Padres' Luis Arraez returns to his annoying habits – San Diego Union-Tribune

Luis Arraez doesn't like to think about his thumb. And he doesn't like to talk about it either. And he doesn't have to.

It works perfectly.

The numbers since the All-Star break bear that out. So do the preliminary scouting reports that led Tigers manager AJ Hinch, who scored the game-winning run on second base in the 10th inning on Wednesday, to try his luck with Fernando Tatis Jr. instead of the two-time batting champion.

Tatis won the game with a single through the left side of the infield. In retrospect, however, the Tigers manager's opinion did not change one bit.

“He's a tough opponent and he gets tougher as the game gets better and more exciting,” Hinch said a day later. “You fear his contact as much as you might fear the power of another player.”

The thing is, the contact is just as effective as it was when Arraez arrived in early May.

And it is definitely not too early.

The Padres are already in playoff mode and enter the week with a half-game lead over the Diamondbacks. They are currently the leading team in the quartet of wild-card hopefuls battling for three spots.

It will also be easier to hold onto that position if Joe Musgrove's setback on Sunday proves to be an exception. If Yu Darvish and Tatis get going again. If Ha-Seong Kim finds his way back into the lineup. If Jackson Merrill remains the favorite for NL Rookie of the Year, if Manny Machado continues his second-half surge, if Jurickson Profar returns to his first-half tendencies.

And Arraez is already back to his old self.

A second straight three-hit game on Sunday extended an eight-game hitting streak in which the 27-year-old All-Star is hitting .441/.500/.441. Zooming in to the beginning of the halfway point of the season — when Arraez decided to sit out the All-Star Game to rest his sore thumb — he's hitting .328/.363/.406.

And then there's this: Arraez has just two strikeouts since the All-Star break and hasn't had a strikeout in any of his last 115 at-bats.

Since the start of the 2000 season, only Juan Pierre (147 in 2004 and 143 in 2001) and Mookie Betts (129 from 2016 to 2017) have gone longer without a strikeout, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

In other words, it looks like Arraez has put his pesky thumb injury behind him, and the shoulder injury that first put him on the ice also seems to be missing him as the Padres' leadoff hitter.

“That usually slows things down,” Padres hitting coach Victor Rodriguez said. “When your hands or even any part of your body, especially your shoulders, aren't good, you try to use all parts of your body. You get out of balance. It looks like he's getting more comfortable because he's getting healthy.”