SAN DIEGO -- No scoreboard watching in San Diego on Thursday night. Only Padres baseball -- a chance to move up with a win and down with a loss.
They’re moving up.
San Diego won its series opener against the Rockies at Petco Park, 2-0, behind six brilliant innings from Randy Vásquez, who set a career high with nine strikeouts. With the win, the Padres made progress on two fronts, while four other contenders had the night off.
The objective directly in front of them is hosting a National League Wild Card Series. To do that, they’d need to catch the Dodgers (2 1/2 back) in the NL West, or at least reel in the Cubs (3 1/2 back) for the top Wild Card spot.
On the flip side, the Padres increased their lead to 5 1/2 games over both the Giants and Reds, the two teams currently on the outside of the playoff picture looking in. A Padres postseason clinch is getting closer.
Here are three takeaways from an important win for the Padres:
Vásquez earning himself a postseason role
The sample size is no longer small. Vásquez has appeared in 25 games this season (24 starts), and his ERA is 3.72. In a rotation full of big names, there’s a case to make -- a very strong one -- that he’s been the Padres’ second best starter this year, behind only Nick Pivetta.
Vásquez’s peripheral numbers tell a different story. His FIP -- which attempts to remove batted ball luck from the ERA equation -- is 4.93. But even still, this suddenly looks like a different version of Vásquez.
He was outstanding on Thursday, striking out nine Rockies to set a career high. He didn’t walk any. (Yes, the very same Randy Vásquez, whose K/BB ratio was hovering around 1 into mid-June.) If the Padres keep getting this version of Vásquez, they’re going to need to start asking some very interesting questions about where he fits.
Presumably, Pivetta and Michael King -- in some order -- would get Games 1 and 2 in a potential Wild Card Series. The main options for the third spot are Dylan Cease and Yu Darvish. They’ve both been jarringly inconsistent this season.
Vásquez, meanwhile, hasn’t been given the same leash as those two. But the Padres wouldn’t need him working deep into playoff games, given the bullpen they’ve built. If Vásquez can ace his next test -- a start against the Mets in a pseudo-playoff atmosphere next week -- it might get interesting. At the very least, he’s probably earning himself a spot on the postseason roster as a long man.
“It really just comes down to whatever they need from me,” Vásquez said through interpreter Pedro Gutierrez. “I’ll be ready for that."
Arraez’s batting-title longshot
There’s no way around it; it’s been a down year for Luis Arraez. He entered play Thursday with an OPS of .702. But Arraez pounded out three hits in the Padres’ victory to raise his average to .285.
Arraez, of course, is looking to become the first player since Tony Gwynn to win four consecutive batting titles. Right now, the bar is set at Trea Turner, who is sidelined with a hamstring injury possibly for the remainder of the season. Turner’s average sits at .305.
Let’s presume it stays there. With 15 games remaining, Arraez would need something like a .500 average -- say, 29-for-58 or 30-for-60. His best 15-game batting average in his career is .491.
So, yeah, it’s a longshot. But more importantly, if Arraez strings together a few more nights like this one in September and into October, it could go a long way toward putting this disappointing regular season behind him.
Is Merrill’s slug back?
Since Jackson Merrill returned from an ankle injury on Sept. 1, he’s slugging .606. On Thursday, he launched an opposite-field home run, giving the Padres a 2-0 lead in the fourth. It was vintage Merrill. He got a fastball painted on the outside corner, and went with it.
“That’s me,” Merrill said. “Opposite-field hitting is what I’ve done since I was 8 years old. That is me.”
It’s been a stop-and-start season for Merrill, who has spent three separate stints on the IL with three different injuries. As such, he never settled into the groove he did during his breakout rookie season.
But with the Padres in desperate need of some power, Merrill is clearly one of a few hitters in the lineup capable of providing it. He seems to be trending in that direction.
“I’ve found a couple things,” Merrill said. “I’ve just made adjustments and kind of gone from there.”