SAN DIEGO -- The Padres are halfway through the homestand that might come to define the first half of their season. They couldn’t have started it any better.
San Diego completed a sweep of the Braves with an impressive 5-2 victory on Wednesday night. The Padres have beaten Atlanta in nine consecutive games at Petco Park, dating back to their 2024 National League Wild Card Series.
Next up: a three-game series against the first-place Dodgers this weekend. But first, here’s some instant reaction from Wednesday’s finale against Atlanta:
Sears delivered just what the Padres needed
Padres relievers covered 28 outs in an extra-innings win on Tuesday night. A day later, they handed the ball to newly promoted JP Sears, who struggled last season and has struggled mightily this year at Triple-A.
They needed something from Sears. Anything. Length, at the bare minimum.
“I had to attack,” Sears said. “I had a good defense behind me, playing here at Petco. … Just really wanted to attack, try and throw a lot of strikes, mix it up in the zone.”
Mission accomplished. Sears pitched 5 2/3 innings of two-run ball -- and, frankly, he was better than the line would indicate. Those two runs only came because the Padres needed Sears on the mound for the sixth. He’d pitched five scoreless, but with a depleted bullpen, Sears was asked to cover the sixth inning, and Joey Bart ended his night with a two-run homer.
Nonetheless, Sears was excellent, punching out five Braves along the way.
“The way he threw the ball today is what he’s capable of doing in the big leagues,” said manager Craig Stammen. “We needed him big. He stepped up.”
The Padres have major question marks in their starting rotation. At least two places in their starting five are wide open.
With Sears’ performance on Wednesday, he has at least earned himself another look.
Taylor keeps making things happen
The Padres almost certainly do not envision Samad Taylor as their No. 2 hitter for the rest of the season. But right now? Why not?
Taylor has been a revelation for this slumping Padres offense since his arrival earlier this month. He’s hitting .379 with an .886 OPS and six steals. More notably, he’s seemingly coming through in every single big moment.
On Wednesday, Taylor helped spark a fifth-inning rally with his bunt single. He and Fernando Tatis Jr. proceeded to execute a flawless double steal. (That’s a serious 1-2 speed threat atop the lineup, and perhaps a good reason to keep Taylor near the top for a while.)
“He just brings a variety of what-may-happen,” Stammen said. “It forces the defense to play a different way. … He makes them have to play in. He makes them move around. He does a good job working the count against the pitcher. And then, lately, he’s been really good with two strikes, putting the ball in play and getting some big hits.”
Case in point: An inning later, Taylor swatted a two-out, two-run single down the right-field line. It wasn’t the cleanest contact. But it was an impressive bit of two-strike hitting. Moments after the Braves had pulled two runs back on Bart’s home run, Taylor responded by plating two runs for the Padres.
From start to finish, a complete series
The Padres entered this week’s series against the Braves just two games above .500, coming off an up-and-down road trip. They hardly resembled the team that faced the Dodgers a month ago with first place on the line. The gap to the top of the NL West has since grown to nine games, with L.A. coming to town on Friday night.
Still, this was a statement series, the kind of series the Padres needed, for no other reason than to remind themselves how it’s supposed to look. They got big hits from their stars. They got big hits from their role players. Their bullpen was outstanding.
“Just good, team baseball,” said Ty France, who went 2-for-3 with a homer, a double and a sacrifice fly on Wednesday. “That’s something we’ve been not necessarily searching for, but just hoping it would click. And it finally did.”
Indeed, one win led to another this week. Michael King’s seven scoreless innings on Monday lined up Tuesday’s 10-inning victory, in which the Padres needed 28 outs from their relievers. Then, with few relievers available on Wednesday, the San Diego offense delivered. So did JP Sears.
“That’s a huge series for us,” Taylor said -- with another huge series looming this weekend.