Tatis sparks offense, bullpen seals it as Padres win 8th straight

SAN DIEGO -- Two weeks ago, as the Padres readied to leave Petco Park following a disappointing first homestand, new manager Craig Stammen made a vow.

“We’re going to play better here at Petco,” Stammen said. “This was probably an outlier.”

Sure enough …

The Padres are now the hottest team in baseball, winners of eight straight and 12 of 14. Their second homestand was a whole lot better than the first -- a perfect 7-0, culminating with a 5-2 victory over the Mariners on Thursday night.

Here’s some instant reaction:

No power, no problem for Tatis

Fernando Tatis Jr. still hasn’t homered. It is, by far, Tatis’ longest home-run drought to start a season.

But lately, he’s been contributing in just about every other way.

On Thursday, Tatis reached base three times, including a two-run single that capped a four-run Padres second inning. Over the course of the homestand, he reached at a .429 clip.

And that’s not to mention Tatis’ characteristically stellar defense. He made an excellent sliding catch to rob Luke Raley of a hit to end the top of the second inning.

“He’s just a great baseball player,” Stammen said. “He made a nice play in right field, got us some momentum, came in, he gets a two-RBI laser up the middle, runs the bases. … When we’re going good, he’s impacting the game quite often. We saw it this homestand, how much of an impact he can have.”

The homers will come. (And probably soon, considering how hard Tatis is hitting the ball.) But Tatis remains impactful in nearly every other way.

Another encouraging outing from Buehler

When the Padres signed Walker Buehler to a Minor League deal at the start of Spring Training, they probably didn’t envision him as their No. 3 starter. In effect, that’s what Buehler has become.

Nick Pivetta landed on the injured list earlier this week with right elbow inflammation. He joins Joe Musgrove and Griffin Canning there (with Yu Darvish already out for the season). There are serious injury and depth concerns in the San Diego rotation right now.

Which makes Buehler’s recent performance so pivotal. He pitched six scoreless innings in his last time out. On Tuesday, he worked five scoreless frames, before Stammen sent him back out for a sixth. Buehler didn’t record an out in the inning and was charged with a couple runs.

“Frustrating to not put the finishing touches on it, I guess,” Buehler said. “But all in all, the two starts that I’ve made here in the homestand, I’ll be very happy with.”

Buehler’s fastball is not what it was when he was regularly blowing it past hitters half a decade ago. He seems intent on throwing the hard stuff, nonetheless -- using 20 cutters and 19 four-seamers on Thursday night, to great success. His fastball even touched 96 mph -- up four or five ticks from his start in Boston earlier this month.

“There was some miss for a long time, because you’re hesitant,” Buehler said. “You feel like every big leaguer should hit this 91 mph fastball 700 feet. So to get back to looking up and feeling good about the way it’s coming out of my hand, [it] gives you a lot of confidence.”

Bullpen blueprint

For the second time in three nights, the Padres won with this tried-and true-formula: Their starter pitched into the sixth, before Adrian Morejon, Jason Adam and Mason Miller nailed it down.

“That’s our recipe for winning,” Stammen said. “We’ve got a great bullpen, and we’ve just got to get the ball to them somehow some way. I feel good with us closing it out and figuring it out from there.

“I always compare it to a [football] team that has a really good running game. You get the lead, you run the ball, run the clock out, hopefully win the game. That’s kind of our strategy -- score early, get ahead and then hand the ball off to all the guys who throw 100 mph.”

Before going to Morejon, Stammen went to Bradgley Rodriguez, who allowed an RBI single to Julio Rodríguez and walked Randy Arozarena to load the bases in the sixth. But Morejon, who’d started the season slowly, escaped the jam by punching out Connor Joe, then getting J.P. Crawford to bounce harmlessly to second.

Morejon would pitch a perfect seventh as well, before Adam’s scoreless eighth. Miller struck out the side in the ninth, extending his scoreless streak to 30 2/3 innings -- three shy of Cla Meredith’s franchise record.