SAN DIEGO – Before Manny Machado chose San Diego, before Fernando Tatis Jr. was summoned, before general manager AJ Preller’s spending spree became a full aces spin, before the Fathers were good and fun and wore brown – Eric Hosmer signed on the dotted line.
In retrospect, that moment serves as a kind of turning point for this once abandoned franchise. But on that afternoon in late February 2018, Hosmer could have really imagined this?
“Definitely not to this extreme,” said Hosmer last week. “If you told me that Manny would be here a year after me, then followed by [Blake] Snell and [Yu] Darvish – and I had heard a lot about Fernando, obviously, but I didn’t realize how good he really was until I got here and I could see him on a day-to-day basis.
“I definitely had an idea that this team was good, had a lot of talent. But that amount of talent in a team is very special. You certainly didn’t expect this. “
Hosmer certainly seems determined to make the most of it. Two games in the 2021 season, the Fathers are 2-0, and he is the one doing the heavy lifting. For the second game in a row, Hosmer homered and had three hits as the Padres held the D-backs, 4-2, in Petco Park on Friday night.
Hosmer launched a two-race home run to the right field on the third, then doubled in an insurance run with a single two-knock RBI in the seventh. He has made four trips to the plate this season with runners in the goalkeeper position and has hit all four strokes.
“It starts with: Eric wants to be up there right now,” said Padres manager Jayce Tingler. “He does a good job of being aggressive in the fields he can reach.”
The total of 13 Hosmer bases in the first two games of the season are the largest in the franchise’s history. He is also the first Padres player to start a season with three hits in each of the team’s first two games.
So, while Machado and Tatis started the season on the cold side – they agreed to make 1 to 15, and Tatis made three mistakes – the Fathers compensated with more than enough production from Hosmer, his original nine-digit signature.
After a nervous victory on Opening Day – in which Tingler admitted to staying with Darvish for a long time, then used all four of his main weapons – San Diego played Friday’s game as if he knew 160 were left for the rest . The National West League will not be won on the opening weekend. Then, Blake Snell got a starting hook after 4 2/3 innings on his debut at the Padres, and Tingler rearranged his bullpen to give some of his key arms an early rest.
Snell, of course, also received an early hook on his last start – launching Game 6 of the World Series for the Rays against the Dodgers. He was cruising on Friday night, after hitting an eight out of four 2/3 goalless entries. But the circumstances – as Snell was quick to point out – were different. The Fathers placed him in a first-pitch throw limit of 85, and he had already exceeded that count by one.
“I’m not here to launch nine innings in the first game I played,” said Snell. “It doesn’t matter to me. Nobody remembers the first months of a season. They remember how you finish and what you do in the postseason. … Let’s build this in the right way and start getting some inputs and some depth. So we can have fun. “
After Snell’s removal, the D-backs had two runs back in the seventh, when Ketel Marte fired to the right side Craig Stammen. But Hosmer responded with his two point RBI hit at the bottom of the board.
“He loves these opportunities and likes them,” said Tingler. “He has been as successful as anyone in these situations.”
After his big presentation on Opening Day, Hosmer raised the bar for the Fathers’ attack, saying he felt he should be the best in the MLB in 2021. When he arrived in San Diego, he was without a doubt the worst. What a difference a few years ago.
But Hosmer was never one of achievements “on paper”. The Fathers have built an excellent list, for sure. In Hosmer’s eyes, it means nothing.
“We have a special group here,” said Hosmer. “We have a lot of talent. Now, it’s time to put that talent to work. “
Through two games, Hosmer is doing the same.