BALTIMORE (AP) — Fittingly, Manny Machado reached a hitting milestone at Camden Yards.
Back where his big league career began, Machado hit a three-run homer in the seventh inning Saturday to reach 1,000 RBIs. He had three hits in San Diego’s 9-4 win over the Baltimore Orioles, the seventh straight victory for the Padres.
“Doing it where it all started,” Machado said. “I got my first one here and I got my thousandth here.”
Machado began his major league career in Baltimore in 2012 and played there until he was traded in 2018. He’s been in the National League since, so he hasn’t been back often.
“The ballpark’s changed since Manny’s been here,” manager Mike Shildt said.
That’s true — the wall in left field as a lot taller and a lot farther back than it used to be. But Machado’s drive went 413 feet to right-center field. According to Statcast, it would have been gone from 24 of the 30 parks in the majors.
“For me, it’s always been gap to gap, so try to keep it that way,” Machado said. “There are some guys that are pull happy and come here and that wall, you see the depth, it’s pretty far back there. You just try to stick to your approach, what your strength is.”
San Diego is 31-22 on the road and 26-28 at home. On this trip, the Padres took two of three at AL Central-leading Cleveland, then swept Washington, with Dylan Cease throwing a no-hitter during that series.
Now they’re one win from sweeping AL East-leading Baltimore.
“We’ve been playing really good baseball,” Machado said. “It has nothing to do with being on the road, being at home. That’s just the narrative that people want to go by, but we try to just play really good baseball.”
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