CINCINNATI — The Padres offense continued to fatten up on mediocre major league pitching, stringing together hits for another big inning and holding off the Cincinnati Reds for an 8-5 victory Wednesday night at Great American Ball Park. (Box score.)
There was drama at the end, as Taylor Rogers had to come in and throw one pitch for the final out, retiring Jake Fraley on a fly ball to right field with runners on first and second.
At the start, MacKenzie Gore continued to make the case that he is in the major leagues to stay — at least a little while longer.
The rookie left-hander struck out 10 in his five innings, navigating trouble in each of the first four and departing with the Padres leading 6-1. Gore was the first Padres pitcher to reach double-digit strikeouts this season.
There is not an internal consensus yet on how the Padres will proceed with their starting rotation as Mike Clevinger’s return is pending.
A decision looms. Wednesday was the first of what are essentially two straight auditions.
Nick Martinez, who starts Thursday’s series finale here with the Padres needing a win to complete a six-game season series sweep, is up next.
“This next one for each of them is going to be very important with Clevinger coming back,” Padres manager Bob Melvin said before Wednesday’s game.
Clevinger made his third (and final) rehab start Wednesday in El Paso. The right-hander, who missed last season following Tommy John surgery and was sidelined at the start of this season with a right knee sprain, will likely make his season debut next week in Cleveland. That is, coincidentally, where he spent the first four-plus seasons of his career before the Padres acquired him in a trade in August 2020.
At the most, Gore and Martinez have two more starts before a determination must be made. And not all that long after that, barring an injury or trade, a second spot in the rotation will be turned over.
The Padres have discussed going with six pitchers for one time through the rotation, beginning next week. However, it is not anticipated they will use six starters longer than that. They are off May 12 and again May 16. They don’t want their starters going six days or more between starts, and their starters don’t want that either.
Blake Snell is coming back at some point in May. He believes he can be up to five innings in two rehab starts, the first of which is Thursday in with High-A Ft. Wayne. The Padres seem to be thinking he will need at least three minor league games.
When Snell returns, the crunch will really be on.
Unlike some years not long ago, the only consideration here is which pitcher the Padres feel maximizes their best chance of winning. Ostensibly, the one pitching best will have a spot in the rotation, though all things being equal could mean Martinez remains. The 23-year-old Gore can be optioned to the minor leagues. Martinez, who is guaranteed an average of $6.5 million over the next four years, cannot be optioned.
Martinez (0-2) will enter Thursday’s start with a 4.30 ERA and 1.78 WHIP in 14 2/3 innings. He went five innings in his first two starts and 4 2/3 innings last Thursday against the Reds.
Gore (2-0) has gone at least five innings in all three of his starts and has a 1.76 ERA and 1.17 WHIP over 15 1/3 innings.
Wednesday’s performance, in which he yielded five hits and walked two, may not have set Gore apart definitively. But even as the Reds prolonged numerous at-bats, he appeared strong to the end, throwing more strikes late and hitting 97 mph to finish off his final strikeout.
That was against No. 3 hitter Tommy Pham. Three pitches later, Gore’s 102nd of the night, Joey Votto grounded out to first base to put the rookie in line for the win.
The Reds added four runs against three relievers after he left. They scored an unearned run off Craig Stammen in the sixth, added another on Pham’s homer off Steven Wilson in the seventh and got their final two runs against Dinelson Lamet in the ninth.
After the Reds loaded the bases with one out in the first inning, Gore escaped with a strikeout and groundout.
The Padres gave him a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Reds starter Vladimir Gutierrez walked the bases loaded and Luis Campusano hit a sacrifice fly.
A night after the first seven batters got hits and the Padres scored eight runs in the fourth inning, their outburst came earlier Wednesday, as they put up five runs in the third inning.
Trent Grisham led off with a triple and scored on Jake Cronenworth’s bloop single. A bloop single by Manny Machado followed before Jurickson Profar sent his fifth home run of the season just over the wall in right field.
Before accomplishing both twice this series, the Padres had not strung together more than three hits in succession and had scored more than three runs in an inning once.
The Reds scored in the bottom of the inning when Pham singled and scored from first on Kyle Farmer’s two-out double.
The Padres scored in the fifth inning on Machado’s leadoff single, a walk by Profar and a single by Eric Hosmer that scored Machado and sent Profar to third. That inning ended prematurely when Profar took off for home on Matt Beaty’s shallow fly ball, retreated and was thrown out to complete a double play. Austin Nola followed with a fielder’s choice grounder.
Hosmer’s second homer in two nights, which also upped his MLB-leading batting average to .410, made it 7-3 in the eighth. Machado’s third hit of the night drove in CJ Abrams in the ninth.
