• Machado, Tatis get a breather after busy stretch.
Jayce Tingler likened Manny Machado to a warrior when his third baseman refused to come out of the game after his back spasmed and his shoulder jammed in a span of a few plays Friday night against the Dodgers.
Meanwhile, shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. played in four straight games since returning from his partially dislocated left shoulder.
On Tuesday, the Padres’ second-year manager rested both stars against red-hot Brewers right-hander Corbin Burnes.
In the midst of his team playing 24 games in 25 days, Tingler had been looking for spots to rest his regulars. Jake Cronenworth could get his first day off today after starting 19 games and playing 164 innings in the field, both the most in the majors.
Jurickson Profar entered Tuesday second in the majors with 1532⁄3 innings in the field and Machado was third with 151 innings.
The Padres will have played 17 straight games when they conclude a fourgame series Sunday at Dodger Stadium. The aim is to get Machado and Tatis back in the lineup for today’s matinee and then all four games this weekend.
“(Manny’s) pretty banged up from the Dodgers series with all the action he was involved in,” Tingler said Tuesday. “… We knew we had to get Manny off his feet
at some point, and picking today for Tatis to have a good work day, recover and hopefully be good to go. Because once we get through these last six, the schedule the next month, we’ve got quite a few built-in off days.
“Just trying to get through these next six.”
Tatis could use a reset as much as anything. He has seven errors in nine games at shortstop and is 1-for-16 with a homer, two walks and seven strikeouts since returning from his shoulder injury with a revamped two-handed swing that has looked rather long and at times overly aggressive.
Tingler, though, sees progress in Tatis’ return against a formidable line of
starting pitchers: Walker Buehler, Clayton Kershaw, Trevor Bauer and Brandon Woodruff.
“If you go back, he’s got a lot of big home runs with that two-hand finish,” Tingler said. “Mechanically, I don’t see a lot. If anything, he’s seeing really good pitching and being thrust back into that. At times, a little long, a little big or a little uphill.
“But I think he’s really close. Is that being a little bit shorter to the ball? Is that keeping your eyes on the ball a tick longer? I think it’s getting really close. Once we get that first ground ball (or) line drive to right field, back the ball, make that short move, I think that’s going to
Tommy John for Morejón
More than a week after walking off the mound in the first inning in Texas, Adrian Morejon finally knows what the future holds for him.
The 22-year-old lefthander will require Tommy John surgery, a source told the Union-Tribune, sidelining Morejon until at least the second half of 2022 and perhaps until 2023.
Dr. Neal ElAttrache, the Dodgers’ lead physician, will perform the surgery on a date to be determined.
Elbow reconstructions typically come with a 14- to 16-month timetable if there are no setbacks.
Signed for $11 million out of Cuba as the biggest prize in the Padres’ 2016-17 international class, Morejon appeared poised for a breakout season after striking out 17 batters in 14 innings this spring (3.21 ERA) to win a job in the rotation. He allowed two runs in four innings in his first start against the Giants but walked off the mound after just two outs on April 11 with a forearm strain, often a symptom of a damaged ulnar collateral ligament in the elbow.
The Padres had been awaiting a second opinion before revealing a course of action.
No joy for Urias Luis Urias
knew he’d tagged the first pitch he saw from Joe Musgrove pretty well. But as he saw right fielder Wil Myers appearing to pick up speed as he tracked the drive off his bat, Urias kicked the start of his home run trot into a higher gear and felt his right calf cramp.
The home run would have absolutely been the best way for Urias — who was traded with Eric Lauer to the Brewers for Trent Grisham and right-hander Zach Davies before the 2020 season — to celebrate his first game back at Petco Park.
But the injury forced Urias from Monday’s game after that first at-bat and kept him from Tuesday’s lineup.
“To be honest,” Urias said Monday night, “I didn’t even enjoy it because I felt a cramp going around the bases.”
Before the game, the 23year-old Urias was understandably understated in discussing how he hoped to perform against the team that shipped him off. Others were not.
“I think when you get traded from a team there’s always, you want to say you made a mistake,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said Monday night. “I think that’s natural. It’s what you should feel as a player. Even if you say you don’t, there’s still a little bit of that in you, for sure. Happy for Luis.”