The San Diego Padres officially acquired two-time batting champion Luis Arraez from the Miami Marlins on Saturday morning, and he wasted no time making an impact. In his Padres debut Saturday night, Arraez went 4-for-6 with a double, two runs scored and one run driven in as the DH and leadoff hitter. He is the first player ever with four hits in his first game with the Padres.
Arraez helped San Diego to a 13-1 win (box score) over the Arizona Diamondbacks despite not arriving to Chase Field until about an hour before first pitch, according to USA Today. He had been with the Marlins in Oakland for their series with the Athletics. Here are Arraez’s first hit and first RBI as a Padre:
The four-hit game is Arraez’s second of the season — he went 4-for-5 against the St. Louis Cardinals on April 7 — and the fourth by a Padre this season. Jake Cronenworth, Jackson Merrill, and Jurickson Profar all had four-hit games previously. Arraez now has 15 career four-hit games, 19th most among active players despite this only being his sixth season.
“It’s really amazing. The guy is a baller,” Fernando Tatis Jr. said about Arraez prior to Saturday’s game (via MLB.com). “The guy is probably the closest to Tony Gwynn that there is right now, so I’m looking forward to seeing him in the lineup.”
The Padres were not short on offense before trading for Arraez. They entered play Saturday averaging 4.86 runs per game, seventh most in baseball. Pitching has been their biggest issue, though. Their team 4.19 ERA was sixth highest in the National League coming into Saturday. That said, there’s never a bad time to add a hitter like Arraez to the lineup.
Still only 27, the Padres figure to use Arraez primarily at DH. He will also see some time at first and second bases with Cronenworth and Xander Bogaerts cycling through the DH spot on occasion. Following Saturday’s four-hit game, Arraez owns a .315/.359/.392 batting line this season.
Saturday’s win improved the Padres to 18-18. They’ve won their last four games. Meanwhile, the D-Backs dropped to 14-20. The reigning NL champions have lost seven of their last nine games while being outscored 55-16.
