The Padres beat the Giants 9-3 in San Francisco on Saturday. It's their 76th win of the year, tying last year's total with one to play.
Eric Stults made another solid start to pick up his team-leading 11th win. Chris Denorfia and Jesus Guzman went deep (Norf hit his 10th to set a new career-high).
But what really stuck out in this game is what it sets up for the final day of the regular season.
Rookie 2nd baseman Jedd Gyorko ripped his 22nd home run on Saturday, tying him with Will Venable for the team lead. Gyorko also drove in two runs, giving him 59 for the season. And here's where we start talking about baseball history.
Gyorko has a team-high 59 RBI, six more than Venable. Runs Batted In became an official MLB statistic in 1920. Since then, no rookie 2nd baseman has ever led his team in that category.
Not Jackie Robinson.
Not Pete Rose.
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Not Rod Carew.
Not Ryne Sandberg.
Not Roberto Alomar.
Not Joe Morgan.
NOBODY!
Granted, Gyorko is not playing on a team with an offensive superstar, and 59 would not be enough to lead any other big league team (Miami is the closest, where Giancarlo Stanton has a team-high 62 RBI). But still, Jedd missed a month with a groin injury, which came at a time when he was really swinging the bat well.
Gyorko had 19 hits in the 13 games before the injury, which lingered long after he came off the disabled list. He only had five hits the 13 games after the injury.
So, the Padres have found themselves a legitimate, middle-of-the-order bat in the middle of their infield. And he only turned 25 a week ago.
