SAN DIEGO — Look good, play good?
Manny Machado certainly thought so, going so far as to lobby to don the San Diego Padres’ new mint-, pink- and yellow-accented City Connect threads at Dodger Stadium later this month.
“Hopefully we can wear these jerseys,” Machado said after he was named the NL’s starting third baseman Friday afternoon. “These are pretty nice, huh?”
He certainly made them look good hours later as he trotted around the bases with a three-run homer to get the Padres started on a 6-3 win over the San Francisco Giants in front of a sellout crowd of 42,861 at Petco Park.
Nomar Mazara came off the bench to drive in more runs after Machado’s blast, Blake Snell struck out 11 over six strong innings and Nick Martinez spared the bullpen with his third three-inning save.
The victory was the second in a row over the Giants this week — and fifth in a row this season — after the Padres had lost five of six entering the four-game series.
Machado’s first-inning homer was his second in as many days as he’d been 3-for-20 since returning from his left ankle injury before his fourth-inning blast on Thursday.
A day later, Ha-Seong Kim singled in his first career at-bat as a leadoff hitter, Jake Cronenworth followed with a double and Machado torpedoed the Giants’ bullpen game with a three-run shot off opener Sam Long with a 107-mph, 433-foot drive again into the second deck in left field.
It was Machado’s 14th homer of the season despite missing nine days to a left ankle injury that looked like it might shelve him for several weeks.
Yet, asked if he’d consider adding the home run derby to his All-Star week plans if invited, the 30-year-old said “absolutely not” he said with a laugh.
Been there, done that, losing 13-12 to Joc Pederson in the opening round in 2015, and ankle maintenance is only part of the equation.
“A little bit more than that, but that’s one of the main reasons,” Machado said. “That’s always fun. I mean I definitely want to do it. I will do it again. Probably not this year, though.”
Snell cruised the first time through the lineup, striking out five of the nine hitters he faced. But he gave up a single to open the fourth inning, walked two before leaving the bases loaded and gave up David Villar’s first career homer to open the fifth.
Snell survived Kim’s throwing error in the sixth and finished with six one-run innings of three-hit ball and back-to-back double-digit punchout games.
He threw 71 of his season-high 108 pitches for strikes before handing a 4-1 lead, extended via Mazara’s pinch-hit RBI single in the sixth, to Martinez, who threw two shutout innings and stayed in the game for a third frame after Mazara’s and Cronenworth’s eighth-inning RBI singles.
Brandon Crawford walked and Brandon Belt hit a pinch-hit homer before Martinez got LaMonte Wade Jr. to pop out to center to end the game.
