The 29-year-old doubled and homered, becoming the first Padres catcher this season to log multiple extra-base hits in a game. Sullivan’s fifth big-league start, then, was a welcome deviation. Austin Nola (48 wRC+) has been the primary catcher for a club that has gotten a 61 wRC+ from the position. Tatis (91 wRC+) is still trying to find his rhythm after an 18-month hiatus. Manny Machado, who received an extra day off ahead of Friday’s series opener against the Dodgers, has an 82 wRC+. Soto had been far from the biggest underachiever his wRC+ is now 132, or 32 percent better than league average. San Diego’s offense, before Wednesday’s rout had produced a wRC+ of 100 - or exactly league average. The metric known as Weighted Runs Created Plus (wRC+) seeks to quantify run creation while accounting for factors such as ballpark and era. They also need others to start pulling their weight. But he’s one that’s definitely picking us up big time right now.” You know, it’s pretty hard to have nine guys hot at the same time. “He’s looking like the Juan that we all kind of know. “He’s looking great,” said Bogaerts, who cited the randomness of baseball, not Soto’s gaffe, when asked about the unceremonious end to his on-base streak. His still-uncharacteristic slash line has improved from. During his current six-game hitting streak, Soto is 9-for-20 with five extra-base hits, eight RBIs and nine walks. He finished with a characteristic line: 1-for-2 with three RBIs and three walks. Two innings after he misread a line drive off the bat of Xander Bogaerts (and unwittingly helped end Bogaerts’ season-opening on-base streak), Soto cleared the bases with his fourth double in three games. Juan Soto’s memorable TOOTBLAN in the bottom of the fifth inning Wednesday might make it easy to forget how not nincompoop-y he’s been in the batter’s box lately. Wednesday afternoon, catcher Brett Sullivan supplied at least a glimmer of hope for the club’s least productive position, becoming the first Padres rookie to drive in four runs in a game since Jake Cronenworth in 2020.īecause a team cannot win with only a few players, let’s take a look at how both halves of the roster - the offense and the pitching staff - have performed through essentially a fifth of the season. They are 10-0 when Josh Hader, the reigning National League Reliever of the Month, enters a save situation.

They are 7-3 since Joe Musgrove, arguably their most reliable starting pitcher, made his season debut. The Padres are 8-4 since Fernando Tatis Jr., perhaps their most dynamic position player, returned from suspension. It’s been an underwhelming start for a team fielding the sport’s third-highest payroll and selling out more than half its games at Petco Park.

Fool of randomness