Manny Machado has carried the Padres offense for the first six weeks of the 2022 season. On Friday night his mates finally picked him up.
Machado went 0-4, an exceedingly rare off night, in Atlanta but he was the only San Diego starter NOT to get a hit in an 11-6 Padres win to open a 3-game series against the reigning World Series champs.
Eric Hosmer had three hits and took over the Major League batting lead from his teammate (.377 to .371) but what's really encouraging is the rest of the lineup. Wil Myers had three hits, including his first home run of the season. Luke Voit had a pair of knocks, including a line drive double that was absolutely crushed down the left field line.
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But Ha-Seong Kim might have had the best night of them all. The 2nd-year player chipped in with three knocks, none bigger than a 3-run homer in the 7th inning that gave the Padres a 7-6 lead and took back the momentum that Atlanta had stolen just a few outs prior.
Yu Darvish had a 4-2 lead in the 6th and should have been able to get through the inning without any damage being done. But, Adam Duvall hit a shallow fly ball to right field. Myers called off Hosmer and slid but couldn't make the catch, setting off a series of unfortunate events.
Darvish was replaced by Robert Suarez, the hard-throwing reliever who's been either great or bad in his outings this year. He threw a fastball up to Dansby Swanson and the Braves shortstop turned it around for a 3-run homer and a 6-4 lead.
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Hosmer and Myers singled in the 7th to set up Kim's big shot, which turned out to be the game-winner but the Padres didn't leave anything to chance. In the 9th inning they got another run on a Myers sacrifice fly to make it 8-6 then loaded the bases with one out.
Trent Grisham came on to pinch-hit for Jose Azocar and put it away with a line shot double to left-centerfield that cleared the bases and capped the evening's scoring.
San Diego can win the series on Saturday afternoon with Sean Manaea on the mound against Charlie Morton.
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