CINCINNATI — The San Diego Padres have struggled to score runs this season. But there were signs that the tide was beginning to turn this past weekend in Colorado, where they scored 24 runs on 36 hits in three games. On Tuesday, the Padres got the best news of all when outfielder Carlos Quentin was reinstated from the disabled list.
“It’s when you draw it up in the winter time, that’s what it’s supposed to look like, and that’s how it looks today,” said manager Bud Black of Tuesday’s starting lineup for the series opener in Cincinnati. “Now we just need to carry it over to the field.”
Quentin hadn’t played since last July, when he suffered a left knee injury that required surgery. He made seven minor-league rehab appearances before being activated.
Quentin is a career .255 hitter with 150 home runs and 473 RBIs over eight seasons. He was batting .275 with 13 homers and 44 RBIs through 82 games last year when the injury occurred.
San Diego, which is 13-1 when it scores four or more runs and 5-20 when it doesn’t through 39 games, was in need of a boost. The Padres batted .224 as a team without Quentin, and Black expects that to change.
“Arguably, when he’s healthy and playing his game, you can make the case that he’s our best offensive player,” said Black. “He has a proven record. When he’s in there, we score more runs. We still need to have good at-bats. That’s what we did this past weekend.”
Quentin went 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout in his season debut on Tuesday.