The San Diego Padres have won seven straight, and Ethan Salas is finally contributing as he got his first big-league hit.
The San Diego Padres are red hot right now, but catching prospect Ethan Salas has been the opposite of that. The Padres made Salas a late-season call-up after his successful season at Double-A and Triple-A, and he’s mostly looked overwhelmed so far, which is understandable given that he’s just 20 years old.
But Salas is also talented and precocious, so it was only a matter of time before he got his first hit. It was a triple off the wall in right field at Oracle Park against the San Francisco Giants last night, and Salas, who also has good speed for a catcher, lost his helmet flying around the bases.
“Like a breath of fresh air,” said Salas afterward in a piece written by Adrian Garro of MLB.com. “I’m happy to get the first out of the way.”
Giants outfielder Jung Hoo Lee tried to make a play on the ball, but Salas was reading the ball as he left the box, and he had third base on his mind when he saw the ball get away from Lee.
“As soon as I hit it, I was just like, ‘get over his head, get over his head,’ every step, in my mind,” Salas said. “And then as soon as I saw it go down, I just put my head down.”
Salas also set a couple of records in the process, both based on the rarity of a triple. According to Garro, Salas is the youngest player in Padres history with a triple and the youngest MLB player with a triple as a catcher since Ricky Seilheimer for the White Sox on July 25, 1980 (19 years, 330 days old).
He’s also the youngest to have his first hit since Machado did it, which has led to some interesting back-and-forth between the two.
“Really? Oh, I didn’t even know that,” Machado said when the youth aspect was mentioned as a parallel. “I thought I was just talking [crap], but I wasn’t, I guess. It’s hard to get to the big leagues when you’re 20, and it’s hard to get a triple. I don’t have many triples.”
What matters more to Salas, though, is that the Padres are in a pennant race, and he’s contributing.
“It's really cool because the baseball we're playing matters,” emphasized Salas. “It’s always fun to play important baseball at this time of year, and it's the best time of year to be here.”
