SAN DIEGO -- The Padres haven¡¯t merely won every game they¡¯ve played at Petco Park this season. They¡¯ve won resoundingly. Through 11 home games, their total margin of victory is 47 runs. They¡¯ve held a lead after 75% percent of the home innings they¡¯ve played. They¡¯ve dominated.
Which made the first several innings on Monday night feel a bit strange. A tight game in San Diego? A game the Padres trailed into the late innings?
They won it anyway. Resoundingly.
Fernando Tatis Jr. went deep twice, as San Diego rallied for a 10-4 victory over the Cubs on Monday, marking the club¡¯s 11th straight home win to open the season. That¡¯s by far the longest streak in franchise history -- and tied for the fourth longest in the Majors since at least 1900. (The Rays currently hold that record with 14 straight wins at Tropicana Field to open the 2023 season.)
¡°Our play is equaling the crowd, the crowd is equaling our play -- I don¡¯t know which way you want to look at it,¡± said Padres manager Mike Shildt. ¡°You¡¯re talking about a Monday night, and this place is jammed and rocking. It means a ton.¡±
The Padres waited until the late innings for their usual fireworks. But those fireworks came in bunches. San Diego scored twice in the sixth and three times in the seventh, before capping the night with a wild four-run eighth that featured back-to-back home runs from Tatis and Luis Arraez.
The third-largest crowd in Petco Park history (47,078) reached a crescendo when Arraez launched his second home run of the year, then waited to flip his bat until he was practically rounding first base. The Padres were on their way to their Major League-leading 14th victory, 11 of which have come at Petco Park.
¡°It¡¯s special,¡± starter Dylan Cease said of the environment. ¡°We definitely feed off of it. You¡¯re pretty much guaranteed a sellout every night. The fans are excited. We¡¯re excited. It¡¯s about as good of an atmosphere as you could ask for.¡±
The home winning streak remains intact, but the Padres¡¯ shutout streak came to an end -- at 37 innings -- in the fourth, when Cease surrendered Michael Busch¡¯s two-run home run. The streak fell three innings shy of the franchise-record scoreless mark, set in July and August of 1984.
Cease improved upon his poor outing last week against the A¡¯s, but he wasn¡¯t at his dominant best, allowing three runs (two earned) over 5 2/3 innings. He exited with the Padres trailing by two. It wouldn¡¯t take long to reverse that deficit.
Manny Machado worked a brilliant 11-pitch walk in the bottom of the sixth, chasing Cubs starter Jameson Taillon and sparking an onslaught against the Chicago bullpen.
¡°It was tough, man,¡± said Machado, who fouled off five straight 3-2 pitches. ¡°[I was] just trying to get on base. And I think that led to some good things happening for our ballclub.¡±
It sure did. The Padres tied the game on a pair of RBI infield singles from Jose Iglesias and Jason Heyward later in the frame.
An inning later, the Cubs opted to walk Machado intentionally with first base open, bringing new fan favorite Gavin Sheets to the plate.
With the crowd chanting ¡°Ho-ly Sheets,¡± Tatis promptly scampered home with the go-ahead run on Nate Pearson¡¯s wild pitch. Then, Sheets plated two more with a line-drive single. Petco Park was alive.
¡°The crowd on our side is totally huge,¡± Tatis said. ¡°It feeds us.¡±
Tatis¡¯ home run an inning later was his second of the night and moved him into a tie for most in the Majors with six. Both were laser beams -- low line drives mashed at 108 and 111 mph, respectively, that carried into the first level of the left-field seats.
¡°Vintage Tati right there,¡± Machado said.
Maybe the home runs were. But it was later pointed out to Tatis that he¡¯d actually been out-bat-flipped by Arraez. He laughed and noted that the nature of a line-drive home run doesn¡¯t usually lend itself to quality bat-flipping. Arraez, on the other hand, got to watch a towering, majestic drive that settled into the right-field porch area.
By then, it was safe to start the now-nightly Petco Park party. The Padres¡¯ bullpen hasn¡¯t relinquished a lead all season, after all.
That¡¯s usually how it goes. Electric offense. Excellent defense. Solid starting pitching. And a lockdown bullpen.
¡°Every night, they bring it,¡± Shildt said. ¡°They¡¯re hungry.¡±