Luis Perdomo’s start Monday, maybe his best to date, was an encapsulation of a season. In the first inning, the Rule 5 right-hander absorbed a number of blows that could have flattened him. He kept going. In the end, he gave his team all that could have been asked.
The San Diego Padres converted a chance to win, supporting Perdomo with a pair of home runs. The second of those, a two-run laser by Derek Norris, pushed the visitors ahead for good in an 8-4 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field. Perdomo, at one point, retired nine consecutive Diamondbacks. He shook off a first inning in which Arizona scored two runs, one unearned. The rookie wound up going six innings, tying his career-high. The two earned runs against him were a career-low in a start.
The Padres (36-47) opened their final road trip before the All-Star break with an all-around showing. They can send the D-backs (37-48) to the cellar with another victory Tuesday.
D-backs starter Archie Bradley paid for his imprecision in a pair of leadoff at-bats. In the fourth, Yangervis Solarte followed Matt Kemp’s single by drilling a 440-foot, game-tying blast into the right-field seats. In the sixth, Wil Myers drew a walk and scored on Kemp’s ringing double to left-center.
Norris, three batters later, saw the count go to 3-0 and, then, a green light. The catcher pounced on a fastball. A two-run shot hurtled over the left-field fence.
Solarte and Norris’ home runs were not insignificant events. On a last-place club, both players are trade candidates.
Solarte is hitting.426 (20-for-47) with six extra-base hits over his last 14 games. Norris complemented what has been standout defense with his 11th homer of the season.
The good vibes were dampened in the bottom of the eighth, when Norris was hit on the left elbow by the follow-through of a Brandon Drury swing. A trainer attended to Norris for a few minutes before the catcher exited the game. He was replaced by Christian Bethancourt. There was no immediate word on the severity of Norris’ injury.
Perdomo, who turned 23 in May, is a surer bet in the Padres’ future plans. His status as a Rule 5 draft selection – Perdomo must stay on the 25-man roster all season or be offered back to St. Louis, his old organisation – has incentivised patience. Monday’s performance reduced his ERA from 8.49 to 7.96.
Neither figure reflects Perdomo’s recent comfort level. Against the D-backs, he induced 12 groundouts and one flyout. He allowed nine hits, including two of the infield variety, and no walks. He struck out five and threw 66 of 91 pitches for strikes. A reminder that Perdomo still has much to learn: With two outs in the fifth, Jake Lamb redirected an 0-2 slider for an RBI triple. The D-backs took a 3-2 lead. The Padres would re-tie the score on Kemp’s sixth-inning double. The Padres bullpen navigated a hairy juncture in the seventh. After a leadoff single, Padres manager Andy Green summoned left-hander Brad Hand. Hand yielded a single before striking out Paul Goldschmidt and Lamb, the D-backs’ two most dangerous hitters. Newly promoted fireballer Jose Dominguez entered. Welington Castillo lined out to end the inning.
Perdomo moved to 3-3 on the season. In four starts since he officially joined the rotation, he has yielded 14 earned runs over 23 innings. The Padres, despite Perdomo’s growing pains, won three of those four games.
Norris lashed a run-scoring double in the eighth. Ryan Schimpf’s ensuing double, his second of the game, pushed the lead to 7-3. A third consecutive hit, Alexei Ramirez’s RBI single, made it 8-3. In the bottom of the inning, Drury ripped a double off Paul Clemens, who was making his Padres debut.  The tail end of the swing compounded the damage, catching Norris on the elbow. Norris stood, wincing, as assistant trainer Paul Navarro tested the elbow. He then walked off the field, presumably for further
examination. “We’re just not playing winning baseball right now, that’s what it comes down to,” D-backs manager Chip Hale said. “You can make excuses for it, but we just have to play better.”
RESULTS
Milwaukee 1 Washington 0
Tampa Bay 4 LA Angels 2
Boston 12 Texas 5
Chicago White Sox 8 Yankees 2
Oakland 3 Minnesota 1
Houston 2 Seattle 1
Pittsburgh 4 St. Louis 2
Chicago Cubs 10 Cincinnati 4
Philadelphia 8 Atlanta 2
San Francisco 3 Colorado 1
NY Mets 8 Miami 6
Toronto 6 Kansas City 2
Cleveland 5 Detroit 3
LA Dodgers 7 Baltimore 5
San Diego 8 Arizona 4