SAN DIEGO — The Padres’ offense has been trending upward of late, and on Friday, they welcomed one in all their largest bats again into the fold.
Star third baseman Manny Machado was activated from the 10-day injured listing forward of Friday’s sequence opener towards the Cubs at Petco Park. The transfer comes 17 days after Machado sustained a fractured metacarpal in his left hand when he was hit by a pitch.
“It’s getting to this point that it’s not even hurting anymore,” stated Machado, who performed third base and batted cleanup on Friday night time. “So it’s about that time to get back in there and play some games.”
In corresponding strikes, the Padres additionally promoted first baseman Alfonso Rivas to function a lefty weapon off their bench. To clear house, outfielder José Azocar was optioned to Triple-A El Paso, and designated hitter Nelson Cruz landed on the IL with a proper hamstring pressure. Catcher Luis Campusano (left thumb surgical procedure) was transferred to the 60-day IL to permit for Rivas to be chosen.
Machado’s return may come on the good time for an offense that seems to be rounding into type. San Diego struggled to attain runs for a lot of May however averaged 5.8 per sport throughout its latest nine-game journey — together with a 10-spot in Miami on Thursday.
“Couldn’t be a better time to come back and step into this lineup,” Machado stated.
The Padres — in what qualifies as a shock — stuffed in for Machado fairly capably with a Rougned Odor/Brandon Dixon platoon. Odor, specifically, caught fireplace, posting a .953 OPS starting the day after Machado’s damage. He seems to have earned himself elevated taking part in time with that manufacturing — and he was within the lineup at second base over Ha-Seong Kim on Friday night time.
As for Machado, his season had gotten off to a sluggish begin. When he landed on the IL, he had posted only a .231/.282/.372 slash line throughout 40 video games. He says he used the time without work partly to reset a couple of issues along with his swing.
“My swing feels great,” Machado stated. “Feels like it was Spring Training again. So I think that was the biggest point, just getting my swing back to as close to perfect as I can get it to.”
That doesn’t imply Machado loved being inactive. This was, in fact, his first stint on the IL since 2014, and he takes immense satisfaction in his capability to stay on the sphere.
Machado traveled with the group on its nine-game swing by Washington, New York and Miami, and he really started ramping up his workload in Miami, going by in depth batting follow with out feeling many results of the hand fracture. That’s when he knew he was prepared.
“Vacation was awesome,” Machado stated, with a wry smile, making the sarcasm abundantly clear. “Going out there and watching the game of baseball. Being home [in Miami] was even better. So it was a great vacation for a couple weeks.”
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