The Padres made a late change Sunday, scratching Ethan Salas less than an hour before the 1 p.m. first pitch and moving Gavin Sheets into the designated hitter spot for Game 2. Salas, 20, had been lined up for a shot at becoming the youngest DH in postseason history before the switch.
The timing gave the move immediate weight. Sheets was set to start his first postseason game, and the Padres needed a lineup that could help them avoid losing back-to-back games for the first time in more than a month. The roof at American Family Field was open for a sunny, 67-degree day game, but the more important shift happened inside the batting order.
Stammen had praised Salas for earning more chances after a rough start to his big-league career. Salas began 0-for-15, then went 11-for-30 with six RBIs, a stretch that suggested the bat was starting to catch up with the moment. On Wednesday, he became the youngest catcher in postseason history, and by Saturday he had added a single off Jacob Misiorowski. The lineup change on Sunday cut off a historic opportunity before he could take it.
Sheets, meanwhile, brought the Padres a different kind of production. He had one postseason swing before Sunday, a pinch-hit, two-run homer in Game 2 of the NL Wild Card Series, and he had recently returned after missing a month with a plantar plate tear in his left foot. The Padres were not simply filling a spot; they were choosing the player whose bat had already shown it could change a game in October.
The question left hanging is not whether the Padres had options at DH. It is why Salas was removed so close to first pitch after being publicly described as a player who had earned the right to keep hitting. Luis Campusano was set to catch Michael King in Game 2, and Stammen’s lineup now had Sheets in the middle of the order instead of the 20-year-old who had been poised to make history. That is the kind of switch that tells you the Padres were prioritizing the present over the milestone.
