MAZARA RESETS, RETURNS TO BIGS
Skipping a return to Triple-A last season and starting there this season led to Nomar Mazara being in the starting lineup against the Brewers on Thursday night.
Starting in right field and batting sixth for the Padres in the opener of their fourgame series against the Brewers after having his contract selected earlier in the day, Mazara went 1-for-2 before being replaced by a pinch-hitter in the sixth inning of the 5-4 loss.
His journey to joining the Padres began with opting to stop playing baseball for a time last season after being designated for assignment by the Tigers in July.
“That is probably the best decision I ever made my career, because going down to Triple-A, it wasn’t gonna help me because I was gonna do the same thing,” Mazara, who was batting .212 at the time, said Thursday afternoon. “My swing wasn’t right.”
He instead went to Miami for two months to essentially remake his swing working with hitting instructor Lorenzo Garmendia. The work they did resulted in Mazara taking advantage of his long arms to have a more compact and inside-out swing. He started elevating the ball more.
“I reset everything,” Mazara said in the spring. “I got my confidence back.”
Mazara played winter ball in the Dominican Republic. He agreed to terms with the Padres in December on a minor league deal.
He did not make the club out of camp and instead was optioned to El Paso, where he got a hit in the first 16 games he played in and reached base in all 35 games while batting .367 with a 1.095 OPS.
“Obviously I didn’t have the spring training like I wanted,” he said Thursday. “I was like, ‘OK, I’m in a good position to show them I’m back — that my swing is back and better. … I was ready to break with the team,” he said. “But it was good. I’m more consistent than I’ve ever been in my life.”
Mazara has played parts
of the past six seasons in the majors with the Rangers, White Sox and Tigers. He hit 20 home runs in three straight seasons from 201618 with the Rangers, driving in 101 runs in 2017.
He takes the roster spot of infielder Robinson Cano, who elected free agency after the Padres optioned him to Triple-A. Cano had that right because he had more than five years of service time.
The 39-year-old Cano was 3-for-33 for the Padres, and it had become a foregone conclusion he would be let go if his production did not increase. That didn’t mean it was an easy decision for the Padres, who were cognizant of the respect the eight-time All-Star had from his fellow players.
“You look at the numbers and maybe the performance,” manager Bob Melvin said. “… I think what we lose sight of is how much he meant in the clubhouse. The guys really embraced him. He was terrific with his knowledge and imparting that to the players. So we feel that one a little bit. But certainly, this is a business at times, and Nomar is swinging the bat well. We’re a little bit down offensively and we’re always trying to create a little bit more production in the lineup.”
Not yet for Myers
Mazara’s arrival made it easy for the Padres to give regular right fielder Wil Myers another day to rest his right knee. He needed it.
The injury, described as a cartilage flap that has partially separated from the bone and is being rubbed by the kneecap, has not responded to the injection Myers received Tuesday night. While the hope was that would have already happened, it sometimes can take a couple days for the lubricating effects of the shot to take effect.
Treatment has allowed Myers to play with the knee issue virtually the entire season. When speaking on injuries, Myers always points out that every player deals with things, and the first time his knee issue was known about was when he missed a game over the weekend. But he acknowledged he often feels a stabbing pain when stopping and in the load portion of his swing.
Melvin said Myers was available off the bench Thursday and could start today.
“He may show up somewhere in this game,” Melvin said before the loss. “But I wanted to get Nomar in there once we made this move and get few extra lefthanded bats in there today.”
Left in
The Padres had six players in Thursday’s starting lineup batting from the left side, the first time Melvin went that lefty-heavy since May 7.
It was an attempt to take advantage of Brewers starter Adrian Houser’s penchant for giving up more to left-handed hitters than righties. Lefties were hitting 46 points better, reaching bases six percent more often and slugging more than 100 points better against Houser than right-handed hitters.
The Padres got five hits off Houser in his five innings, two by left-handed hitters. Two of Houser’s three walks were to lefties.
Melvin used six left-handed hitters eight times before May 7. But he had both CJ Abrams and Matt Beaty at that point. Beaty went on the injured list May 9, and Abrams was optioned to Triple-A on May 10.