DENVER — Jackson Merrill visited the training room Thursday planning to receive treatment for what he felt was minor groin tightness. He also intended to play in the San Diego Padres’ series finale at Coors Field. And he could have played; on this, Merrill and manager Mike Shildt agreed.
Still, not long before the Padres took the field, Merrill was scratched from a lineup in which the 21-year-old rookie with no Triple-A experience has rapidly emerged as a vital cog. Later, after watching a one-run game unfold without his involvement, Merrill said he understood Shildt’s decision.
“I appreciate him being precautious and everything,” Merrill said. “I definitely respect that out of a manager. That’s what they’re supposed to do is be the most caring about their players. So, I respect that, but I’m all good.”
Merrill is considered day-to-day by the team. But, he added, he fully intends on returning to the lineup Friday. The sting of Thursday afternoon’s outcome factored into his thinking.
Meanwhile, down the hallway inside the visiting clubhouse, Shildt grew animated while publicly defending a team that had just suffered its worst loss of the season.
Without Merrill and franchise third baseman Manny Machado, who went on paternity leave this week, the Padres had amassed a five-run lead against a cellar-dwelling team. Despite a short start by Randy Vásquez, they had gotten the ball to one of the majors’ most effective bullpens this month. They were on the cusp of winning their fourth series in five tries. Then, they let it all slip away in the Colorado Rockies’ highest-scoring inning this year.
In the wake of a brutal defeat — Rockies 10, Padres 9 — was Shildt concerned given what had just befallen his club?
“I don’t have any concern,” Shildt said. “When I walked out of this ballpark, there’s some agitation because we didn’t win the game. But I’ma tell you what I walk out of this ballpark with. A couple things. A bunch of gamers that showed up without one of our betters in Manny, which, rightfully so; he’s having a baby. We got Jackson who, you know, a little ouchie; we want to stay away from it. We got guys all over the field playing their asses off and going out and stepping up and getting after it every day. A bunch of gamers stepping up all across the board.
“And I’ma tell you what. I’ll run Wandy Peralta out there any and every day in the eighth inning with the lead. It doesn’t work sometimes. But I can tell you what. This group, outside of the result at the end of the day, the heart and the competitive spirit and those guys getting after it, everything they’ve got — it doesn’t work out every time. But I’ll take this group any day of the week because I got a bunch of winning gamers. I’ll take that over the long haul.”
Mike Shildt gave a strong defense of Wandy Peralta after today’s loss: pic.twitter.com/c2BQPixrBS
— 97.3 The Fan (@973TheFanSD) April 25, 2024
Time, of course, will tell whether it works often enough. The Padres (14-14) on Thursday blew a prime opportunity to move to multiple games above .500 for the first time this season. They settled for a series split with a team that had matched the Rockies’ worst 25-game start ever. Now, stiffer tests await: San Diego will play six games over the next six days against the Philadelphia Phillies — who have won eight of their past 10 — and the Elly De La Cruz-led Cincinnati Reds. After seven games in seven days, after five relievers took down 16 outs in the Coors Field finale, it could be a challenge to quickly readjust to baseball at sea level.
Thursday’s collapse centered on Peralta, a veteran lefty reliever who entered with a 1.50 ERA, and Shildt, a former St. Louis Cardinals lifer striving to demonstrate belief in his players amid his second chance as a big-league manager. Peralta took the mound with two on and one out in the eighth. The Padres led 9-4. Then, Peralta served up a three-run homer, a single, a walk and another single. The Rockies scored the tying run on a passed ball by catcher Luis Campusano. Peralta threw a wild pitch, allowing two runners to advance, before striking out lefty batter Ryan McMahon. Only then did Shildt lift Peralta, after 11 strikes and 12 balls.
“Obviously, there’s no excuses,” Peralta said through team interpreter Pedro Gutiérrez. “Just a terrible game. We should have won this game with that lead. Things happen in baseball, it’s just a part of it, and we just got to be mentally strong and be able to compete tomorrow when we have another game.”
Shildt bristled when asked if he had considered pulling Peralta earlier. It had been suggested to him that Peralta looked out of sorts from the beginning of his outing.
“Wandy has about a 60 percent ground-ball rate,” Shildt said. “The second a guy gives up a home run, I can’t just go take out a guy that’s got a microscopic ERA and has got righties out all year. Now, it can be subjective where he has it or not; that can be your opinion. My opinion is, I got a veteran guy that knows how to get a ball on the ground and is one pitch away from getting a groundball. So, that’s what we had. It didn’t work out.”
It might not have worked out, either, if Shildt had exercised a quicker hook. Stephen Kolek, who relieved Peralta and promptly gave up a go-ahead double, actually began Thursday with a slightly higher ground-ball rate than Peralta. But the Rule 5 draftee has neither the experience nor the track record of his older teammate. Closer Robert Suarez had pitched in three of the previous four games, and the Padres would have needed to navigate another inning had they held on to a lead.
Ha-Seong Kim turned on this one for his 4th homer of the season! pic.twitter.com/6HyAvvbau8
— MLB (@MLB) April 25, 2024
Their late-game implosion still wasted an 11-hit output from a shorthanded offense that got multi-run homers from Ha-Seong Kim and Jurickson Profar. It overshadowed a bullpen-taxing outing by Vásquez, who surrendered four runs before a third-inning exit. And it highlighted a potential lack of depth for an organization that dealt with similar issues last season, then cut its payroll by roughly $90 million.
Vásquez, who was part of the return from the New York Yankees for star outfielder Juan Soto, has displayed promising stuff but an unsurprising lack of command. The 25-year-old was the first call-up from Triple-A El Paso when Opening Day starter Yu Darvish, 37, went on the injured list with a neck injury last week. Vásquez described his mechanics after Thursday’s game as a “work in progress.”
“They are good on some pitches, not good on others,” Vásquez said through Gutiérrez. “I’m just trying to find that consistency that will allow me to be successful.”
Without Soto, and without as many household names as they rostered last season, the Padres must accept some growing pains throughout 2024. They have been both prescient and fortunate that Merrill has taken so quickly to center field, that he is leading the team in batting average, and that he ranks second in on-base percentage. The converted shortstop lamented his inactivity during the series finale — “We didn’t win, so I’m kind of upset about that,” Merrill said — while downplaying his groin ailment.
“I’m just getting used to the schedule,” Merrill said. “Two years ago, I was playing 15 games a season in high school, so just getting used to the everyday grind. The minors kind of get you ready for it, but nothing gets you ready for this kind of season. But I’m fine. I’m all good. I’ll be in there tomorrow. If Shildty allows it, I’ll be in there every day.”
Thursday reinforced that Shildt, probably wisely, will not allow such an extreme. And that the manager will continue to speak out, sometimes demonstratively, in defense of his players. Whether it will all work out for a team that sits at .500 remains to be seen.
The Padres at least can take solace in what awaits them, stiffer competition and all.
“It’s a disappointment all the way around. Nobody wants to take that L,” right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. said. “But … we just got to regroup, and the beautiful thing about baseball is tomorrow’s gonna be another day.”
(Photo of Mike Shildt taking the ball from Wandy Peralta in the eighth inning: Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)
