The feeling among the Padres players and staff Saturday night was embarrassment and anger. The feeling Sunday morning was resolve.
A statement was coming, some said.
If that was what was done with an 8-2 afternoon victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field, what the Padres shouted was this: We’re not dead.
And also, probably not coincidentally: He’s back.
Fernando Tatis Jr. returned from a 13-game stay on the injured list, played right field for the first time as a professional and at the plate did what he always does when coming off the injured list — he homered. This time he did it twice, putting the Padres up 1-0 in the third inning and 2-1 in the fifth.
“Just Fernando being Fernando,” Eric Hosmer said.
Tatis has been on the IL three times this season. All three times, he hit a home run in his first game after being activated.
“Just make them remember why they miss you,” he said. “I feel like that’s what it is — that hunger of being outside and not doing anything for my team for so long. I really did feel pretty bad. Coming back, bring your 100 percent, take it chill and do what you know you need to.”
To the point of his second blast Sunday, Tatis’ double and two homers and a single and double by Hosmer, who spoke at a team meeting Saturday after the Padres were no-hit in a fourth consecutive loss, were the team’s only hits.
Adam Frazier followed Tatis’ second blast with a single up the middle, and two batters later Jake Cronenworth sent the first pitch he saw over the right field fence to put the Padres up 4-2.
Tatis drove in two runs with a bases-loaded single to push the Padres’ lead to 6-2 in the eighth inning. After Cronenworth’s bases-loaded walk made it 7-2, Tatis scored the final run on a wild pitch.
“I think we responded well,” Hosmer said. “One of the things from (Saturday’s) game is, you know, the fight was good. I thought we had some good at-bats. I thought there was some tough luck for us offensively. … It just didn’t happen last night, but it was good to get this one today heading into Colorado for sure.”
Tatis’ pair of home runs pushed his NL-leading total to 33 — despite his having missed 30 games while on the injured list.
“He played very well today, but just more importantly it’s just nice having him back on the field, in the dugout, in the clubhouse and just that personality that the guys gravitate to,” manager Jayce Tingler said. “So, obviously it’s great having him back. … Besides that, just the whole presence of the lineup. We were really good up and down the lineup, not chasing outside the zone. I thought we stacked some really good at-bats together and just all the way up and down.”
Craig Stammen headed a bullpen game for the second time in six days with two scoreless innings before six other relievers closed out the victory that kept the Padres 2½ games ahead of the Cincinnati Reds in the race for the National League’s second wild card spot.
“We’re in the middle of a pennant race right now,” Hosmer said. “We’re in the heart of it. We want to be clicking at the right time and figure out ways to be clicking at the right time, and that time is quickly approaching. We’re getting down to the fun part of this whole run, so it’s a good time for us to start playing our best baseball.”
Josh Rojas scored both Diamondbacks’ runs — hitting a single and coming around on Ketel Marte’s triple against Reiss Knehr in the third and hitting a solo homer off Pierce Johnson in the fifth. Rojas, who was batting .263 entering the series, went 10-for-15 in the four games the teams played here since Thursday.
The Padres scored three more runs Sunday than they had in their four-game skid. The first and last of those losses came by a score of 7-0 —to the Miami Marlins on Wednesday and here Saturday as Arizona’s Tyler Gilbert became the fourth pitcher in MLB history to throw a no-hitter in his first start.
“Not surprised,” Tingler said of the Padres’ rebound. “That was upset, frustrated, embarrassed, all those things which is, that’s exactly how we should respond, that’s exactly how we should come together and so I thought the guys were every pitch dialed in, pulling for one another and fighting pitch to pitch and when we do that, we can be a pretty dangerous team we can be a pretty dangerous offense.”
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