Not many things have lined up well for the Padres this year. Friday night, everything seemed to happen perfectly.
John Moores and Jake Peavy were inducted to the Padres Hall of Fame. Moores is the former owner and one of the biggest reasons Petco Park exists. Peavy is the club's last Cy Young Award winner and one of the game's great competitors.
Their induction came on a night when Joe Musgrove ... the San Diego native who wears #44 to honor Peavy, his favorite player ... was on the mound against the Rangers and manager Bruce Bochy ... who took over as Padres skipper the year Moores bought the club and should some day be a member of the Friars HOF himself.
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Then Musgrove did one heck of a Peavy impersonation, tossing 6.0 shutout innings against baseball's highest-scoring offense in a 7-1 Friars win to kick off a 3-game series that might decide what the Padres do at Tuesday's trade deadline.
Musgrove has continued to get better and better. In May his ERA was 3.68. In June it dipped to 2.25. In July he's taken it to another level, posting a 1.80 mark with a miniscule 0.84 WHIP. If the Padres end up getting hot and making a playoff run Joe's steady hand will be a big part of it.
Offensively the Friars got Joe a lead in the 1st inning. Juan Soto singled home Ha-Seong Kim to make it 1-0. They added another in the 3rd on a sacrifice fly from Manny Machado and got one more in the 5th on a solo homer from Fernando Tatis Jr.
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But, they really broke it open in the 6th inning. Gary Sanchez doubled home Jake Cronenworth to make it 4-0. Tatis singled to keep right to bring home Luis Campusano and Machado lined a 2-run single to right to cap a 4-run inning and pump the lead up to 7-0. Then Manny did Manny things with his glove. Leody Taveras hit a liner that looked like it was ticketed for left field.
Machado dove to his left, made the stop, and threw Taveras out while sitting on his backside. No, seriously:
It's one of the great defensive plays you'll see and, coming from Machado, it's in no way surprising.
Overall this was the kind of game the Padres are going to need a lot of if they hope to get back in the playoff hunt. They can win the series on Saturday night when Yu Darvish gets the ball against Martin Perez.'Overall it was the kind of game the Padres are going to need a lot of if they hope to get back in the playoff hunt. They can win the series on Saturday night when Yu Darvish gets the ball against Martin Perez.
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