Padres' gritty at-bats set the tone: 'Kind of who we are'

ST. LOUIS -- How good were the Padres’ at-bats on Tuesday night in St. Louis? Consider this: Manny Machado won a nine-pitch battle with Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas by demolishing a home run into the visiting bullpen in the second inning -- and it probably wasn’t the most impactful nine-pitch at-bat taken by a Padre on the night.

That belonged to Jake Cronenworth, who won a ferocious left-on-left battle against Cardinals reliever John King in the seventh inning. With the go-ahead run at third base, Cronenworth fouled off five pitches, then laced a single into right-center field -- the decisive moment in San Diego’s 7-5 victory at Busch Stadium.

The 2024 Padres offense in a nutshell.

“We’re not going to give in,” said Machado. “Just keep grinding.”

“It’s just kind of who we are,” said Cronenworth.

Added manager Mike Shildt: “It’s typical of how we expect to compete.”

Twice, San Diego fell behind on Tuesday night, and twice the response was swift. After Dylan Cease surrendered two runs in the first inning, the Padres responded with four in the second, sparked by Machado’s home run. It was his 160th as a Padre, moving him one shy of Adrián González for second on the franchise leaderboard, and three back of Nate Colbert’s record.

After St. Louis grabbed the lead in the fifth on Paul Goldschmidt’s two-run homer, the Padres took it back in the seventh. Mason McCoy -- who earned his big league callup last week and has since served as a regular rally-starter in the No. 9 spot -- worked a one-out walk. Luis Arraez followed with a single.

And speaking of productive at-bats -- not many better than Jurickson Profar’s against King in the seventh. On 0-1, he took a strike, allowing McCoy and Arraez to execute a flawless double steal. On 0-2, he launched a deep fly ball to center, plating McCoy as the tying run.

“Pro takes a pro at-bat,” said Shildt (executing the pun flawlessly). “And then Croney does his thing.”

Of course, Shildt had the option of hitting for Cronenworth, as he’s done before this season with a lefty on the mound. He had Donovan Solano on the bench, but the Cardinals almost certainly would’ve gone to a righty in that scenario. So Shildt stuck with Cronenworth.

“I trust him,” Shildt said. “He’s going to take a quality, tough at-bat in those big moments.”

He did exactly that. King threw Cronenworth just about everything he had. Cronenworth spoiled it all. Finally, on the ninth pitch, King’s sinker caught too much of the inner half. Cronenworth roped it to right-center, plating the eventual winning run.

“Those are the spots you want to be in,” Cronenworth said. “That guy’s tough. I’ve got the winning run on third base. I’m just trying to grind an at-bat out and get something to hit and find some green.”

From there, the Padres’ lockdown bullpen locked it down. Machado ended the game with his second remarkable defensive play of the night, playing a carom off the third-base bag before firing across the diamond to nab Nolan Arenado. Earlier in the game, Machado had adjusted seamlessly when the ball initially slipped through his fingers, pulling it out of midair and firing to first to nab Iván Herrera in the fifth.

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In all facets, Machado is rolling right now. He started the season slowly as he returned from surgery on his right elbow. And even though he says he won’t be at 100 percent until 2025, he’s clearly a different player than he was earlier in the season.

“My body’s just feeling better,” Machado said. “Every day it continues to get better. I guess I like the heat a little bit, too.”

Ninety-eight degrees at first pitch, to be specific. And while Cease refused to acknowledge that the conditions had anything to do with his shaky performance, his sweat-soaked uniform told a different story.

Cease wasn’t himself, but he exited with the Padres in front, before Bryan Hoeing surrendered his first homer with the club -- Goldschmidt’s go-ahead blast. The Padres, as they so often do, had an answer.

They own the Majors’ highest batting average and lowest strikeout rate. And on Tuesday night, it was plain to see why.

“This team’s a grinding team,” Machado said. “We don’t strike out much. We put the ball in play. We’re aggressive when we need to be aggressive. But you can’t throw it down the zone. Because we could do some damage on it, too.”