FriarNotes: Sweeping Dodgers Another Sign of Padres Recent Surge; Notes on Darvish, Cronenworth, Tatis, Bogaerts
Any time the Padres win a series from the Dodgers is a cause for celebration in San Diego.
But this weekend was even more special with three records tossed in.
The Padres took two of three games from the Dodgers before record crowds:
Saturday night’s attendance of 46,701 was a single-game record for Petco Park (old mark, 45,567 against the Dodgers on Opening Day (March 30) of the 2014 season.
And the three-game total attendance for the series was 133,970 — another record (the old mark for a three-game series was 133,856 against the Dodgers on April 22–24, 2022). The weekend produced the 10th, 11th and 12th sellout crowds of the season.
Plus, the Padres’ starting pitchers are on a run not seen in Major League baseball since 1893 when the distance from the mound to home plate was set at 60-feet, six-inches. Padres starters Dylan Cease, Michael King, Matt Waldron and Yu Darvish have worked four straight games in which they each allowed two or fewer hits over at least five innings.
Over those past four games, Padres starters have given up two runs on seven hits and eight walks with 36 strikeouts in 26 1/3 innings — for a 0.68 earned run average, a 0.570 WHIP and a .081 opponents’ batting average.
But the string of outstanding starts actually goes back six games to Darvish’s penultimate outing. Over the past 35 2/3 innings, Padres starters have given up three runs on 15 hits and nine walks with 47 strikeouts — for a 0.76 ERA, a 0.673 WHIP and a .124 opponents’ batting average.
It gets better. Heading into Monday night’s opener of a three-game series against Colorado at Petco Park, the Padres have won four straight series — for the first time since the 2021 season. And for the first time since the 2010 season, the Padres held the Dodgers to three runs over a three game series — taking the series from a team that came to San Diego riding a seven-game winning streak.
NOTES:
— Speaking of Darvish, the right-hander completed his outing Sunday having tied his career-best run of 18 straight scoreless innings. In his three starts since returning from the injured list, Darvish is 3–0 and has not allowed a run on eight hits and two walks with 15 strikeouts in 17 innings for a 0.00 ERA, a 0.588 WHIP and a .136 opponents’ batting average. He is now 3–1 on the season with a 2.43 ERA, a 0.984 WHIP and a .192 opponents’ batting average in eight starts covering 40 2/3 innings.
— RF Fernando Tatis Jr. hit the 114th homer of his Padres’ career Sunday against the Dodgers. With the home run, Tatis became the all-time home run leader in the Tatis family. He now ranks ninth on the all-time list of Padres’ home run leaders. Sunday’s 442-foot launch was also his first home run since May 3.
— 1B Cronenworth, who homered back-to-back with Tatis in Sunday’s first inning for the second time this season — which are also the only two sets of back-to-back homers by the Padres this season — is 6-for-18 over the past five games and hitting .351 in May (13-for-37) with three doubles and three homers for a .676 slugging percentage and a 1.060 OPS.
— RHP Robert Suarez has now worked a career-best 16 straight scoreless innings. Sunday’s perfect inning lowered his ERA to 0.49 and his WHIP to 0.918. Suarez hasn’t allowed a hit over his last seven outings (7 2/3 innings) and has an opponents’ batting average of .119 (7-for-59) on the season.
