How does midfielder Jackson Merrill San Diego Padre’s best start in franchise history explains?
“We have fun,” he said. “That’s all there is to say.”
Merrill and San Diego will try to have fun again on what has been a perfect homeland to start the season. Padres hosts Cleveland Guardians Wednesday afternoon in the last match of the series, which goes for a three-game sweep and a 7-0 start.
Merrill, 21, got Padres started on his 7-0 victory on Tuesday night and blasted a two-out solo home in the fourth. Later he went and scored and again showed his improved patience at the plate.
Twenty bats in six matches are not a whole season in any way, but Merrill has already drawn a couple of walks. In 156 matches last year he went only 29 times, the only real weakness in his offensive profile.
While Merrill recognizes that more patience can lead to better pitch to hit, he also knows that you cannot get a hit if you do not swing the bat.
“I always want to beat,” he said. “I’m a hitch, not a hiker. What can I say?”
Merrill’s teammates compensate more than for his willingness to turn. Padres worked a season high seven walks on Tuesday night and gave them 24 in six matches. Although they only met four homers, they are on average more than five runs per match.
At the same time, their jugs have thrown three endings, making them the first team since Cincinnati Reds 1980 to start 6-0 with three endings.
The right-hander Dylan Cease (0-0, 6.23 ERA) will try to keep the reel in the series finale. He gave up three runs in 4 1/3 rounds on Friday night’s 4-3 victory over Atlanta. He met Cleveland 13 times in his career and goes 6-5 with a 3.57 era.
The Guardians will try to avoid a swipe behind the right hand Ben Lively (0-0, 5.40), who started Thursday’s season opener in Kansas City at short notice and delivered a decent excursion. He allowed four hits and three runs in five rounds during his team’s 7-4, 10-inning victory, no one went and knocked out three. He lost 2-1 to San Diego last season in his only career excursion to the team.
Cleveland will try to square its record of .500 six matches for a season opening nine-game road trip. After taking two of three in Kansas City, Guardians have not played well in any aspect of the game in this series. It includes their two-hit, two-error performance on Tuesday.
Even Jose Ramirez, The Guardian’s best player, was not immune to fighters. He went 0-for-3 Tuesday with a strike and dropped a pop-up in the eighth round, which led to Padre’s last run.
It was an 180-degree turn from his Monday effort, who saw him gather three hits and his first Homer a year in his return from a wrist injury that forced him to sit out on Sunday.
Teammates are not worried about Ramirez.
“He’s our superstar. He’s our guy,” said Cleveland Catcher Austin Hedges. “Every time he is in the lineup, he can win the game himself.”
-Field level media
