Padres make full use of extra-inning rule

The Padres were spotted a baserunner in the 10th inning on Thursday night. They turned it into a six-run exclamation point on a wild 12-7 victory over the Giants at Oracle Park.

San Diego’s first trip to extra innings offered all the expected fireworks of extras in 2020. And then some.

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For this season, teams begin each frame with an automatic runner on second base, in an effort to spark offense. But this Padres outburst was a product of much more than one baserunner. Their six-run 10th was the highest-scoring extra inning in the Majors this season.

“Yeah, you can call me a fan of that [rule],” Padres manager Jayce Tingler said on his postgame Zoom session with a wry grin.

Center fielder Trent Grisham became the first Padre to start an inning on second base, but he wasn’t there very long. After a Manny Machado walk, Grisham scored on Tommy Pham’s RBI single.

The floodgates opened from there. The Padres put six men on base before they recorded an out.

“Hitting is contagious,” Pham said. “Manny had that great at-bat, staying within the strike zone. It set the tempo for us, and it put more pressure on them, because now they have two guys on, no outs. Their [pitcher] had to come to me.”

Perhaps the biggest moment of the frame came courtesy of a gutsy decision from Tingler. With the bases loaded and sidewinding right-hander Tyler Rogers on the mound, Tingler lifted the righty-hitting Wil Myers.

He called on his lefty-hitting pinch-hit specialist Greg Garcia in what was still a one-run game. Garcia lined a single to center field, plating two runs -- his second run-scoring pinch-hit in three such at-bats this season.

“GG is a pro’s pro,” Pham said. “I can’t say it enough -- a pro’s pro.”

“That was a huge at-bat,” Tingler said. “It’s incredibly hard to come in off the bench and do that, and Greg’s already done it a couple times.”

The Padres weren’t done. Ty France looped a single to center field, giving the Padres a 10-6 lead before Austin Hedges dropped a squeeze bunt in front of the dish. Garcia, on third at the time, read it perfectly and dashed home, diving toward the outside of the plate to narrowly avoid Tyler Heineman’s tag.

France scored two batters later on Fernando Tatis Jr.’s single to center, making it 12-6. It was quite a statement from the Padres after they had squandered a 6-2 lead the night before and nearly threw away a 6-1 edge on Thursday.

“I thought going into tonight that we’d have one of our first tests of what we’re made of,” Tingler said. “Our guys responded well. We had a 6-1 lead, then all of a sudden, two innings later we’re tied. To see the guys rally and respond -- credit to them.”

Grisham does it all
On top of making history as the Padres’ first automatic runner in extra innings, Grisham had himself quite a night. He tripled and scored in the fourth, then hit an RBI double and stole a base in the seventh.

But Grisham’s biggest highlight came in the bottom of the fifth after starter Dinelson Lamet had worked himself into some trouble. With the bases loaded and one out, Evan Longoria lifted a fly ball tailing away from Grisham toward the right-center-field gap.

Grisham got an excellent jump and made a sprawling play. Per Statcast, he covered 70 feet in four seconds -- a five-star play with just a 15 percent catch probability, marking the toughest catch of Grisham’s young career.

Bullpen woes
In all seven games the Padres have played this season, they’ve carried a lead into the eighth inning. That was supposed to be their recipe for success after constructing one of the sport’s deepest bullpens.

Thus far, that bullpen hasn’t lived up to its billing. Luis Perdomo allowed three runs in the seventh inning on Thursday, before Emilio Pagán surrendered two more in the eighth, as the Giants tied the game. Pagán, one of the team’s most highly touted winter acquisitions, has allowed five runs in 3 2/3 frames.

“They’re not clicking on all cylinders right now,” Tingler said. “We know we’re going to get there. We think it’s good, seeing the hitters rally there in the 10th and pick them up a little bit. Because there’s going to be a point in the season where that’s probably flipped.”

A theme has emerged in Tingler’s bullpen use this season: He’s doing his best to avoid asking his primary relief weapons for more than one inning. Drew Pomeranz was yanked after cleaning up Perdomo’s seventh-inning mess. Meanwhile, closer Kirby Yates was not an option for a five-out save in the eighth, Tingler said.

Tingler’s usage of the lefty Pomeranz brought forth a few additional questions. Pomeranz was called upon one batter after Perdomo had faced the lefty-hitting Brandon Belt. Then he was removed ahead of an eighth inning with three Giants lefties due up.

After Pagán faltered, Pierce Johnson escaped the eighth and pitched a scoreless ninth. This time, the bats woke up late, in an unprecedented 10th inning.

“We have the confidence,” Pham said. “Our bullpen’s supposed to be one of our strengths. But if something doesn’t go as planned, we can pick each other up.”