Jackson

Merrill

Merrill’s only hit of the game left the yard as he took Cesar Perdomo deep for a solo shot in the third inning. He later drew a walk. The 23-year-old outfielder has turned up the power in the second half, with his 15th since the All-Star break. He’s hitting .248/.299/.439 with 25 homers, 77 runs scored, 80 RBI, and 26 steals across 610 plate appearances.

It was a monstrous performance by Merrill, who tripled home two runs in the bottom of the third. He then delivered a two-run homer in the fifth that put San Diego up 7-2, before smacking a solo shot in the seventh. To cap it off, he drove in Xander Bogaerts in the eighth. Merrill has been a different hitter in the second half, and his 14 homers since the All-Star break are the fifth-most in MLB. He’s up to 24 homers and 25 steals for the season, though he’s hitting just .245 with roughly a league-average wRC+. He doesn’t turn 24 until next April.

Merrill supplied a pair of key run-scoring hits for San Diego with two outs in the first and third innings, respectively, which made the difference in a low-scoring affair at Petco Park. The 23-year-old has put together a nice stretch at the plate recently, hitting .263 (15-for-57) with three homers, nine RBI and one steal over his last 15 games. He’s on pace to establish career-high marks in both the home run and stolen base departments after injuries limited him to just 115 games last year following his impressive rookie campaign.

Merrill blasted a two-run homer in the sixth inning off Shane McClanahan to cut the Rays’ lead to 7-4. It was the 22nd homer of the season for Merrill, who also scored in the fifth inning on a fielder’s choice by Freddy Fermin. Merrill has hit safely in four of his last six games and is slashing .274/.327/.579 in August with seven homers.

Merrill doubled off Bubba Chandler in the bottom of the second before coming around to score on a Luis Rengifo RBI. He tripled in the fourth, driving in Manny Machado to give San Diego a 2-0 lead. Merrill’s season-long batting line is still below league average despite a recent hot streak. His 11 second-half homers are tied for the third-most in the majors. What has helped his fantasy line is an aggressive stolen base approach. He’s 24 for 27 on the bases after finishing 1 for 3 a season ago. There’s still plenty of talent to dream on in the 23-year-old.

Merrill’s solo homer put the Padres on the board and gave the outfielder his 20th of the season. He also singled and walked, and that improves his slash to .241/.292/.412 on the season. He’s been considerably better than that mark over the last two months, however, as he’s forged an OPS above .800 in both July and August. It’d be nice to see more consistency after he looked like such a ‘sure thing’ after his rookie season, but even this version of Merrill has his place.

Merrill’s homer off Logan Henderson was crushed 431 feet to center, giving the Padres the lead in the seventh. He also hit a ball 383 feet in his previous at-bat. Merrill has homered in three straight games and has nine homers in 22 games since July 19.

Merrill’s home run was his 17th of the year. He hit a solo shot off Peter Lambert in the third inning. In the first inning, Merrill had an RBI force out. Merrill finished the month of June with a .213 average and eight home runs. Since July 1, he’s 41-for-132 (.310) with nine home runs, 27 RBI, 24 runs scored and four stolen bases in 34 games.

Merrill’s hit was just a little 76-mph grounder against a shifted infield, but it knocked in the first of three runs the Padres scored in the fourth. The others came on a groundout and a sac fly. Merrill made much better contact in his first at-bat, but his 395-foot barrel to center went for naught then. Merrill is batting .364/.370/.750 with five homers and nine RBI in 11 games during the second half.

Merrill’s home run was his 15th of the season. He hit a solo shot off Marlins reliever Lake Bachar to put the Padres up 4-3 in the eighth inning. Merrill’s home run was his third in his last five starts. While his .160 ISO this year is down from his career .188 ISO, he’s starting to make some strides in the power department lately. Merrill is hitting .231 with a .675 OPS and 46 RBI.