Padres notes: Jackson Merrill breaks out, a Coors (mindset) for Dylan Cease

DENVER — To say Jackson Merrill was unsettled as he walked up the first base line in the second inning Saturday would be an understatement. He’s fine with a hit-by-pitch giving him a free bag, but a 94 mph sinker off the same left ankle that forced him to the injured list in late August?

“Dude, what the (expletive), man?” Merrill said with a laugh. “It’s so annoying. … It could have hit me anywhere else, but it went to the same exact spot that I have been dealing with. So that was awesome.”

But he got over it.

And on Sunday, Merrill got back to himself.

The 22-year-old hit his first homer since returning from the injured list and finished a triple shy of the cycle in the Padres’ 8-1 win at Coors Field. Better yet, both extra-base hits — his second-inning homer and seventh-inning double — were left of center field, a good sign moving forward after he’d been 0-for-10 through his first three games back in the lineup, beginning on Tuesday against the Orioles.

“Good to see him do that,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “The ball was coming off his bat well.”

Merrill was pulled late from Saturday’s game for precautionary reasons, but he did collect his first hit since returning from the injured list — a single off first baseman Warming Bernabel’s glove — before his exit.

“I’ve actually felt good — my consistent one lineout per game; it’s been awesome,” Merrill said late Saturday night, still dripping in good-natured sarcasm. “But I’ve felt good. Just getting back to it is the most important thing. Got a good stretch of baseball coming. Just get hot.”

Merrill had another idea about how to get his season back on track after hitting his first home run since Aug. 12 on Sunday.

“If it goes over the fence, they can’t catch it,” Merrill said. “Let’s just do that. No, I felt good. Just hitting balls hard all day. Had good swings, easy swings.”

A Coors mindset

Five innings of one-run ball on Sunday lowered Dylan Cease’s career ERA at Coors Field to 3.62 through four starts, all since a clunker in 2023 (4 ⅔ IP, 4 ER) with the White Sox.

But Cease has won all three starts at Coors as a Padre, most notably the seven innings of one-run ball last April, when he struck out eight, didn’t walk a batter and allowed just one hit.

No one had ever thrown that many innings with one or no hits and no walks at the Rockies’ infamous hitters haven.

Even the only no-hitter thrown at Coors Field saw Dodgers right-hander Hideo Nomo walk four batters in September 1996.

“You just have to really mix,” Cease said after throwing 34 four-seamers, 33 sliders, 17 sweepers, 13 sinkers and five knuckle curves in his 102-pitch effort on Sunday. “Your fastball, everything plays down a little bit, so you have to make sure you mix and make sure to get your fastball to locations and use that smartly. For the most part, it really is just mixing and doing what you can, because it definitely is more challenging.”

Hunting assists

Fernando Tatis Jr.’s assists from dropped from 12 in 2023 when he debuted as a full-time right fielder to six last year to just four so far this season.

Such is life as a Platinum Gold Glover: They just don’t run on him like they used to.

So the 26-year-old has to create opportunities.

Like in the fourth inning Saturday.

He ran in to catch Kyle Karros’ shallow fly ball and knew Jordan Beck wasn’t about test him at third base. But Tatis made sure Beck’s first steps to the plate would be halted before he unleashed a throw to Manny Machado instead of home.

“I knew he was going to give me a hard couple steps,” Tatis said. “I just wanted to see if his first move was back to third and trying to get a good throw. But then it just kept sailing up.”

Indeed. The throw sailed over a leaping Machado, but the carom bounced right back to him and Beck — who thought he had to slide into third — had no chance in his dash to the plate in avoiding the 9-5-2 double play to end the inning.

“Just like we drew it up,” Tatis said with a laugh.

Notable

• Jake Cronenworth started at shortstop for the first time since the last game of the season in 2022 and made a diving play to his left for the first out in the second inning that brought the dugout to its feet and earned applause from Machado at third. “That was a sick one,” Machado said. Shildt pointed toward Cease’s flyball tendencies, facing a right-hander and the offensive environment at Coors Field as a reason to use Cronenworth at shortstop so Luis Arraez (second base), Ryan O’Hearn (first base) and Gavin Sheets (DH) could all be in Sunday’s lineup. RHP Yu Darvish’s groundball tendencies and facing a left-hander on Monday likely means Cronenworth is back at second to start the homestand.
• RHP Michael King (knee) was expected to throw a bullpen on Sunday, which could put him on track to return from the injured list on Tuesday. The team announced Darvish and RHP Nick Pivetta would start Monday and Wednesday, respectively, leaving Tuesday as a TBD.
• LHP Kruz Schoolcraft, this year’s first-round pick, made his professional debut on Saturday at low Single-A Lake Elsinore, striking out four while allowing two runs on one hit and three walks in 1⅔ innings. His fastball topped out at 98 mph. The 18-year-old will now head to the fall instructional league, where the Padres’ typically start their high-school-aged draftees. Other notable high-school draftees who got a taste of full-season ball with the Storm include C Ty Harvey (fifth round) and C Truitt Madonna (11th). Fall instructional league practices in Peoria, Ariz., begin Sept. 10, with games beginning Sept. 12.