Padres' homer streak reaches 22 games

Bill Center, longtime sportswriter for U-T San Diego, is an employee of the Padres.
Alex Dickerson and Ryan Schimpf not only homered Sunday to extend the Padres' streak of games with at least one homer to a franchise-record 22 straight games, but each also had the first three-hit game of their Major League career.
Schimpf also set a Padres record for rookies. His home run was his ninth in July, the most ever by a San Diego rookie in any calendar month.
Schimpf was 3-for-5 on Sunday with two runs scored and two RBIs. He entered July hitting .103. He is now 18-for-59 (.305) with four doubles, a triple, nine home runs, eight walks, 16 RBIs and 15 runs scored. He has a .403 on-base percentage and a .864 slugging percentage for an OPS of 1.267 for July. Schimpf is hitting .250 on the season.
Dickerson was also 3-for-5 on Sunday, with a double and his third homer. The Poway High grad is 14-for-53 (.264) with three doubles, a triple, two homers, six RBIs and nine runs scored in July. He has raised his season batting average to .254.
San Diego's streak of games with a homer ties the 22-game run that the Boston Red Sox had in April-May as the longest this season, and it is one of 15 streaks of 22 or more games since Major League Baseball began tracking the stat in 1913.
The Padres' old record for consecutive games with a home run was 14 set in 1998. The streak is the longest in the National League since the Braves hit homers in 23 straight games in 2006.
San Diego has hit a total of 36 homers during its record streak dating back to June 28 (in the previous game, the Padres were shut out 3-0 by the Cincinnati Reds).
Second baseman Schimpf is the individual leader during the streak with nine. Third baseman Yangervis Solarte and right fielder Matt Kemp are tied for second with six homers apiece. Outfielder Melvin Upton Jr. is fourth with five homers during the streak.
First baseman Wil Myers has three and Dickerson and catcher Derek Norris have two apiece. Adam Rosales, Christian Bethancourt and Brett Wallace each have one home run during the streak.
Notes from the scorebook
• Kemp was only 1-for-5 Sunday, but he extended his hitting streak to nine straight games (12-for-38) during the streak, with two doubles, six homers, nine RBIs and seven runs scored.
• Right-hander Brandon Maurer has four saves in as many attempts and a 1.08 ERA since becoming the Padres' closer on July 1. He has allowed one run on four hits and a walk with seven strikeouts in 8 1/3 innings.
• Shortstop Alexei Ramirez is 8-for-24 on the road trip thus far, with three doubles, five RBIs and three runs scored.