Padres Daily: Up & down offense could use heart of order attack; King returns; Pro knows; Merrill gets winded
Michael King has best night of career, says he could have been better; Jurickson Profar pulls fast one for rare feat; Jackson Merrill experiences windy San Francisco
Good morning from San Francisco,
The Padres got the Michael King they thought they had acquired.
They appear to have the four starting pitchers they thought they did
Now, about that offense.
You can read in my game story (here) about the Padres’ 4-0 victory over the Giants last night, in which every run came on Jurickson Profar’s first-inning grand slam and King threw seven scoreless innings.
On the one hand, the Padres put together their seventh inning this season in which they scored four or more runs. That is three more than any other team.
On the other hand, they got two hits after the first inning. They have gone four straight games without scoring in at least the final four innings. Since scoring 17 runs in a four-inning stretch between last Saturday and Sunday, they have scored 16 runs in 49 innings and are batting .206 in that stretch.
And at the heart of the struggles are two batters in the heart of the order. Cleanup hitter Manny Machado is batting .190, and No.5 hitter Ha-Seong Kim is batting .200.
That is either troubling or promising.
Last night’s first inning, in which Machado grounded a two-out single through the left side and Kim worked a full-count walk before Profar’s blast, was merely the latest example of what can be if those two start to hit.
The Padres have scored in eight of the 14 innings in which Machado has a hit or a walk. That includes two five-run innings, a four-run inning and two three-run innings. They have scored in nine of the 14 innings in which Kim has gotten a hit or walk, including five of the same innings in which Machado hit or walked.
“It’s important for all our guys to contribute,” manager Mike Shildt said. “But when we get contribution from the middle of the lineup, which we historically have gotten and expect to get, it’s going to be important for our offense, for sure. And we’ll get it.”
Pro knows
After watching four of the five batters who hit before him in the first inning get first-pitch fastballs and seeing left-handed batter Jake Croneworth get three straight fastballs, Profar was ready for the first pitch of his at-bat — a 96 mph fastball down the middle.
His swing launched a 105.8 mph drive that was pulled to the shortest part of the field, down the right field line. But he also sent it skyward with a launch angle of 43 degrees.
“I thought I hit it a little high,” he said. “I know I hit it good, but with the wind here you never know.”
