SAN DIEGO PADRES NOTES:
On Father’s Day, Padres win their 3rd straight series and take 2 of 3 from Tampa Bay Rays
- Starter Joe Musgrove got his 1st-career win on Father’s Day, with his dad, Mark, in attendance…Mark also grew up in San Diego, where Joe was born and raised a Padres fan…Joe went 6.0 innings with 2 runs allowed on 6 hits with 1 SO and 1 BB.
- SD batters went 3-for-12 with RISP, and they saw doubles from Trent Grisham, Jake Cronenworth, and Rougned Odor.
- In the B-8th inning with the Padres up 5-4 and 1 out and runners on 1st and 2nd, Christian Bethancourt singled to right field, and Tatis threw out Manuel Margot at home, salvaging SD’s eventual game-winning 1-run lead…it was Tatis’ NL-leading 7th outfield assist, and from Sarah Langs, his throw clocked at 99.5 mph, the 3rd-fastest outfield assist by a Padre in the Statcast Era (since ’15) behind Hunter Renfroe (100.3 mph on August 11, 2017) and Tatis’ previous 100.0 mph throw on May 10 this year…it’s also the 2nd-fastest OF assist overall in MLB in 2023 behind his own 100 mph one on May 10.
Don’t test Tati: Leads Majors in Defensive Runs Saved (14)
- Per FanGraphs, Fernando Tatis Jr. leads all of baseball in Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) with 14.
- He logged his National League-leading 7th outfield assist yesterday vs. Tampa Bay in the T-8th with his 99.5 mph throw, throwing out former Padre Manuel Margot at home…Tatis’ average arm strength (Statcast measures the average of top 10% of throws with a min. of 50 throws to qualify), is 95.6 mph, ranking 4th highest in MLB…trails COL’s Brenton Doyle (95.7 mph), MIL’s Brian Anderson (96.3), and ATL’s Ronald Acuña Jr. (96.3).
- Tatis’ 6 outs above average lead all right fielders this year, and they rank T-3nd among all National League outfielders with WSH Alex Call’s 6, behind just MIL Joey Wiemer’s 8 OAA.
Padres go homerless in last 2 games, win both of them
- In their 1st 21 games without a home run this season, the Padres went 4-17 in those contests…they’ve now won each of their last 3 games in which they haven’t homered, including their last 2 to win the series vs. the Rays.
- Since both Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. have played for the Padres (both had their 1st season with SD in 2019), they have the 2nd and 3rd most homers of any player against the Giants (Machado has 13 and Tatis has 12)…they trail just Max Muncy’s 24 for the most of any player since ’19.
Back at sea level, Padres vs. Giants re-match
- The Padres play the Giants for the 2nd time this year and the 1st since in their Mexico City Series from April 29-30 at Alfredo Harp Helú Stadium…the games were at 7,349 feet above sea level, the highest altitude ever for a MLB game…the Padres won both, going 27-for-74 (.365) at the plate with 7 doubles, 1 triple, 7 home runs, 11 walks, 20 RBI, and 22 runs scored…it is still the only series the Padres have swept so far in 2023.
- In the Padres’ last 10 G against the Giants, they’ve won 9 of them, scoring 7.1 runs per game vs. San Francisco in that time since August 9, 2022.
Wacha and his offspeed pitches
- Only 4 pitchers have thrown offspeed pitches at a higher rate than Michael
Wacha this season, and 2 of them are Giants: TOR’s Kevin Gausman (39%), SF’s
Alex Cobb (38%), PHI’s Taijuan Walker (35.4%), SF’s Logan Webb (35.3%), and
SD’s Michael Wacha (31.8)…this season, Waha is also throwing offspeed pitches
at the highest rate in his career. - Wacha’s 1.42 career ERA vs. the Giants is the lowest of any pitcher since 1913
(minimum 7 games starters), per Sportstrader…tonight will be his 1st time going
up against the Giants since he was Cardinal in 2019.
STARTER – MICHAEL WACHA #52
Wacha’s 1.42 ERA vs. SF best among all pitchers since 1913
Michael Wacha takes the mound for his 8th career start vs. SF, who he has a 2-0 record, 1.42 ERA and 5 quality starts against… his 1.42 career ERA vs. SF trails only his 0.44 ERA in 3 career starts vs. LAA and his 1.02 ERA in 3 career starts vs. CLE…among all pithcers who have made at least 7 starts vs. SF since 1913, his 1.42 ERA ranks 1st, and among all active pitchers, his 1.42 ERA is ahead of Clayton
Kershaw (2.02), Kyle Hendricks (2.03), Julio Urias (2.09) and Corbin Burnes (2.21)… Torrid stretch continues vs. CLE Wacha collected the 7th quality outing in his 8th start since May 2 last Wed vs. CLE, posting his 6th scoreless start of the season and extending his scoreless inning streak to 12.2 IP… his season-high scoreless inn streak is 15.0 IP across parts of 3 starts from May 9-21…and the 6 scoreless starts of at least 6.0 IP are most in the Majors, ahead of Kevin Gausman, Zac Gallen and Chris Bassitt, each with 5.
Since May 1
Wacha earned his first-career Pitcher of the Month award in May, and hasn’t slowed down in June…since May 1, he ranks first and is the only qualifying hurler with a sub-1.00 ERA (0.91), sub-.150 opp. AVG (.148) and sub-0.80 WHIP (0.79)…he also ranks 3rd in HR/9 IP ratio (0.36) since May 1., trailing only Marcus Stroman (0.32) and Framber Valdez (0.35)
The best winning percentage in MLB since ’22
Enters tonight’s start with a 7-2 record and the Padres are 9-4 in his 13 starts…among all pitchers since the beginning of 2022 (min. 35 starts), Wacha’s .818 winning percentage (18-4) is best in the Majors…it’s ahead of Kyle Wright (.778, 21-6), Zac Gallen (.769, 20-6), Tyler Anderson (.760, 1-6), Clayton Kershaw (.741, 20-7) and Justin Verlander (.741, 20-7).
Hard hit%
Is getting hit hard 33.5% of the time (83rd percentile), his 2nd-lowest hard hit % behind only 30.1 % in 2017…his career average hard hit % is 35.2%, and the MLB average is 36.1%.
Offspeed pitch rate highest of Wacha’s career
Among all qualifying pitchers this season, Wacha is throwing his change up 31.9% of the time, which is the 5th highest rate in the Majors among all qualifying hurlers, trailing only Kevin Gausman (39.0%), Alex Cobb (38.0%), Taijuan Walker (35.4%) and Logan Webb (35.3%)…it’s the highest offspeed pitch usage of Wacha’s career.
SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS NOTES:
DIAMONDS: The Giants welcome the Padres today for the first of a four-game series and seven-game homestand…SF has won seven-straight after sweeping its six-game road trip at St. Louis and at Los Angeles-NL…with yesterday’s win, the Giants have leapfrogged the Dodgers and are now in second place of the NL West, trailing the division-leading Diamondbacks by 3.5 games…after this four-game series vs. San Diego, the Giants will host the first place Diamondbacks.
WHAT’S MY NAME?: Rookie RHP Ryan Walker will make his first career start today, acting as the opener…the 27-year-old opened three games for Triple-A Sacramento this year prior to his first big league promotion, striking out six while allowing two hits and one unearned run in 6.2 shutout innings…prior to this year, he last started a game in 2017 while at Washington State…he is the eighth Giant to start a game on the mound this season and third opener, joining RHP John Brebbia (eight starts) and LHP Scott Alexander (one start)…the last rookie to make a start for SF was RHP Mauricio Llovera on May 5, 2022 vs. St. Louis.
RUN THIS TOWN: Yesterday’s win secured the Giants their first sweep at Dodger Stadium in a series of three-or-more games since August 20-22, 2012…the sweep was SF’s sixth in a three-or-more games here at Dodger Stadium (since 1958)…the Giants scored 29 runs over the three-game series, their most ever in a three-game series at Dodger Stadium.
DON’T STOP THE MUSIC: The Giants have swept three straight road series (min. two games for each series) for the first time since they swept four in a row from April 21, 1952 to May 5, 1952 (PHI, two games; CIN, two games; PIT, three games; Cubs, two games) (SportRadar)…this marks just the fifth road trip of six plus games in Giants franchise history in which they went undefeated.
Giants, Undefeated on 6+ Game Road Trip – All-Time (Stats, LLC)
Season Team W-L Start Date End Date
1913 New York Giants 8-0 June 30, 1913 July 7, 1913
2003 San Francisco Giants 6-0 March 31, 2003 April 6, 2003
2016 San Francisco Giants 7-0 May 12, 2016 May 19, 2016
2021 San Francisco Giants 6-0 September 6, 2021 September 12, 2021
2023 San Francisco Giants 6-0 June 12, 2023 June 18, 2023
PON DE REPLAY: SF has won seven in a row, 14 of its last 16 road games and 22 of its last 31 games (.710) dating to May 15…the .710 winning percentage is the best in MLB over that stretch.
NEEDED ME: Rookie OF Luis Matos became the ninth player since 1901 to score seven or more runs in his first four MLB games (Stats, LLC)…LAD’s James Outman (2022-23) and BRO’s James Gilliam (1953) hold the record for most runs through five games, with nine each
THIS IS WHAT YOU CAME FOR: The Giants’ +43 run differential (65-22) during their winning streak is tied for the franchise’s best in a seven-game span since 1958, and their 65 runs are their third most ever in a seven-game span, and the most by any team this season (Stats, LLC).
Giants, Most Runs in Seven-Game Span, since 1958 (Stats, LLC)
Run Differential Date
+43 (65-22) 6/11-6/18/23
+43 (53-10) 5/15-5/22/06
+42 (61-19) 9/7-9/14/21
Run Differential Date
+41 (58-17) 9/19- 9/25/98
+39 (54-15) 9/1- 9/7/00
+39 (51-12) 6/10-6/16/90
CHEERS (DRINK TO THAT): A major reason why the Giants have limited opposing offense as a whole is their ability to keep the ball on the ground, and limit damage when a ball gets elevated…SF pitchers lead MLB with a 49.5% ground ball rate, which is more than 3% higher than the next closest team (Tampa Bay, 46.1%)…the Giants had the highest HR/ FB in MLB on May 21 (15.6%), but have posted a 8.9% HR/FB mark since May 22, which is second-lowest in MLB (behind STL’s 8.1%)…SD does not hit the ball on the ground often, with its 40.7% offensive ground ball rate ranking tied for 23rd… unsurprisingly, the Padres’s 40.6% fly ball rate is second in MLB, behind the Dodgers’ league-leading 41.5% mark.
TOO GOOD: The SF bullpen has been one of the best in MLB over the last month…since May 22, Giants relievers are 9-2 with an MLB-best 1.67 ERA (22er, 118.1ip), 135 strikeouts 12 saves and 0.87 WHIP, and are tied for fewest home runs allowed (five)…SF has 11 relief pitchers with ERAs under 3.40 (min. 1.0 inning) over that span, 12 if you include IF Brandon Crawford.
