FRIARS WALK TIGHTROPE
ROAD SUCCESS JUST ONE OF THOSE THINGS
Take that, conventional wisdom. Hit the showers, common sense. The Padres are not really into stale ol’ predictability when they pack bags, hustle to the airport and start playing baseball away from Petco Park.
So far this season, they’re finding baseball contentment in unfamiliar places as opposing crowds grump and growl. Comfortable beds? Overrated. Silky commutes? Those types of luxuries are for others lacking gameday grit.
The Padres won another road series Thursday — moving to 5-1-1 on the season — with a 2-0 shutout of the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.
“I know after last year, we’re definitely stressing the importance of coming in ready to play on the road,” said catcher Austin Nola, who chipped in a single as every starter collected a hit. “How you play on the road usually dictates how well you do moving
Columnist
forward.
“If you can play well on the road, you can string things together and get on a good run.”
Considering the Padres stringing, and stringing some more.
It’s not just what the team is doing from a winloss perspective when the planes and buses beckon. It’s how they doing it, moving to 14-7 on the road to best the home mark of 10-7.
The Padres entered the three-game finale against the Fighting Phils, Bryce Harper-less but imposing offensively nonetheless, No. 3 in baseball for run production in road games (5.25) and No. 24 in their own cozy confines. Reason? Schmeason. “That’s a tough one to
put a finger on,” acting manager Ryan Christenson said. “I don’t know if I have an answer for why we’ve played (better) or scored more runs on the road. Maybe it’s just one of those things.”
For now, this is not the clubhouse version of The Riddle of the Sphinx. The Padres are not noodling it through or dissecting things to understand the hows and whys of the hot start when time zones shift.
Some of it is a stranglelock defense. Some of it is timely hitting, rather than an abundance of it. Some of it is baserunning that proves more improved and aggressive by the day.
A whole lot of it is starting pitching, which has become the mightiest collection of post-national anthem arms in baseball.
Against the Phillies in the rubber match, two runs
were enough. That’s because Yu Darvish kept the quality starts rolling along by scattering six hits harmlessly across seven innings.
Darvish entered the game with a 1.37 ERA and .145 batting average by opponents in San Diego and 7.91 ERA and .313 clip when the travel alarm clock sounds. One awful road game skews his numbers, but still.
“I think San Diego is just too perfect,” said Darvish, with a wry grin, of focusing on this work at home. “When you go to other places, it’s not as perfect as San Diego.”
Then Darvish called on reason to pinch hit for humor.
“Me and (Nola) were really on the same page and going about attacking these hitters,” he said. “I don’t think I can give you a good answer on why we’re
better on the road. But what I can tell you is that this particular team, that we have this year, I think there’s a really good bond between us players.
“Maybe that has to do with how well we’re playing.”
When the offense is not cranking out road runs, the combination of being solid in every other area has masked any run-scoring deficiencies.
The Padres failed to turn their first three hits Thursday into runs, but converted their next three into two during the fourth inning. Jurickson Profar, Wil Myers and Robinson Cano sprayed singles to right off starter Kyle Gibson with the last plating the first run.
Then Ha-seong Kim, relocated to No. 8 in the lineup after holding down the 2-hole the past three games, lifted a sacrifice fly to left to score Myers.
The other things, the defense, the decision-making, the hustle and clutch four-out work by closer Taylor Rogers for his MLBleading 15th save did the rest.
“If there’s one thing you can point to, there’s just a bunch of pros in this clubhouse,” said Rogers, offering a solution as good as any. “Every game is its own separate game. We’ve won games late. We’ve won games early. … We don’t get too high or too low.
“Resilience has merit. Playing without our manager (Bob Melvin), playing without (All-Star Fernando) Tatis (Jr.), winning on the road.”
The Padres outscored the Phillies just 5-3 in three games, but walked away with the series anyway.
They’re the just-enough bunch. Just enough offense, as each starter recorded a hit but only Manny Machado had more than one (2). Darvish opened up the game by surrendering a broken-bat single to Rhys Hoskins while hitting just 90-91 mph.
As the game wore on, Darvish hardly wore down. The gun consistently was hitting 96 on fastballs as he later topped out at 97.
“I went in the bullpen (pregame) and it wasn’t that good, to be honest with you,” Darvish said. “Came into the game and I felt a little bit sort of heavy, per se. As the game went on I was able to pick it up.”
Meanwhile, the Padres picked up another road win and series.
Home sweet …
Oh, never mind.