Padres notes: Jackson Merrill’s frustration, Yuki Matsui’s conundrum, Nestor Cortes’ hesitation

LOS ANGELES — Jackson Merrill walked gingerly through the clubhouse Sunday afternoon, clearly favoring the left ankle that he rolled on Friday night. He wrapped it and played on it Saturday and got through two at-bats Sunday — both strikeouts — before the coaching staff pulled the plug on their 22-year-old center fielder.

He was not happy as he spoke solemnly after a 5-4 loss at Dodger Stadium.

But his beef is with his buzzard’s luck in this injury-riddled season.

“It’s frustrating,” said Merrill, who missed a month with a hamstring injury early in the season and another week with a concussion in June. “You play all year last year, missed only a couple games last year and get to this year. It’s just fluke things, too. It’s not stuff I can control. I work in the weight room. I do all my stretching and it’s just fluke stuff that happens. And you can get a single out of the box and the ground’s hard, you stick to it. I can’t really say that’s my fault. I wish I could, but just fluke stuff.

“It’s way more frustrating than it actually being my fault.”

Merrill sustained the injury as he tried to burst out of the box on the ball he drove into the right-center alley in the ninth inning on Friday. It looked like a sure-fire double, but the ankle rolled. By the time Merrill recovered, he had to settle for a single.

Merrill went 0-for-4 on Saturday, but made contact in all four at-bats.

On Sunday, Merrill flailed at two sliders in the dirt from Tyler Glasnow before looking at a third down the middle for strike three to strand a runner in the first inning. He struck out on four pitches for the first out of the fourth inning and was then pulled from the game.

Afterward, Merrrill acknowledged the condition of his ankle had worsened since Friday.

“For me, I want to play,” Merrill said. “I don’t really give a (expletive) if I’m hurting or not. It’s not really anything to do with it hurting. It’s going to hurt. I rolled the hell out of it. It sucks. But it just got more painful in the game. My swings really weren’t the same. … The guy I saw today was tough. They made the call. I trust them. But just (expletive) frustrated.”

Officially, Merrill is day-to-day. He had not yet had any imaging and was not immediately aware of any tests on his schedule.

That certainly could change upon returning to San Diego.

“I mean, it’s sore,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “But we don’t think it’s something that, at the moment, is going to linger beyond a day-to-day type thing.

Matsui’s conundrum

There are a handful of dedicated reporters for Japanese outlets that follow the Padres specifically for Yu Darvish and Yuki Matsui.

The numbers swell and the scrutiny is that much more focused in Los Angeles, home to Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and the injured Roki Sasaki.

Matsui’s focus is also heightened any time he faces the Dodgers’ reigning MVP.

“(Ohtani) hit me well last season,” Matsui said through interpreter Ike Ogata. “This season I’m trying to execute my off-speed pitches well, my command, all that stuff so I have advantage so I can get him out. When he hits off me, obviously there’s huge Japanese media coverage, so I’m trying not to allow that to happen.”

More than a dozen Japanese reporters converged around Matsui’s locker Saturday night after he got Ohtani to pop out.

Matsui laughed when it was pointed out that he’s really in a lose-lose situation. He’s going to have questions regardless of the outcome against Ohtani.

“Every time we play against the Dodgers, it’s like this,” Matsui said. “I’ve gotten used to it.”

He’s also had the upper hand vs. Ohtani this season. The Dodgers’ superstar went 3-for-5 with three doubles last year, but is 0-for-4 with two strikeouts this season, a bright spot in a disappointing second season in San Diego for the 29-year-old left-hander.

Matsui’s 4.63 ERA is nearly a run above last year’s rookie campaign (3.73) and his high- and medium-leverage usage had all but dried up even before Mason Miller was added to the Shildt-branded “Four Horsemen.”

Two years ago, Matsui saved 39 games in his final year in Japan.

“I had a decent start the first two months of the season,” said Matsui, who had a 2.42 ERA through May 27. “Then there were some situations where I didn’t necessarily get all the results that I wanted in the middle of the season. So that’s where I am and I’m trying obviously get up the ladder and throw in high-leverage situations more.”

Asked what he’s working on to get there, Matsui decided to answer in perfect English: “Strike presentation.”

He’s not wrong. Matsui’s strike percentage is down a tick from 63% to 62.3%, but his strikeout rate has slipped from 26.9% to 23.8% while his opponent OPS is up from .665 as a rookie to .772.

Cortes’ hesitation

Nestor Cortes’ highlights can be deceiving.

He’s known for inserting wrinkles into his delivery, but it’s actually usually just one per game, if at all.

Cortes did not do a single thing out of the ordinary in his Padres debut and offered the Giants just one hesitation kick last week, if that’s what it’s called.

“I don’t have a name for it,” he said. “ … I do something different every time. Yeah, it’s hesitation. I pause and go. I would say it’s once a game and it’s not every game. Just depends on how I feel that day, the groove I’m in, if we’re up or down … or if a hitter is on me.”

Cortes will make this third start for the Padres on Monday, again against the Giants. He has yet to complete five innings, but he’s allowed just three runs on nine hits and four walks through 9⅓ innings (2.89 ERA).

Notable

• RHP Luis Patiño, who was on Double-A San Antonio’s injured list, has been released. The 25-year-old was on a minor league deal and returning from last year’s Tommy John surgery when he sustained a setback in late June. He had a 2.63 ERA in 27⅓ innings between low Single-A Lake Elsinore and San Antonio.