Bob’s Briefing: Discussing the lineup, Manny and Hosmer and Sean Manaea

Manny Machado

After two straight one-run games followed by a day off, the Padres returned to Petco Park Friday night with a new lineup — Jurickson Profar leading off and Jake Cronenworth hitting sixth.

“We just wanted to shake it up a little bit,” manager Bob Melvin said in his daily pre-game media session. “More than anything, it’s just a little different look today.

“Sometimes when you are a little stagnant, you mix it up a little bit. I think Jake’s actually hitting higher against left-handed pitching right now. Leading off can be a little bit of a grind. So, we’re just giving him a little bit of a different look. There’s a decent chance he’s back in the lead-off spot tomorrow.

“All the time I’ve been around Profar, he’ll go through some periods where you look up and maybe he hasn’t gotten a ton of hits, but he seems to find a way to get on base and it’s both right and left-handed. You are always going to get your matchup there. It kind of lets us space out our left-handed bats in this lineup and lets us see what it looks like when a right-handed pitcher enters the game.

“The overall numbers are pretty close versus left and right. I think it’s a little too early in the season to get wrapped up in that. We have guys like in Jake’s case who can hit lefties. (Eric) Hosmer has hit lefties really well this year from the left side. Our lefties have had some good at-bats off left-handed pitchers.

“The top of the lineup — especially two, three and four — wherever Hos and Manny (Machado) are, have been pretty consistent for us. Those are the guys who have done the most damage for us this year, so you try to get them up there as much as you can. Hos is hitting like .380 against left-handed pitching with a .900 OPS. We came into the season looking to give him some days off against lefties and he’s performed to where he’s basically in there every day now. We do need to get him some days off … but Manny and Hosmer have been very impactful for our team.

“In my opinion, I don’t know if there is a better player in the National League than him right now. He wants to be better every year. He’s touching on all the facets right now and he’s doing it very well. Machado always looks to improve Maybe one of those facets is baserunning. It’s been a priority for us, whether it’s been secondary leads, going first to third, kind of being more aggressive on the bases. When you have a guy like Manny leading the way, it’s pretty easy to get everyone else to buy into it.”

Melvin shifted to discuss the Padres’ low slugging percentage numbers: “We have a hitters’ meeting every day and we touch on it. It’s still early in the season and we have a lot of guys who have hit home runs here before. Our record is pretty good to this point. At the end of the day, that’s the most important thing. You’re always going to find areas where your strengths aren’t there at a particular time. I do have faith that we’ve had guys who hit home runs in the past and that will change.”

Melvin then discussed Friday night’s starter, Sean Manaea: “He’s really aggressive in what he does. He doesn’t run and hide, he doesn’t nit-pick and walk guys and put guys on base. For the most part, he’s going right after people. He gives up a solo homer every now and then, so be it. I think he’s really good about making guys work to get on base.

“I think it’s the way he pitches and always has. He will give up a homer every now and then. He throws a lot of fastballs. He’s very aggressive. But that also limits the guys who are on base via the walk. He tries to make sure guys earn their way on base. Those pitchers who use their fastballs a lot are going to give up a homer now and then.”

Melvin on closer Taylor Rogers getting three straight days off: “That is huge. You look at his workload, he was day-on, day-off for quite some time and two of them were one plus. What he has meant to this team can’t be measured. You really don’t want to put him in a position where he’s not feeling great because sometimes that can linger. So, if you’re looking for a bright side, it was for him getting three days off.”