With Yu Darvish sitting in the dugout watching, Joe Musgrove continued to make the Padres feel good about pretty much everything that is going on as they hurtle toward the season’s final month.
In his third start back from a two-month stay on the injured list, Musgrove allowed one hit and struck out nine over seven scoreless innings, as the Padres beat the Mets 7-0 on Friday night at Petco Park.
“That was a masterpiece right there,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “Wow. That was imparting your will.”
The Diamondbacks won Friday, as well, so the Padres remained a game back of their division rival, in the second of the National League’s three wild-card spots with 32 games remaining.
And if all goes as it appears to be trending, the Padres could have the two pitchers they expected to have atop their rotation for the postseason — after both missed substantial portions of the season.
Darvish was reinstated from the restricted list Friday after dealing with a family matter the previous seven weeks. He remains on the injured list, where he was when he was deactivated on July 6, but said his elbow is fine and his return is a matter of building up strength and endurance.
“I think that’s kind of what we envisioned at the beginning of the year,” catcher Kyle Higashioka said of Darvish and Musgrove returning. “Unfortunately, those guys have been out a little bit. But the team has been rolling, and to just have those guys added back is incredible. I think we’re all feeling pretty good about it.”
Musgrove, who was sidelined by elbow issues, seems to definitely be back.
He was that guy on Friday. The guy who in 2021 threw the franchise’s first no-hitter. The guy who finished his 2023 season on a run of 12 quality starts with a sub-2.00 ERA. The guy who has not allowed a run and has surrendered just five hits over 20 innings in his past three starts against the Mets, including his iconic performance in the deciding game of the 2022 National League wild-card series.
Friday’s game began with Musgrove quickly working through Mets batters in the top of innings and the Padres offense prolonging its half of innings.
The Padres scored their first six runs in the first three innings, and Musgrove did not allow a hit until Starling Marte’s double with one out in the fifth and then finished off that inning in four pitches.
He had gone 4⅓ innings in each of his first two starts, in strict pitch limits each time. His ceiling was around 85 pitches Friday, and it was not an issue.
Musgrove’s 64th pitch finished the sixth inning. Or rather, he finished the inning by racing off the mound and sliding to field a dribbler by Francisco Lindor about 20 feet from first base and flipping the ball with his glove to Jake Cronenworth for the out.
He then struck out the side in the seventh, his night done after 75 pitches.
The Padres torched Mets starter Paul Blackburn (5-4, 4.66) and then knocked him from the game in the third inning.
They led for the first time in three games when Luis Arraez led off the bottom of the first with a home run.
The lead was 3-0 after David Peralta led off the second inning with a single and Kyle Higashioka homered over the short wall in the left field corner. The next two batters, Mason McCoy and Arraez, singled before Jurickson Profar lined into a double play that erased Arraez at first. But Jake Cronenworth salvaged another run with a single that drove in McCoy.
Blackburn left the game in the third after fending off a 100 mph line drive by Peralta with his throwing hand. The ball caromed off Blackburn and bounced to second baseman Jose Iglesias, who threw out Peralta. But Jackson Merrill, who had led off the inning with an infield single, moved to second.
Higashioka greeted new pitcher Ryne Stanek with a double down the left field line that scored Merrill to make it 5-0. Higashioka scored what on Arraez’s two-out single.
The Padres added a run in the eighth on Profar’s two-out double and a single by Machado.
Jason Adam worked a 1-2-3 eighth, and Sean Reynolds allowed a two-out double to Francisco Lindor in the ninth before finishing off the collective two-hitter.
The Mets used three pitchers to cover the final 5⅔ innings.
“Obviously, every win’s important at this point of the season,” Musgrove said. “But yeah, they swept us at their place, come in and beat up on us last night. I think for the confidence of us and kind of to slow them down a little bit, it’s big. … Two more games in a four-game set it’s big to be able to get in that bullpen early.”
