The Padres’ everyday shortstop still has not been cleared to swing a bat. Their third baseman spent Monday on the training table hoping his sprained left ankle would not send him to the injured list. The guys left in the lineup spent a good chunk of the afternoon explaining how they could continue to survive without their most feared hitters.
“It’s tough to be those two guys,” Jake Cronenworth said, “but the guys who’ve stepped up in those roles have done a great job for us.”
There were a few of those guys Monday.
Cronenworth and Trent Grisham homered and Ha-Seong Kim drove in two runs as the Padres’ temporary everyday third baseman, propping up Yu Darvish as he played stopper with yet another quality start in a 4-1 win over the Diamondbacks in front of a crowd of 35,430 at Petco Park. (Box score.)
The victory came on the heels of a three-game sweep at Coors Field in which the most significant loss of all appeared to be Manny Machado having to be helped off the field Sunday with a left ankle sprain.
Darvish completed seven innings a sixth time this year despite laboring through a 33-pitch first inning in which he was a few feet from having Christian Walker’s high drive to left field open a 3-0 lead for Arizona.
Instead the ball settled into Jurickson Profar’s glove at the top of the wall, Walker settled for a sacrifice fly and Darvish struck out Buddy Kennedy to leave the bases loaded.
The Padres right-hander allowed just three hits after that first inning and struck out five in spinning a third straight quality start (0.82 ERA), all victories for a Padres team that’s in a virtual tie with the Dodgers atop the NL West.
Luis Garcίa survived a leadoff single in a scoreless eighth and Taylor Rogers struck out two in a perfect ninth to record his MLB-leading 21st save.
A handful of timely hits helped Monday’s Machado-less cause.
Cronenworth answered Walker’s first-inning sacrifice fly with a home run to right, his seventh of the year. Kim singled out of the nine-hole with two outs and runners on second and third in the second inning and Grisham, in the leadoff spot, homered to open a 4-1 lead in the fifth.
The Padres’ only other hit — all off Zach Davies (6 IP, 4 ER) — was Nomar Mazara’s one-out double in the second, helping set up Kim’s two-run single to center to give the Padres a 3-1 lead.
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