Ladies and Gentlemen, on May 22, the Padres are alone in first place in the National League West.
The Friars beat the Mariners 6-4 on Saturday night at Petco Park to run their winning streak to eight games. Combine that with the Dodgers beating the Giants and it's San Diego on top, a full game ahead of L.A. and S.F., with the best record in Major League Baseball.
The Padres did most of their damage in the 5th inning. Jorge Mateo led off with a single and went to 2nd on a sacrifice bunt by Joe Musgrove (who was pinch-hitting for Craig Stammen, who pitched 1.0 inning after taking over for starter Ryan Weathers, who allowed one run in 4.0 innings of work).
Mateo had 3rd base stolen easily and Seattle catcher Tom Murphy's throw was closer to the 3rd base umpire than the 3rd baseman. The ball sailed down the left field line, allowing Mateo to score easily and make it 2-1. Then things got even nuttier.
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Tommy Pham walked and Jurickson Profar singled and stole 2nd base against starter Justus Sheffield, so Seattle skipper Scott Servais decided to intentionally walk Fernando Tatis Jr. to load the bases. You understand where he's coming from. Tatis had two more doubles on Saturday night.
The problem is, the next guy up was Eric Hosmer. Since 2019 nobody in baseball has produced more runs with two outs than Hosmer and he delivered again. Hos lined a single to left field. Two runs were definitely going to score but Jarred Kelenic's throw was awful.
The rookie pulled Murphy up the line and the backstop made another boo-boo. The ball went right through his legs and Tatis never broke stride, scoring all the way from 1st base to make it a 5-1 game.
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Catcher Austin Nola followed with a single to score Hosmer to make it 6-1 and that was enough.
After that we saw the 2020 version of Dinelson Lamet. The man who finished 4th in last year's Cy Young balloting hadn't thrown more than two full innings yet this season. He was dominant against the Mariners, tossing 3.0 innings with five strikeouts. The only run he allowed was unearned and his fastball and slider looked as devastating as they did a year ago.
Austin Adams ran into a bit of trouble in the 9th so Mark Melancon came on to close it out and get his 16th save of the season. The Padres can sweep the M's on Sunday afternoon with Yu Darvish on the mound against Justin Dunn.
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