The Padres accomplished some significant positives on Friday night, things they can feel good about going into the postseason.
Fernando Tatis Jr. returned from his three-day bout with a flu-like illness and hit a grand slam. Luis Arraez and Ryan O’Hearn continued to hit. Xander Bogaerts began to hit. So did Gavin Sheets and maybe Manny Machado.
And for at least another day, the Padres kept alive hopes of hosting a wild-card series by beating the Diamondbacks 7-4 in the opener of the regular season’s final series.
The Padres, who eliminated Arizona from playoff contention with the victory, need to win twice more to have a chance at hosting the Cubs. And even that might not be enough: the Cubs winning even one of their two remaining games would assure the teams are playing at Wrigley Field.
Wherever the best-of-three series is played, the Padres have to figure out the composition of their pitching staff and, in particular, who is going to start at least one game.
So it was not insignificant that they walked away Friday night having not been provided with any reason to believe Yu Darvish can effectively make one of those starts.
The Padres plan to lean heavily on their high-leverage relievers in the postseason. Whoever the starting pitchers are for Game 2 and the potential Game 3 after Nick Pivetta works Game 1 on Tuesday, the expectation will not be that they turn in seven or even six innings.
But the starting pitcher needs to keep the game close, needs to give the offense a chance. It would be highly preferable that he not put the Padres in an early hole.
Figuring out who makes the second (and possibly third) start is at the top of the to-do list.
And Friday, in what was essentially an audition, Darvish might not have entirely bombed, but he gave up a pair of bombs and did not work a clean inning.
“I don’t think I was at my best,” Darvish said. “But I was glad that I was able to give the team a chance to win the game.”
He did allow just two runs, but both came on home runs, which have plagued him for the better part of two months. He was also greatly assisted by outs made on the bases in three different innings.
When Ketel Marte turned on a fastball on the inner third and sent it over the right field wall, it had to be a cause for pause. Because it was the 11th homer Darvish has allowed in his past 10 starts and the sixth that has come in the first inning.
Jake McCarthy, the Diamondbacks’ No.9 hitter, also homered, which extended the visitors’ lead to 2-0 in the third inning.
Darvish has surrendered a home run in 10 of his past 12 starts and has surrendered two homers in four of those games.
No matter how ready a manager is to go to his bullpen in the postseason, home runs can quickly put a game essentially out of reach.
Darvish ended up allowing six hits in his five innings Friday. But the damage might have been greater had Freddy Fermín not thrown out a runner attempting to steal after a lead-off walk in the second and/or Geraldo Perdomo not attempted to turn a double into a triple with no outs in the third and/or Ildemaro Vargas not popped up and off the base after his slide on what would have been a lead-off double and been called out on replay review in the fifth.
If Darvish ends up starting, it could well be because Michael King is similarly unimpressive Saturday against Arizona or the Padres decided Dylan Cease’s recent effectiveness against the Cubs was not enough to merit him starting. Or it simply could be because of the faith the Padres have in Darvish based on his history.
“It’s Yu Darvish,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said when asked how the proliferation of homers against Darvish figures into the Padres’ thinking about the postseason. “I mean, guys are going to put some swings on it. Their top of the order is pretty good. … So I don’t know what to say beyond that.”
When the Padres switched the order of their rotation, moving Darvish up a day and King back a day, it took King out of the running for a Game 2 start. But it did not necessarily mean he would start Game 3, if it is necessary, or that Darvish would start the second game.
Despite Cease’s inconsistency and a 4.55 ERA that owes to his penchant for the big inning, the Padres are mulling starting Cease, who has a 0.96 ERA (two earned runs, 18⅔ innings) in three starts against the Cubs over the past two seasons.
What was encouraging to an extent on Friday was the offense, which scored five runs in the fourth inning.
The first run came on consecutive singles by Bogaerts, Sheets and Ryan O’Hearn. After Fermin drew a two-out walk, the final four runs came on Tatis’ blast to the second deck beyond left field.
The Padres added a run against Diamondbacks starter Zac Gallen in the fifth when Machado walked, Bogaerts volleyed his second single into right field, Sheets reached on a fielder’s choice in which the Diamondbacks flubbed a catch and Jake Cronenworth walked.
Rookie Bradgley Rodriguez, who is ostensibly competing for a spot on the wild-card roster, worked a scoreless sixth. Wandy Peralta did the same in the seventh.
A long eighth inning was cause for some concern.
Kyle Hart, a lefty on the fringe of the roster, walked two batters to start the eighth before getting a strikeout. He was replaced by David Morgan, who got a fielder’s choice grounder and then walked three batters to bring in two runs.
That prompted Shildt to turn to Mason Miller, who struck out Jorge Barrosa to end the eighth and — after the Padres added a run on two-out singles by Arraez, Machado and Jackson Merrill in the bottom of the eighth — struck out two more and got a pop fly out after a lead-off walk in the ninth.
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