Padres Daily: Manny shows why; Darvish back on track; crowded houses

Good morning,

Manny Machado showed again last night why he is one of the best players in the game.

And he showed that part of the reason for this difference is because he knows the game.

For those who remember the not-so-distant past, when it felt like every Padres dough was paralyzed for fear of being left on the bat’s final blow, it was a pretty significant scene to watch Machado deliberately position himself with two hits in the eighth installment.

When he saw Adam Frazier get a huge jump by climbing to another base on a stealing attempt, Frazier was about a third of the way second when Diamondbacks pitcher Brett de Gues began his delivery. allow the field to pass to prevent the possibility of him breaking the Fraziers easy 90 feet.

He got up before the pitcher even threw the ball, so it’s easy to take, Machado said. Id pretty much hit (a) a 2-2 (count) runner on another base at any time. His good base. And if I didn’t work, I know the next two guys would.

The thing is, Machado did the job. He flashed the next field, the crooked ball up and in, in the middle of the field for a single that easily brought Frazier and led the Padres to a 3-2 lead. It also raised Machados ’batting average and runners in scoring to .360, the fourth highest in the National League.

Padres made three more innings in the sequel. The fact that they eventually withdrew to take advantage of Yu Darvish, finally erecting Yu Darvish again, was the focus of my game story (here).

Machado made a huge part of the win.

The journey home would have been more dramatic. That would have led to highlights. And Machado earns $ 30 million a year largely because he’s able to hit the ball from the park.

But the sequence he gave in this case was, in fact, essential to Machado.

I was taught to come to the organization in Baltimore and led by Buck Showalter, I was taught to look at the scoreboard and it tells you exactly what you need to do in this situation, Machado said. And you’re just trying to play a game. And if you play a game and just try to get a guy over sometimes, when you just try to do small things, bigger things happen.

It says so much about Machado’s obvious good and what many consider bad.

Not only is he extremely talented and has overwhelming confidence, but he understands an understanding of baseball and its situations, as well as the confusion and currents that are far removed from many modern players.

Mannys got one of the best baseball lessons and IQ scores, Jayce Tingler said.

This understanding also allows him to selectively rob. Machado has no eye wash.

He goes when he has to go, when the situation demands it.

The eighth installment demanded it. And before he showed his brain, he showed his talent

Among the eighth best in the Diamondbacks, Nick Ahmed left with a mower that hit in front of a grass-loaded Machado and spun a little away from him. He leaned to grab the ball with his bare hands and sideways, armed with a 90 mph throw to the first baseman Eric Hosmer to get Ahmed half a step.

For him just to be able to grab the ball clean and launch the missile first, especially when the game is 2-2 at the time, who knows where this turn is going, Tingler said. But this was one of the best plays I’ve seen.

Machado actually did Homer earlier in the game. His blow above the western metal building in the first set gave Padres a 1-0 lead.

The 408-foot bomb, in his ninth field, was his 12th^th two strikes Homer this season, the second largest in big business. Machados .489 slugging percentage in two strokes is the largest in large corporations, 19 points better than anyone else. The average of his .242 strokes in two strokes is exactly third in the NL.

It’s amazing how good he is in that situation. As of 2015, his 73 two-stroke home teams are the fourth-largest in large corporations, and his .379 slip rate is 20 percent.^th.

I often think of what he said the first time I asked him about his tendency to hit with two strokes, in 2019: The pressure is on the pitcher. I’m still in control.

Pretty good again

If someone had asked how much fun it was to watch Darvish Field last night, I might have pulled Julia Roberts.

Don’t tell me you don’t remember Pretty Woman when a handsome old lady asked Vivian if she enjoyed the opera, and she replied: Oh, it was so good I almost peeed on my pants.

The fact that Darvish worked for seven innings was similar to watching Puccini. You just don’t see it very often.

Machado thinks he was thrown (empty) today.

Darvish didn’t hit just 12, walked none and allowed four hits in seven innings.

He got 0-2 against 10 of the 26 batsmen and went to three balls to count only twice all night. Nearly three-quarters of his fields were on strike. He received at least a 26 percent loss percentage on all five throws. He threw all those throws at least nine times.

And to say that Darvish threw five throws tells only half of the story. He threw a slider everywhere at 78-85 mph, a four-sided quick ball 91-97, a cutter 83-89 and a curved ball 71-82.

Everything worked pretty well tonight, said Darvish, whose 12 handicaps matched the peak of the season. Two days ago I had a bull, and everything worked really well in the bull field. I was able to bring it into the game. I feel like everything is starting to come back together and I can really be myself now.

Darvish started his first game in August. He had an 2.44 ERA from 16 until the end of June.

And yes, he allowed a two-stage home game in the second set last night and has allowed 10 home runs in the last six games. But it happens. Darvish has allowed 20 homes this year. Gerritt Cole has allowed 17, Max Scherzer 19, Kyle Hendricks 22, Robbie Ray and Zack Greinke 23.

He then did what the aces do, Tingler said. He shook it off and almost said, “That’s all you get here and kept making throws. That’s exactly what you want to see from all your friends, but so do the top feeders. If they give up some time, that’s all you get. And so he did.

Just relax

Blake Snell started his season in the wrong direction almost from the start.

I came here, I tried to be a superstar I know I was, but I tried far too hard, Snell said a few weeks ago after a particularly horrible start. I tried to throw the worst fields, I just tried so hard to show people who I am. I’ve come to the point where I don’t have to prove anything. I know how good I am. I have to strike and command the zone, and I’m good.

His most recent start, last Tuesday in Oakland, when he allowed One to run in five innings, was perhaps the second step towards the pitcher Padres expected to get when they made the December trade that sent up potential Luis Pation to the Tampa Bay Rays.

Of course, we’ve thought that before he allowed the Miami Marlins one round in six shifts on July 22 just to get As points in seven runs in four shifts on July 28.

In today’s series final against Diamondbacks, Snell gets the next chance to prove he can at least recall his own version, which won the 2018 AL Cy Young Award.

Clearly, the other Padres know what Snell has set for himself.

He has to come here and not put pressure, Machado said. We just tried to play baseball and just go there and win ball games and just be ourselves. We have confidence in him that he will be on the line. He will help us in a big time. He didn’t help us as much as he wanted early, but I think he knows he can help us down, and that’s why he’s here.

Little things

• Last night, 39,134 spectators were the ninth audience of at least 39,000 people in 25 games this year, allowing Petco Park to be full. Padres gathered 13 such audiences in 81 home games in 2019. In 2018, a year before the arrival of Fernando Tatis Jr. and Machado, there were three such large audiences present.

• Tommy Pham will play last night with two extra handicaps as they take on a 2.24 record match after July 24 (11 games). It is the second highest figure for large companies in this term. In his first 96 matches, Pham once struck 4.82 in a record game that finished 64th^th in majors the best.

• Austin Nola extended his hit period to seven matches with nine game jumps. He is in the 11-20 series. The two runs of his single drove him to 18 RBIs with only 72 at-bats this season. There is no other player in the Majors who has more than 36 at-bats and who, on average, makes the RBI every fourth at-bats.

• Trent Grisham reached the base all four times when he went to the plate last night. He single-handedly, walked twice and the hit struck. Grisham is 7-14 in the last four games.

• The Fraziers stole Padres in the first seven games. Padres ’92 stocks still lead the big companies with 15, but they only have three in the last 16 matches.

• Wil Myers was 2-4 against last night, getting 1-15 in his previous six matches.

• Four of the Darvish strikes came on three pitches, giving him 31 such handicaps during the season. It starred in sixth most.

• Hosmer was 1-against-3 and hit .328 / .429 / .500 in 105 record appearances after June 30th. almost to the top of the error bar in the correct field. It could make Jack sigh.

Join us

I don’t have time to watch a lot of the Olympics on TV. But I certainly don’t miss Mark Zeigler’s story of what’s going on there.

Mark covers 17^th The Olympics, and he’s so good at the fact that you want them to be held every year. Read his story (here) last night from San Diego, which won the first U.S. gold medal in track cycling.

I argue that Marks ’travel challenges cover these Tokyo games, don’t compare to covering a big league baseball team. But hey, not everyone can be as tough as I am and still love a good Julia Roberts romcom.

Anyway, Mark is one of the best in the industry. He writes about basketball as if he were inventing a game. And he’s another good reason to get a digital subscription for the Union-Tribune.

Here’s the deal: four weeks for $ 1.

OK, that’s me. Early game today.

We’ll talk tomorrow.