos even recorded the first out of the ninth before two straight singles and a walk loaded the bases, forcing Shildt to push Suarez into the game.
His first pitch to Alek Thomas: a grand slam to right to cut the Padres’ lead to just one run.
Suarez got another out on a ground ball, but Corbin Carroll followed with a double and Randall Grichuk – pinch-hitting for All-Star Ketel Marte (back stiffness) – hit the game-tying home run into the Western Metal Supply Co. building.
GOOD.
There’s nothing much wrong here.
“We’re built like that,” Machado said. “We’re going to fight until the 27th out.”
It never was.
Trailing 8-7 in the bottom of the ninth, Profar came back from 0-2 off catcher Paul Sewald to launch a game-tying home run to right field. After Jake Cronenworth drew a walk, Machado hit an 0-2 sweeper over the left-field wall, setting off a raucous celebration that included a fan who managed to enter the dugout with a cellphone under Machado’s nose before he was taken to the ground by six security guards.
“I thought it was one of our guys celebrating with me,” Machado said after his fourth hit of the game gave his team its 10th career home run. “I looked around and when I turned around, he was getting tackled, man. I felt bad. I felt bad.”
“It’s obviously not a good situation for him, but he had some good pictures there, for sure.”
What should have been a winning formula without all the late-inning drama turned out to be short-ball in the top of the inning, with rookie Jackson Merrill tripping and tying a career high with three RBIs and Kyle Higashioka adding a two-run home run in the sixth.
Increasingly, Vásquez is contributing to that formula as 6 1/2 innings of two-run ball positioned the Padres to win a third straight game that started with him on the mound.
He struck out six batters, including two after Joc Pederson led off the sixth inning with a leadoff single and another to start the seventh as Shildt called on the bullpen to protect a five-run lead.
It was Pederson who hit Vásquez for a home run in the first inning after Carroll’s leadoff double. The Diamondbacks threatened to add a run in the first inning after Lourdes Gurriel’s two-out double, but Vásquez struck out Gabriel Moreno for the start of nine straight outs to settle in.
Including Friday’s quality start, Vásquez has a 1.76 ERA over his last three starts, all wins for the Padres.
“It’s really a combination of working on my mechanics and also sequencing each pitch,” Vásquez said, speaking through his interpreter Danny Sanchez, of his last three starts. “Luckily, I’ve been able to get good results from a combination of those two things.”
With all the support he had in Boston, Vásquez was on his way to a victory in his last start when a bounce shot to his right elbow knocked him out after four one-run innings.
The x-rays came back negative.
At first, he felt only severe pain and swelling, which was enough for the Padres to push his start back a day, to Friday.
But Vásquez had no limits when he returned to the mound and pitched into the seventh inning for the second time in his career, both times this season. He left the mound to a warm ovation from a record crowd.
The small ball was decisive for Vásquez to leave with a lead.
First, Machado led off the second inning with a double, moved to third on a ground ball by Donovan Solano and scored on another ground ball by Merrill.
Two innings later, back-to-back singles by Cronenworth and Machado gave the Padres four runs and the lead. Both runners advanced one base on Solano’s fly ball to right field and scored easily on Merrill’s triple to the right-field corner.
David Peralta followed with an RBI double, Higashioka added an RBI single to open a 5-2 lead and the Padres catcher homered deep into the sixth for his 10th homer of the season.
Nine of Higashioka’s hits have come since June 1, tied with Merril for the team’s most in that span.