SAN DIEGO -- Paul Goldschmidt is not a big fan of off-days, but the D-backs first baseman seemed to benefit from the one he got Monday.
After his day of rest, Goldschmidt smacked his first home run in almost a month, but it was not enough as the D-backs fell for the second straight night to the Padres, 5-2, on Tuesday night at Petco Park.
D-backs manager Chip Hale had thought about resting Goldschmidt during last weekend's series with the Dodgers, but with L.A. in a pennant race, he felt that ethically he should play his best players.
Hale then gave Goldschmidt the choice of either having Monday or Wednesday off.
"We hope that every day that we give them off that they can take a deep breath and get back to feeling a little bit better," Hale said.
Goldschmidt's strikeouts had been on the rise of late. Prior to Tuesday he had fanned 10 times in his previous 25 plate appearances while hitting just .136.
With the D-backs set to have a scheduled off-day Thursday, Goldschmidt did not skip batting practice Monday as he often will do when he's not starting.
"I just really did my regular routine just took it easy the first few innings and then got ready to potentially pinch-hit," he said.
Before his homer Tuesday, Goldschmidt had gone 98 plate appearances without hitting one.
"Just trying to get on base and got a fastball down the middle and was able to hit it hard and get it out of there," Goldschmidt said. "It was nice to be able to tie up the game there. I'm not trying to hit a home run, but will obviously take it."
Whether the off-day helped refresh Goldschmidt is hard to say, and he wasn't about to overanalyze it.
"Hopefully I would have done the same thing, maybe I would have hit two," Goldschmidt said. "You're always looking to take rest when you get it and when Chip puts me in the lineup just try to be ready to go and do my job."