Wednesday was a pretty excellent day for the San Diego Padres. Early in the morning, the Padres locked up All-Star center fielder Jackson Merrill to a nine-year extension worth $135 million. That will keep him in San Diego through 2031, his age 31 season.
“An opportunity to sign with the San Diego Padres is enough for me, but I also feel like there comes a line where you know your worth, you know your value,” Merrill said soon after signing (via Associated Press). “Listen, I know there are contracts out there that are beyond absurd, there’s super amounts of money. But having a relationship with a real human being and a real team like I have here, you can’t beat that.”
A few hours later, the Padres wrapped up a perfect season-opening homestand with a 5-2 win over the Cleveland Guardians at Petco Park (box score). Merrill, naturally, went deep on his extension day. Here is his second homer of the season and his first with his nine-figure contract extension:
“We’re 7-0. If we didn’t win that game today, I would’ve been pissed,” Merrill said after Wednesday’s win (via MLB.com).
As Merrill said, Wednesday’s win improved San Diego to 7-0 on the young season. That extends the longest winning streak to begin a season in franchise history, easily besting the 4-0 start by the 1984 team. The 1984 Padres went on to win the first pennant in team history, though the Padres did lose the World Series to the Detroit Tigers in five games that year.
A little further north, the NL West rival Los Angeles Dodgers are also 7-0 entering Wednesday night’s series finale with the Atlanta Braves. This is only the fourth time in the Modern Era (since 1901) two teams have started a season with seven-game winning streak. Here are the other three times it happened:
San Diego was dominant in every facet during their 7-0 homestand. Three of the seven wins were shutouts, and in the other four games, they allowed four, three, two, and two runs. Three times the Padres scored seven runs and two other times they scored five runs. Also, they’ve stolen 15 bases in seven games, second-most in baseball. They’re beating teams every which way.
With a 7-0 homestand under their belt, the Padres will now head out on their first road trip of the new season. They begin a three-game series with the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on Friday, then head to West Sacramento for a three-game series with the Athletics next week.
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