Ty France back from paternity list

France is now hitting .301, though he’s going to need 37 plate appearances in the Padres’ final eight games to qualify for the batting title. He’s just a little short of the leaderboard at the moment or else he’d be seventh in the majors in average and ninth with an .887 OPS.

France will be away from the team for the weekend as he welcomes a new addition to the family. Mason McCoy was recalled from Triple-A El Paso in a corresponding move on Friday to add depth to the Padres’ bench.

France ambushed a first-inning pitch from Brandon Williamson and hit it for his 20th home run of the season. The veteran is slashing .292/.360/.512 with 62 RBI in what has been the best season of his career.

France knocked a base hit in the second inning, then later took Nick Martinez deep for a two-run blast in the sixth. The 32-year-old first baseman is having a solid season with the Padres, hitting .287/.356/.509 with 19 homers and 58 RBI across 400 plate appearances.

France isn’t likely to wear Twins’ colors if he’s elected to Cooperstown (note, he’s not going to be elected to Cooperstown, respectfully), but he did take some revenge against a former club of his with a two-run shot in the first inning. He’s been one of the best rebound stories in baseball this year, and now has 18 homers along with a slash of .293/.353/.521. You cannot call this anything but a remarkable season for France, especially based on the less-than-lofty expectations.

It appears to be nothing more than a routine breather for the 32-year-old first baseman. Jake Cronenworth will slide over and cover first base on Friday night while Sung-Mun Song will start at second base and bat ninth against Astros’ right-hander Ronel Blanco.

The RBI came on a sac fly in between the doubles. It was his 50th in 315 plate appearances this season. His .869 OPS is 116 points higher than anyone else on the Padres with at least 200 plate appearances. Fernando Tatis Jr. is next at .753.

With a .287/.343/.536 line, 16 homers and 49 RBI, France has been the Padres’ most valuable position player four months into the season, even though he spent the first 2 1/2 of those sitting more than half of the time. The team actually though Nick Castellanos was the better option for playing time initially.

France broke a scoreless game in the third inning with a single to drive in two runs for the Padres. He later gave the Padres an insurance run with a base hit in the eighth to score Jake Cronenworth from second. The 32-year-old first baseman is hitting .283/.336/.549 with 16 homers and 46 RBI across 269 plate appearances.

The Padres scored 11 times in the final two innings, with the last six runs coming off position player Tyler Tolbert in the ninth. France’s slam came off Lucas Erceg in the eighth. It was his second career slam. He’d been without one in 78 career plate appearances with the bases loaded coming into the season, but he’s had two in 11 chances this year. He also now has three two-homer games this year after racking up just two in his first seven seasons. He mostly just started against lefties initially, but it’s now been a month since he was left out of the Padres’ lineup as a healthy scratch. He’s batting .275/.335/.537 in 243 plate appearances.