The Padres kept rolling Saturday night, edging the Astros 3-2 to move to 61-57, and they did it with a little of everything: solid pitching, timely offense and Mason Miller slamming the door for save No. 29.
Michel King set the tone on the mound, working six innings and earning his seventh win of the season. He gave up three hits and one earned run while punching out six. From there, Jeremiah Estrada and Adrian Morejon each handled the next two innings with two strikeouts apiece, setting things up for Miller, who worked around a hit batter and a run to finish it off.
San Diego got on the board right away in the first when Jackson Merrill brought Fernando Tatis Jr. home on a fielder’s choice. Merrill struck again in the third, launching a solo homer that went 421 feet. Gavin Sheets later crossed the plate in the fourth after Tatis rolled into a grounder to shortstop with an expected batting average of just .130, and the play ended up turning into an error.
Beyond the box score, there was fresh movement on the Padres’ $3.9 billion sale, with a timeline now in place for when the deal is expected to be completed.
Adrian Morejon’s future also came up after a busy trade deadline, with president of baseball operations AJ Preller addressing the left-hander during a Zoom session earlier this week.
"We'll see what the offseason ends up bringing," Preller said. "Part of his maturity is being in the present, the here and now, every day. I know he's super-focused on helping this team win in the playoffs and get to the World Series in October and we'll deal with the other stuff here when we get to the end of the year."
The deadline also included a report that the Padres pursued All-Star catcher Adley Rutschman in a potential blockbuster move. The backstop never ended up in San Diego, and the club also didn’t add a left-handed bat. Instead, the Padres recently moved top catching prospect Ethan Salas up to Triple-A after he hit .286 in Double-A.
There’s also an injury concern hanging over the roster, with Nick Pivetta shut down from his throwing progression in a rough update.
And Manny Machado weighed in on one of the club’s breakout arms, saying the pitcher "still has a lot to learn". Another update surfaced after Pivetta’s setback, with him breaking his silence following the injury news.
In Other News...
Padres Are Betting On A Veteran Bat To Fix One Lineup Problem
The Padres have turned to a familiar kind of midseason fix, agreeing to a major league contract with veteran outfielder Austin Hays as they look to shore up a lineup issue that has lingered all season. A right-handed hitter with nine MLB seasons on his resume, Hays brings experience across the outfield and gives San Diego another option at a time when the club has been searching for more reliable production against left-handed pitching.
For the Padres, the appeal is obvious: add a bat with enough track record to help balance out a lineup that has too often looked vulnerable in those matchups. Hays arrives with the kind of background teams tend to trust when they need immediate help, and his fit will now be judged by whether he can provide the right-handed punch San Diego has been missing. [Read more 🡒]
Padres Move On From Veteran Arm As Rotation Pressure Builds
The Padres have trimmed their pitching picture by designating right-hander Germn Mrquez for assignment and then releasing him to free agency, a move that reflects how much pressure is building around the back end of their staff. Mrquez never found much footing in San Diego, working to a 5.26 ERA in 53 innings before eventually getting shifted to the bullpen, where the club hoped he might settle into a different role.
Now the focus turns to other arms as the Padres try to sort out their rotation, with Robbie Ray and Casey Mize among the pitchers in the mix. For a team still trying to stabilize its pitching plan, moving on from a veteran name is less about one pitchers exit than about how aggressively the Padres are willing to reshuffle the staff to get better results. [Read more 🡒]
Jackson Merrill Is Giving The Padres Exactly What They Needed
Jackson Merrills recent surge has given the Padres a badly needed lift at the plate, and it showed again in their 3-2 win over the Astros on Aug. 8. Over his last 20 games, he has hit .372 with seven home runs, a stretch that has helped energize an offense fighting to stay in the postseason race and made him one of the most important bats in the lineup.
His contribution in Houston was exactly the kind of timely production the Padres have been searching for, as he drove in runs and launched his 17th homer of the season. For a team trying to keep pace in the playoff chase, Merrills resurgence is more than a hot streak, it is the kind of development that can change the tone of the stretch run. [Read more 🡒]