Bill Center, longtime sportswriter for U-T San Diego, is an employee of the Padres.
Two of the four Padres regulars who were under the Mendoza line have climbed above .200 as the Padres offense begins to warm.
Shortstop Erick Aybar has hit safely in seven straight games (9-for-26) and 10 of his last 11 games (12-for-40) to climb from .135 to .211. Over his last 11 games, Aybar has two doubles and two homers for six RBIs and six runs scored.
And catcher Austin Hedges, who started the season 0-for-24, is now hitting .205 after going 2-for-4 in the Padres' 12-4 win at San Francisco Saturday night. He is on a 15-for-48 run with six homers, two doubles, 15 RBIs and nine runs scored since his ice-cold start.
While Travis Jankowski is on the disabled list with a right foot injury meaning his bid to climb above .200 is delayed, the fourth player on the list is also on the move. Although third baseman Ryan Schimpf didn't homer Saturday, he did go 2-for-4 with a double, a walk, an RBI and three runs scored to raise his batting average to .153. Schimpf is 5-for-13 in his last four games with three homers, a double, seven RBIs and six runs scored while raising his batting average 51 points.
Schimpf's homer streak was stopped at three straight games, leaving him one short of having the 14th streak of homers in four or more straight games in Padres history. The Padres record for homers is consecutive games is six by third baseman Graig Nettles in 1984. First baseman Adrian Gonzalez homered in five straight games in 2009.
Padres with homers in four straight games are Nettles (twice), Gonzalez (twice), Ken Caminiti (twice), Cito Gaston, Terry Kennedy, Fred McGriff, Greg Vaughn, Xavier Nady, Matt Kemp and Alex Dickerson, who was the only rookie to accomplish the feat.
GAME NOTES:
• The Padres' 12 runs Saturday night were the most ever scored by the team at AT&T Park and the most scored by the Padres in San Francisco since they scored 15 runs at Candlestick Park on July 2, 1995. It is just the eighth time in franchise history that the Padres scored 12 or more runs in San Francisco.
• The Padres set season highs for runs and hits (14) Saturday night. It was only the Padres sixth game this season with 10 or more hits in a game. The Padres' eight runs in the top of the sixth were their most runs in an inning since May 1, 2015, against the Rockies (also eight runs).
• After going 0-for-2 Friday night to snap an eight-game hitting streak, 2B Yangervis Solarte was 2-for-5 Saturday. He is 15-for-36 while hitting safely in nine of his last 10 games. And in the game that he didn't get a hit, Solarte was hit twice by pitches.
• 1B William Myers singled to open the Padres' eight-run sixth Saturday night and capped the scoring with his three-run, 433-foot homer. It marked the second time in his career that he had two hits in an inning.