SAN DIEGO — Sean Manaea didn’t have trouble pitching on four days’ rest, even though his teammates made him pitch a little too much.
Manaea kept pitching, and eventually the San Diego Padres made up for their misplays with success in the batter’s box to give him the lead.
That advantage, which came from Luke Voit’s three-run homer in the sixth inning, stood as Manaea and four relievers closed out a 4-3 win over Arizona on Saturday night at Petco Park.
Manaea allowed four extra-base hits in the first four innings, and three of them were the result of ongoing leaky defense by the Padres.
Two doubles should have been outs, a triple should have been a single and another double was initially called foul but overturned when a replay review showed it hit the left field line.
For all that, though, the Diamondbacks had one run.
But after Arizona’s No. 9 hitter, Geraldo Perdomo, led off the fifth inning with a walk, Manaea yielded a fifth extra-base hit. On this one, there was no doubt almost as soon as it left Carson Kelly’s bat at 107.9 mph. Kelly’s two-run homer to left field caromed off the facing between the second deck of seats and the Western Metal Supply Co. building, a projected 408 feet from home plate.
That one wasn’t anyone else’s fault — unlike the double that bounced off the glove first baseman Jake Cronenworth as he dove for the ball directly in front of second baseman Matthew Batten, or the double that Jurickson Profar apparently lost in the lights or the triple that would have been a single had Trent Grisham not run up in an apparent attempt to field a short-hop and had the ball bounce past him and roll to the wall.
Through four innings, the Padres had done almost nothing against Diamondbacks left-hander Tyler Gilbert, whose no-hitter against them Aug. 14 was among the lower moments in a period full of them at the end of last season.
Profar’s single leading off the bottom of the first assured Gilbert would not match his feat, but the next 10 Padres batters were retired before Manny Machado’s two-out single in the fourth.
The Padres got their first run in the fifth inning, when Grisham singled and scored from first on Batten’s double.
They took the lead in the sixth on Voit’s three-run homer, which followed a double by Cronenworth and walk by Machado.
Reliever Nabil Crismatt, with help from Luis Garcia getting the final out, survived a poor route by Grisham trying to catch a fly ball that became a double in the seventh inning. The night continued a marked uptick in the frequency of poor plays by Grisham, who won a Gold Glove in 2020.
Tim Hill allowed two hits but escaped the eighth thanks to a double-play turn by Ha-Seong Kim, and Taylor Rogers pitched a perfect ninth for his 26th save.
Manaea started on fewer than five days’ rest for the first time since April 18, his third start of the season.
Four days between starts is the standard in the major leagues. But it is not for the Padres in 2022, as they have utilized a six-man rotation since the latter part of April. Manaea said earlier this week that he hadn’t altered his routine much this week and wouldn’t know how he would feel on what has become short rest until he started pitching.
The seven hits he allowed in six innings were as many as the Diamondbacks had totaled in his first three starts against them this season. He has allowed Arizona eight runs in 26 innings.
Mike Clevinger’s start Sunday will be his second this season on four days’ rest, though the previous time came after he threw 39 pitches in a relief appearance.
The two pitchers moving up a day was a result of the Padres’ decision to send rookie MacKenzie Gore to the bullpen for a rest centered around the All-Star break.
The Padres plan to return to a six-man rotation — and thus, the extra rest for their starters — following the break, which begins after Sunday’s game.
The pitchers having more recovery time has allowed manager Bob Melvin the freedom to generally let his starters go longer in games. Padres starters are tied for second in the majors at 5.6 innings per start and lead MLB with an average of 93 pitches per start.
At some point, they plan to pare the rotation to the five pitchers who are performing the best. When that happens, a starter would move to the bullpen.
“It fortifies our bullpen,” Melvin said. “… I’m getting ahead of myself because we’re not there yet, but you’re always looking down the road at the potential or what it looks like you know whether it’s in August and September.”
