{"id":624626,"date":"2023-04-02T00:04:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-02T05:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/02\/bogaerts-sparks-sd-with-first-homer-for-new-team\/"},"modified":"2023-04-02T00:04:00","modified_gmt":"2023-04-02T05:04:00","slug":"bogaerts-sparks-sd-with-first-homer-for-new-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/02\/bogaerts-sparks-sd-with-first-homer-for-new-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Bogaerts sparks SD with first homer for new team"},"content":{"rendered":"
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5:04 AM UTC<\/p>\n<\/header>\n

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SAN DIEGO — Xander Bogaerts<\/a> is making himself right at home in San Diego. Eleven more years of this? Yeah, the Padres will take it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Bogaerts smacked his first home run with his new team on Saturday night, sparking the Padres\u2019 first win of the season, 8-4, over the Rockies<\/a> at Petco Park.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s an offense that — I\u2019ll put it up against anyone,\u201d Bogaerts said. \u201cAnd you\u2019d still feel pretty confident about our chances.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Manny Machado<\/a> and Matt Carpenter<\/a> added two hits apiece, and Jake Cronenworth<\/a> — fresh off finalizing a seven-year deal<\/a> to remain in San Diego through 2030 — singled, walked and scored twice. Juan Soto<\/a> put the game out of reach in the eighth with a two-run single, his first hit of the year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But it was Bogaerts who got things started. With two outs in the bottom of the first inning, he pulverized a knee-high fastball and sent it to the second deck in left field, a two-run homer to put the Padres in front.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cFelt good, man,\u201d Bogaerts said. \u201cI turned on an inside pitch, down and in. It was a good swing. \u2026 Off the bat, you know that it\u2019s gone.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Bogaerts has opened his Padres tenure with hits in each of his first three games, including a three-hit night in the team\u2019s Opening Day loss to the Rockies. He is the first Padre to record at least five hits in his first three games with the club since Freddy Galvis in 2018.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Bogaerts has also given the Padres some flexibility in the top half of their lineup. He batted first on Friday night against left-hander Kyle Freeland. He has batted in the cleanup spot in the two other games against righties.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cHe can really hit, I know that,\u201d Padres manager Bob Melvin said. \u201cAnd he likes to hit in different spots in the lineup, too. It\u2019s fluctuated a little bit here early on, and you\u2019d like to have some stability with our guys. But we\u2019re trying to find it. \u2026 It\u2019ll probably be a little bit more stable when [Fernando Tatis Jr.<\/a>] comes back.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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When Tatis returns from his PED suspension after the first 20 games, Bogaerts is expected to slot into the No. 4 spot on a more permanent basis. Based on the first look at his aggressive-yet-disciplined approach, he should fit right in behind Tatis, Soto and Machado.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cHe\u2019s a pretty special hitter obviously, and he\u2019s off to a pretty good start,\u201d Cronenworth said. \u201cHe\u2019s done it for years. That\u2019s one of the things we need in our lineup, just somebody who can go up there and not swing just to swing. He\u2019s not looking to walk or just get on base. He\u2019s looking to do damage every time.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI think having a guy in the middle of the order like that — it\u2019s pretty good for us. It complements the rest of our lineup very well.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Padres mostly cruised after Bogaerts\u2019 first-inning homer, though they ran into a bit of trouble in the sixth. The Rockies trailed by four entering the frame, but each of their first four hitters reached base, including three via extra-base hit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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After C.J. Cron\u2019s third homer of the series cut the Padres\u2019 lead to one, Ryan McMahon laced a double into the right-field corner. Out of nowhere, right-hander Michael Wacha was on the ropes in his Padres debut.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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And then he wasn\u2019t. Wacha deftly escaped trouble, like the 11-year veteran that he is. He struck out Elehuris Montero, then induced a couple popups to escape the threat.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cLook, you\u2019ve got to dig deep there,\u201d Melvin said. \u201c… All of a sudden it\u2019s a one-run game. That definitely gets his attention, and you have to push it a little bit harder. He got us a couple big outs.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Padres responded with a run in the bottom of the frame and two more in the eighth on Soto\u2019s single. Making his season debut, Josh Hader<\/a>\u00a0nailed down the ninth, striking out a pair.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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For the first time this season, the 2023 Padres looked like, well, the 2023 Padres — the version expected to compete for all of baseball\u2019s biggest prizes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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After the offseason they just had, it was only fitting that Bogaerts was at the center of it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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\n AJ Cassavell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

5:04 AM UTC SAN DIEGO — Xander Bogaerts is making himself right at home in San Diego. Eleven more years of this? Yeah, the Padres will take it. Bogaerts smacked his first home run with his new team on Saturday night, sparking the Padres\u2019 first win of the season, 8-4, over the Rockies at Petco […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":624627,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[121002,534,24313],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-624626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bogaerts","category-financial","category-sparks"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}