Front Row Seat: Tatis tops Reds with walk-off sac fly

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Section 1904Darren Smith

San Diego Padres

Padres walk off in 10th to cap comeback with 'great September baseball' - MLB.com
Jackson Merrill’s towering fly ball into Petco Park’s right-center-field gap hung in the air for only about five seconds. Felt like forever.

Collectively, Petco Park held its breath. With two outs, both runners sped around the bases. As did Merrill. Finally, after a short eternity, the baseball landed. It caromed off the glove of Reds center fielder TJ Friedl after his desperate dive just in front of the warning track.

The ballpark erupted. Both runners scored. Merrill sped into third base and flexed. It was only the sixth inning. But the Padres had a fully rested bullpen and the momentum of a frenzied crowd on their side after they rallied from a three-run deficit.

Padres’ Michael King to start Tuesday, says he’s ready to ‘try to be that guy’ - San Diego Union-Tribune
King acknowledged his knee had hurt after his simulated game and rehab start leading up to his return but had not bothered him during those outings. He said, however, that his knee hurt “every pitch” and it affected his mechanics against the Red Sox.

King has since then pitched a simulated game at Petco Park, another sim game against Padres Single-A players in Fort Wayne, Ind., and this past Thursday pitched five innings (70 pitches) against minor leaguers in what is known as the Arizona Bridge League, which are games held on backfields at teams’ spring training complexes for recently drafted minor leaguers and rehabbing minor league and major league players.

“Command, velo, recovery, movement of pitches, all that kind of stuff,” he said of what made him and the Padres comfortable he is ready to return. “I was able to make one-pitch adjustments in my delivery, which is something that I haven’t done for a while.”

Margin Call Part 3 - Letters to A.J.
It turns out Petco is the only park in baseball to be bottom 10 in flyball distance each of the last three years, bottom 10 in home run park factor two of the last three years, and bottom 10 in overall park factor over the past three years. The Padres are going to play games at three of these parks across the final 19 games (Petco, against the Mets in New York where Sears has never pitched, and against the White Sox in Chicago). If even one of those games needs to be covered by JP Sears, there’s reason to think he may be significantly more effective in Petco than on the road. This is not a projection that Sears will be good in Petco. It’s more a projection that he has a chance to not be as bad in Petco. If the team has the option to sequence a spot start at Petco or on the road, the nudge should be to Petco. Because a few feet of flyball distance suppression, a wall just a few feet further, or both, can matter a lot.