KANSAS CITY -- After the Padres opened the second half with two losses, manager Craig Stammen was still optimistic about what San Diego could accomplish during its ongoing 10-game road trip, which continues this week in Atlanta and Miami.
“We’ve got eight more,” Stammen said prior to Sunday’s series finale against the Royals. “We have the ability to turn it around. We’ve seen it from many other teams in the league already. Believe it’s going to happen and put the work in to get it done.”
The Padres promptly took a step in the right direction Sunday. With a rejuvenated offense led by Fernando Tatis Jr., stable pitching that included a brilliant outing from lefty reliever Yuki Matsui and the return of right-hander Randy Vásquez from the injured list, San Diego won in a 19-2 rout of Kansas City.
Tatis set the tone with a two-run single to right field that began a four-run second inning. Tatis finished the day 2-for-5 with four RBIs. He had plenty of help up and down the lineup as the Padres rang up 19 hits, including four by Jackson Merrill. Ty France had a two-homer day, including a grand slam. Merrill also homered twice and Tatis once.
San Diego burst to a 7-2 lead but cracked the door open for the Royals in the fourth when Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts each failed to get the lead runner on soft grounders, setting up a bases-loaded, no outs dilemma.
Enter Matsui.
The left-hander took over for starter Germán Márquez and struck out Carter Jensen before inducing a double-play groundout from Nick Loftin. Matsui flourished when he came back out for the fifth, retiring Jac Caglianone (who homered and doubled on Sunday) on a broken-bat grounder and Lane Thomas and Isaac Collins on strikeouts.
The early offense was especially pleasing for Stammen to see, given that San Diego had hit into a combined six double plays through the opening two games of the series.
“When we had runners in scoring position, we took some really good at-bats,” Stammen said. “That’s what we’re hoping for the rest of the year.”
In retrospect, Stammen can flash back to Friday night as the big factor why San Diego lost the series. The Padres had a three-run lead in the 10th inning, but couldn’t hold on.
“Disappointing that we weren’t able to come through in that first game and finish it off,” Stammen said. “[Saturday], they just flat-out beat us, and [Sunday], we just flat-out beat them. So, we were that close to a series win.”
Tatis’ two-run single in the second inning enabled the Padres to break through early after a series of frustrating at-bats on Saturday.
“That was huge,” Tatis said. “To open the game like that, it definitely helped.”
Still, the Padres had to survive that shaky fourth inning when Matsui came to the rescue and wiggled out of a bases-loaded, no-outs jam.
“That was the biggest part of the game,” Stammen said. “We got off to a good lead, 7-2, but even then the game was in the balance with the bases loaded and nobody out. Matsui did a really nice job of getting the first hitter and not worrying about the runners on base. Just an amazing job by him, coming in and being the hero.”
The Padres strengthened their offensive numbers late, as Kansas City went with position player Tyler Tolbert on the mound in the ninth. San Diego put up five runs in the eighth before scoring six more against Tolbert in the ninth.
“It’s an important road trip, and we let the first one get away from us,” France said. “So, it’s big that we came out today and did what we did.”
By the end of the two-hour, 57-minute contest, six Padres had a multi-hit game.
“It doesn’t feel good for the Royals and we know how that feels,” Stammen said. “But it’s good to be on the other end and create some positivity. It’s that ‘baseball is fun again’ feeling that we can take into a very important series in Atlanta.”