The distances to the fences at Petco Park have shortened in the 18 seasons since Phil Nevin said “hitting a home run in San Diego is like hitting one out of a national park.”
Comments such as that hastened Nevin’s trade to the Texas Rangers in 2005.
Now the manager of the Los Angeles Angels, Nevin — who still ranks third on the Padres’ list of all-time home run leaders — will return to Petco Park on Monday night with a pair of players who might be able to clear the walls of a national park.
Shohei Ohtani drove homers of 493 feet and 454 feet over the past three days — giving him 31 home runs for the season. And Mike Trout hit a 436-foot bomb Sunday in a 5-2 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks for his 18th home run of the season.
For the next three days, American League All-Star Game starters Ohtani and Trout will lead the Angels on offense in a three-game, interleague series in San Diego. Plus, Ohtani is scheduled to be the Angels’ starting pitcher on Tuesday.
The good news is the Padres hope this could be a reconnaissance mission for Ohtani. San Diego is said to be one of the potential landing spots for him when he becomes a free agent after this season.
The bad news is the Padres are about 15 wins shy of where they thought they would be at the midpoint of the season.
“No one thought we’d be where we are,” San Diego manager Bob Melvin said earlier this week as the Padres suffered five straight losses to the struggling Washington Nationals and Pittsburgh Pirates. Now they return home from a 1-5 road trip.
Ten days ago, the Padres thought they were on the threshold of a winning streak that would push them past .500. Instead, they’ve gone 1-7 to fall a season-worst eight games under .500. Two of those losses were by a single run and one was in extra innings. The Padres are 5-15 in one-run games and 0-7 in extra innings. Sunday’s 4-3 loss at Cincinnati was the Padres’ eighth defeat in 12 rubber matches of three-game series.
“Our fans have been great,” said Melvin. “They are behind us every game. They deserve more.”
And after Sunday’s loss in Cincinnati, he said: “We’ve experienced this quite a bit. We have to pick ourselves up and get home and get to work.”
The series against the Angels will begin with right-hander Jaime Barria (2-3, 2.92 ERA) starting for Los Angeles against projected Padres starter Blake Snell (4-7, 3.21).
Snell’s record is misleading. The left-hander hasn’t allowed a run in four of his last seven starts with a 0.86 ERA and a 0.833 WHIP — four runs on 20 hits and 15 walks with 66 strikeouts in 42 innings. But the Padres are only 4-3 in those games while scoring two or fewer runs three times. Snell is 1-2 lifetime against the Angels with a 3.52 ERA, a 1.087 WHIP and a .173 opponents’ batting average in four starts with 29 strikeouts in 23 innings.
Barria will make his 18th appearance of the season on Monday but only his sixth start. The 26-year-old Panamanian is 1-0 against the Padres in two previous appearances (both starts), giving up three runs on nine hits and a walk with seven strikeouts in nine innings. Five of his last seven appearances have been as a starter. He is 1-1 with a 4.43 ERA and a 1.343 WHIP as a starter.
–Field Level Media
