MIAMI — Jackson Merrill paused to reflect on his exit from LoanDepot Park Saturday night.
He didn't stop literally. He was on his way to a restaurant with a group of veteran pitchers, and they made it clear to him that time was running out.
But the rookie took a moment during his brisk walk to a waiting car to share his thoughts on a remarkable season that just keeps getting better.
“I’m grateful for how my work is translating into my games,” he said. “I think at the beginning of the year … I just tried to relax a little bit. Because the offseason is long; you practice really hard every day. And then you have spring training, and I had to make the team, so I had to give it my all every day. And then, kind of at the beginning of the season, I relaxed a little bit. And since then, I’ve been working my butt off. To see it all pay off in the big moments is awesome for me.”
Merrill hit his fourth game-tying home run in 12 days Saturday. It didn't come in the ninth inning, like the previous three. It came in the eighth and gave the Padres a comeback in a game they won 9-8 in 10 innings.
It was Merrill's 17th home run this season and his 14th in 47 games since June 12.
On Saturday, the Padres won their fourth straight game in which they trailed in the eighth inning, a franchise record. It was the third time in that span that a Merrill home run brought them back to even.
What he does is too complicated to be called expected. But no one who observes him closely can say it is surprising either.
No matter how impressed they are that a 21-year-old in his first major league season is contributing so significantly and consistently, veterans know special when they see it.
“He’s different, man,” Manny Machado said Friday night.
These things have been said about him for a while.
“I met him at FanFest (last year),” Xander Bogaerts said, referring to their encounter at Petco Park when Merrill was 19 and had yet to play above the A level. “I thought, ‘Man, this guy is different.’ This year, in training camp, it’s the same thing. He’s not cocky, he’s not even close. But this guy — wow — he’s confident. The way he acts, the way he carries himself.”
And they keep saying these things.
“From the first day I stepped on the field with him in spring training, he showed me that he’s that type of player, that type of player that will do anything to win a game,” Jurickson Profar said Saturday. “… I recognize that this guy will do anything to win, and he hates to lose. There’s no word to describe someone like that. They hate to lose. He wants to be better every day. He works, he takes hits and he’s a guy that plays every day. He always wants to get better.”
Merrill has always maintained that he doesn't care about the National League Rookie of the Year race.
“I don't care…” he said on Friday.
Pirates starting pitcher Paul Skenes, whose ERA jumped to 2.25 Saturday night when he gave up four runs in five innings to the Dodgers, has been a media darling since his debut. But Merrill, who is hitting .294 with an .814 OPS, appears to have at least made that run a two-run home run.
“The game speaks for itself, but his game speaks loudly,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “His game speaks loudly. … He doesn’t think about it. I don’t think about it. We focus on team goals. We want individual accomplishments, for sure, for guys, that’s part of the job. But he’s just looking to play and contribute to help us win games, which he clearly does. And I’d like to think that’s probably a pretty big consideration for this award.”
Originally published:
