SAN DIEGO – Fernando Tatis Jr.’s body language after crushing Taylor Clarke’s seventh inning inside sinker said it all.
Celebrated with arms wide open under fading sunny skies, the three-run home run was his 14th of the season and an exhaled breath of insurance for the San Diego Padres in a 5-1 win over the Kansas City Royals on Saturday evening at Petco Park.
“I’ve been struggling… but we keep on grinding, keep putting tough at bats and that’s baseball,” Tatis said. “It’s huge, it’s what we needed as a team to give a break to our bullpen, they’ve been working hard so I just tried to grind it for my boys.”
It ended a stretch of 21 games and 82 at bats without a home run, both career longs, but more importantly gave the Padres (41-35) some much needed cushion after getting a strong start from Dylan Cease.
The three hits allowed by the San Diego starter matched his season low, the fourth time Cease has done it this season, while striking out four and working around three walks to allow a lone run in his third win of the season.
Combined, it meant the bullpen needed just ⅔ an inning Jeremiah Estrada, who struck out two and allowed one hit, and Adrian Morejon to pitch a clean final 1 ⅔ innings.
“The ingredients have been pretty darn good in the sense of clean baseball for the most part, really good on the bases creating opportunities, at bat quality has been good (and) the pitchers are giving everything they’ve got,” said manager Mike Shildt. “We’ve just run into a string of games where it hadn’t been on the good side of the column, but today was more of the same — Dylan was fantastic.”
After spending all of Friday night chasing the Royals (38-39), San Diego struck first in the second inning when Gavin Sheets extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a leadoff double off rookie left-hander Noah Cameron.
Xander Bogaerts stayed hot by lacing his first of two singles in the game (giving him a stretch of 10 hits in 11 at bats) and putting runners on the corners. Jake Cronenworth hit a grounder to second baseman Jonathan India and beat out what was originally called a double play, but upon a San Diego challenge turned into an RBI fielder’s choice and a 1-0 lead.
Kansas City answered right away as Drew Waters led off the third with a single and came home on an RBI double by John Rave. Maikel Garcia drew a two-out walk and stole second, but Cease stranded two in scoring position by getting Vinny Pasquantino to ground out to Cronenworth.
The Padres would respond in kind in the bottom half, getting back-to-back walks drawn by Martín Maldonado and Tatis with one out. Luis Arraez drove in a run to put the Brown and Gold back on top by reaching for a low and away curveball and slapping a grounder past the right side of the mound into center field for a single to make it 2-1.
From there Cease took control, shaking off hitting Jac Caglianone with a pitch and allowing a Mark Canha single in succession with an out in the fourth to leave them there with a pair of fly outs.
He’d allow one more base runner the rest of the way when Caglianone walked in the sixth, but came back out for the seventh having already thrown 102 pitches and used eight more to get the last two outs of his start.
“We want to make sure we’re getting as much as we can out of the starters and still be able to compete, and that’s the balance of this,” Shildt said. “Dylan’s stuff looked good and we’re in that spot where, yeah he’s right at 100, we know we’re going to take him to two more guys… and then be able to go to Estrada.”
Cameron took his third loss of the season for Kansas City, going 5 ⅓ innings and allowing two runs on five hits with three walks and two strikeouts. The Padres finished 3-for-7 with runners in scoring position against the four Royals pitchers.
Before the game the Padres announced they reinstated righty Bryan Hoeing from the 60-day IL, adding a fresh arm to the bullpen who had been out since February with a right shoulder strain and had not allowed a run in three rehab appearances for Triple-A El Paso. Sean Reynolds was reassigned to the Chihuahuas.
“I’m not sure where his career’s going to take him next, all I can do is tell you this, that is one of the most professional, quality players (and) humans I’ve been in contact with, you’re talking about an all-caps ‘PRO’S PRO,’” Shildt said. “Class individual. Complete pro and great teammate, and the guy’s just a stone cold winner.
“Two time world champion, has won ever since he was eight years old and definitely moved our needles when he was here… He’s very well thought of by our clubhouse and I’ve got a lot of respect for Jason.”
The series rubber match will feature Randy Vásquez (3-4, 3.70 ERA) taking the hill against righty and former Padre Seth Lugo (4-5, 3.05 ERA) for the 1:10 p.m. first pitch at Petco Park.