Good morning from the site of my long layover,
Mike Shildt experiences games.
Every one of them, win or loss, close or blowout, he is locked in just about as if he was managing Game 7 the World Series. His postgame demeanor is more NFL coach than baseball manager.
“It’s all competition,” he said for a story I wrote at the start of the season about his role in changing the Padres’ culture. “We’re constantly looking for edges. We compete regardless of circumstance. We give nothing away in competition, and we take everything that they’re going to give us. And so if I’m going to preach we give nothing away in competition, and I show up and half-step it in anything …”
Shildt frequently refers to his players as the Grit Squad. (Yes, of course, he did so again yesterday.)
Well, in the 162 games before he arrived, they were not all that gritty. They were not gritty at all.
In the 172 games since he became their manager, they have so often been so gritty you can practically see the dust coming off them.
In 2023, they came back to win 27 times. Last year, 38 times. Through 10 games this season, three times already.
Here is a further breakdown of the types of wins the “Grit Squad” has accomplished over the past three seasons:
It is early. There is no telling how this season will end up.
But the relentless way the Padres play has been going on long enough that it can be believed as a lasting trait.
Variables like one-run wins and comeback victories can change drastically from year to year. But because of their commitment under Shildt to “winning on the margins,” Shildt will look at you as if you’re speaking martian if you say such a thing to him.
He expects what the Padres did yesterday, fighting back from four runs down to beat the Cubs 8-7, which you can read about (here) in my game story. (It is understandable if you think you have read about a comeback like this from the Padres in the past year. But you have not.)
Shildt expects so much from and believes so much in his team that he practically downplays victories like this. He did so yesterday.
Later, he stopped as he walked to his office in the visiting clubhouse. Looking as if he had just played all nine positions in all nine innings, he smiled wearily.
“This one says a lot about our team,” he said quietly. “They’re hungry.”
Reality
Before we go on with the gushing about the things that made sure the Padres weren’t swept, let’s mention some of the things that almost ensured the Padres would get swept.
They walked 23 batters in this series. The last time a Padres team walked that many batters in a three-game stretch was 2021. It was also their most walks in a three-game series since 2003 and was three shy of their team record of 26 set in 1974.
The Padres were 3-for-16 with runners in scoring position yesterday and 4-for-26 in the series.
Randy Vásquez’s three runs (two earned) in 4⅓ innings Friday would turn out to be the best start of the series for the Padres. Nick Pivetta allowed three runs in three innings Saturday. And Kyle Hart recorded just two outs while walking four, surrendering two hits and being charged with five runs.
And if we’re going to nitpick, which is what teams that win on the margins do, Luis Arraez went way too far to his right to try to get a groundball when he should have covered first and allowed second baseman Jake Cronenworth to field the ball. It did not end up leading to a run, but the play was one of several this weekend that were not in line with the smart baseball the Padres played during the season’s first week.
Brrr
The Padres were not making excuses. At all.
It’s just that it was, in the words of Jackson Merrill, “cold as (expletive)” the past three days.
The temperature never rose above the high 40s and the first two days the wind chill made it seem more like it was in the 30s.
“It was (expletive),” third baseman Manny Machado said of the conditions. “I miss San Diego. We get spoiled out there. It was cold. Today was actually pretty nice. The sun was out, but then it got kind of cool there towards the end. That was a rough couple days here, but I think it kind of gives us a little mental toughness.”
Hart, who is from Cincinnati and pitched collegiately at Indiana University, said the chill was not a factor in his performance.
“It was a beautiful day, quite comfortable out there,” he said. “… I’ve pitched in a whole lot worse than that. I would take those conditions 10 out 10 days.”
Hart said he felt good about his preparation and lead-up to the start.
Then he went out and threw 21 balls among his 39 pitches.
“Just got out there and didn’t have the fastball command,” he said. “I thought that was the number one thing for me. Going into the first inning, I always want to have that fastball command. Everything else kind of usually falls in line. And I don’t even know if I executed one fastball. You start going to the other stuff, hoping that you can just sneak out of that first inning, find the fastball, move on. Wasn’t able to do that.”
Just four of the 19 fastballs he threw were in the strike zone.
While a part of his game is getting hitters to chase his breaking pitches — and he did get eight swings on pitches out of the zone — the Cubs were mostly content to let him put them on.
“They did a good job, as they did all weekend and so far all season, taking their walks,” Hart said. “But I was throwing pitches that I don’t even expect anybody to swing at, even 0-2 or whatever.”
Long man’s long day
Logan Gillaspie woke up at 5 a.m. yesterday, boarded a flight in Oklahoma City, arrived in Chicago mid-morning and got an espresso-infused drink from pitching coach Ruben Niebla shortly after getting to Wrigley Field.
“Always got to be ready,” Gillaspie said.
He did not have to wait long to pitch. Nor was he given a soft landing.
The 27-year-old right-hander was called on to replace Hart in a tie game with the bases loaded and two out in the first inning.
After balking in two runs by pausing in his windup twice while facing his first batter, Gillaspie worked two outs deep in the fifth inning. He allowed a two-run homer in the second but gave the Padres a chance to pull off the comeback.
“That’s a tough spot to come into,” Shildt said. “… He gets through the fifth inning. That’s huge, kind of like a starter would do, and gave up the two runs. But, man, he threw the ball great. I told him when he came out, he won us a ballgame today.”
Asked if the victory made the long day more worth it, Gillaspie replied, “No” before laughing.
“Yes, it does,” he said. “But I didn’t do anything. They did. It was all them. I just did a small part of it.”
A crucial part, his teammates clarified.
The runs they scored and the work by Adrián Morejón, Jeremiah Estrada, Jason Adam and Robert Suarez would not have mattered had Gillaspie cratered.
“He came in there and freaking kept that game (close),” Machado said. “They hit that home run. But after that, I mean, he locked in and gave us those quality innings for us to hand it off to our big dawgs.”
Gillaspie was called up, essentially, because he had to be.
With Omar Cruz having thrown 68 pitches on Saturday and both Alek Jacob and Wandy Peralta unavailable after pitching the first two games of the series, the Padres needed someone to fill innings.
Cruz was optioned to make room on the active roster and lefty Tom Cosgrove was designated for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster.
Talking balking
The first balk call on Gillaspie was a weird one.
It was called well after the pitch by third base umpire Nate Tomlinson.
“I think they started chirping at him,” Machado said of the Cubs dugout. They started chirping at him and kind of got his attention. He’s like, ‘Oh, OK, OK, yeah, I’m gonna…’ (The umpires) kind of typically just wait and then kind of go and give the warning. ‘Hey, you gotta stop,’ … Never seen a crew go in there and change a call mid-talk or something. That was kind of weird. That was interesting.”
The umpires came together on the infield grass and deliberated for more than three minutes before waving the runners up a base, including sending the go-ahead run home. Home plate umpire Mark Wegner announced the balk was called because Gillaspie had paused during his windup.
“If you stop in your windup in that situation, that’s (considered) deceiving the batter, so it’s a balk,” Shildt said. “And then he did it again.”
Gillaspie still seemed confused after the game.
“I stopped because this is my windup,” he said.
The second balk came five pitches later when Gillaspie paused mid-pitch again. He said he thought he had already committed a balk and tried to pull up. This time the ball slipped out of his hand and sailed past Díaz and rolled toward the Padres dugout as another runner was sent home.
Here is video of the two balks.
Resilient Sheets
One of the game’s heroes began his day with three strikeouts.
“Got the strikeouts out of the way,” Gavin Sheets said.
After going down swinging three times, Sheets singled in the sixth and again in the eighth, the second hit being the one that drove in Jackson Merrill to tie the game 7-7 in the eighth inning.
He chased just one pitch out of the zone in those three at-bats.
“I felt like I was making good swings,” Sheets said. “… I swung through a couple pitches, but I felt like I was right on them. I didn’t want to lose confidence or anything like that.”
That is something he said he likely would have done the past two seasons as he struggled with the White Sox. He has talked before about pressing and getting away from the approach and swing that work for him.
“To mentally stay in it and stay confident was huge,” he said. “It’s good for myself to see that there is that growth there and there is still that confidence there.”
Sheets then nodded around the room and said, “And being around here, too, they were picking me up. ‘Hey you’re going to get a big at-bat.’ Just hearing that was awesome too.”
Good eye, best foot forward
Fernando Tatis Jr. cooled down a bit in Chicago.
“I hate the cold,” he said. “I hate the cold. Simple as that.”
Tatis still went 3-for-12 against the Cubs, but that was a fall from the .423 average (11-for-26) he carried through the season’s first seven games.
What he did not start doing, however, was chasing bad pitches, which is usually a harbinger of his entering a slump. (I wrote about that [here] shortly before the season.)
Tatis swung at just one of the 13 pitches he saw outside the zone yesterday. That helped him to two walks in an 0-for-4 day. He is tied for the team lead in walks with six and has scored after three of those, including the Padres’ first run yesterday.
On the season, Tatis has chased just 21.2% of the pitches he has seen outside the zone. That is eight percentage points lower than his career average entering this season. (Put another way, it is 27.5% less than he chased last season.)
Tatis has always been at his best when not chasing. Yes, most players are, but the difference in Tatis is especially pronounced.
To that end, one of the adjustments he made this year was to eliminate the leg lift in his batting stance he employed last year. It is basically a return to what he did before that.
“Just timing wise, I’m always early and under control,” Tatis said of keeping his foot on the ground. “Starting the season, I prefer to be early and under control rather than being all wide and free swinging. I’ve done (the leg kick) back in the day but not as consistently as last year. It was good. I liked it. But I could be better. I’m not going to do it anymore.”
A look at how high his foot got last year as a pitch was thrown:
And this year:
Strong (young) man
how the other day Merrill said he doesn’t think he has gotten his man strength yet?
He is probably right, since he won’t turn 22 for another 12 days.
But he is doing OK with his young man strength.
His team-leading third home run traveled 404 feet to center field yesterday and got the Padres to within 7-5 in the fourth inning.
As I wrote the other day, he did gain some mass and strength over the offseason and is better prepared in his second season.
With the exceptional bat-to-ball skills he has always possessed, this is allowing him to stay with pitches longer and generally drive them farther and harder.
“My approach is always go left-center, doubles,” he said over the weekend. “And everything else that happens plays off of that.”
This season, 13 of his 14 hits have been to left or center field. His only hit to right field was a home run to right-center.
In his rookie season, he pulled 36% of his hits and 37.5% (nine) of his home runs.
At 106.1 mph off the bat, Merrill’s homer was his team-leading 10th ball put in play at 100 mph or harder. He later grounded out at 105.7 mph and has put seven balls in play at 106 mph or harder.
“I’m not mis-hitting balls out,” Merrill said. “That’s when I feel like I will have the man strength.”
Not to be overlooked, another thing Merrill was focused on this year was taking walks when they were given. In the eighth inning, he walked and stole second to get in position to be driven home by Sheets.
“We talked about Jackson’s next steps,” Shildt said. “And he’s starting to take some of the next steps in his overall game.”
Manny handled
This might be one of the most recurring features of the newsletter: talking about a play Machado made in the field.
The one he made in the fifth inning yesterday was not his most spectacular. There are too many to choose from to pick just one of those. But that is sort of what makes it so spectacular.
For this version of Things Manny Does, he fielded a Justin Turner grounder deep on the dirt while running away from first base and more toward out toward left field. Just before he crossed the foul line, he fired back across his body and got the speed-challenged Turner by a step with a throw that had Arraez stretched out to the extent that he fell to the ground.
“It was late,” Machado said. “It was deep out there. So when I got it, Turner kind of had a couple steps ahead of me. I knew it was gonna be a long throw. So as soon as I caught it I kind of just threw it over there and kind of just hoped I hit the target, and Louie made a nice stretch over there to help me out.”
Doing his part
I wrote (here) shortly before the season about the importance of a middle reliever like Jacob.
He might not get many opportunities when the Padres are protecting a slim lead. But he will often be one of the pitchers to keep a game close so the Padres can come back. And at the least, he can pitch important innings in losses that save higher-leverage relievers from wasting bullets.
That is what he did by pitching throwing 26 pitches in 1⅔ innings Friday and 32 pitches in 1⅓ innings Saturday.
“Let’s … give Alek Jacob some some love,” Shildt said. “Alek being able to pick up some innings the last couple days allowed our (higher-leverage) guys to stay fresh for today. So he deserves some credit for the last two days work as well”
Morejón, Estrada, Adam and Suarez have worked exclusively in Padres wins this season.
Darvish update
Starting pitcher Yu Darvish has reached 150 feet in his catch play at Petco Park and could make a move to the mound in the coming days.
His elbow continues to feel strong and pain free, according to people in the organization. Darvish was shut down in mid-March and began the season on the injured list.
The timeline for his return remains unknown, as the Padres are deferring to Darvish as they remain committed to being cautious with the 38-year-old right-hander.
Tidbits
- Merrill’s two-run homer gave him 100 career RBIs. Yesterday was his 158th game, tying him with Mickey Mantle and Ryan Zimmerman for the 14th fastest to reach the 100-RBI mark among players who have debuted in the past 105 years.
- Jake Cronenworth got the day’s first RBI by taking a 94 mph fastball in his right side. He stayed knelt on the ground for a full minute after being struck and had a dark pink mark in the spot after the game. He called the area where he was hit “kidneyish.” It was the 50th time Cronenworth has been hit by a pitch in his career, 12 more than any other player in franchise history.
- Arraez was 4-for-5 with a walk yesterday and has his average up to .256 (10-for-39). He is batting .435 (10-for-23) after going hitless in his first 16 at-bats this season.
- Díaz followed up his 2-for-3 game Saturday by going 0-for-3 with two walks yesterday. He has a .345 on-base percentage in his 24 plate appearances this season. That’s an excellent rate for No.9 hitter, whose main job could be considered turning the lineup over.
- The Padres scored their final six runs with two outs yesterday, and their 25 two-out runs are tied for third most in MLB. They have scored 46 total runs.
- The Padres played a full nine innings for the first time this season. And given all that happened, it was no surprise the game time of three hours, 16 minutes was their longest of the season. They also saw 175 pitches, their most this season. The Cubs saw 179 pitches, which was just their fifth most this season.
All right, that’s it for me. Flight from Los Angeles to Sacramento this morning and then what should be a fun adventure in a minor-league park.
Talk to you tomorrow.
