Padres notebook: Jackson Merrill off and running, Ty France playing catch up with Josh Naylor

Jackson Merrill missed a month early last year with a hamstring strain. He was also sidelined by a concussion and later an ankle sprain.

The impact wasn’t limited to his ability to get his swing on time.

It seemingly weighed him down on the bases, too.

“Completely,” the 22-year-old center fielder recalled late Tuesday night. “It was terrible. I want to be aggressive and go. At the same time, I don’t feel like I’m up to speed. I don’t feel like it was a capability of mine to get stolen bases.”

A year later, Merrill is again on the go.

He improved to 4-for-4 in steal attempts with Tuesday’s third-inning steal of second base, allowing Xander Bogaerts to drive in two runs on his single.

Merrill was 16-for-19 in steal attempts as a rookie before just going 1-for-3 last year. His only steal was the day before the hamstring strain sent him to the injured list in April for the first time, so he’s relishing the ability to do it again.

“I’ve been stealing bases since I was 5 years old,” he said. “I love stealing. It’s part of the game. It helps teams win. Obviously, it shows.”

Not just stealing either.

Merrill also doubled in Tuesday’s eighth inning and aggressively moved to third base on Manny Machado’s fly ball to left, making it all that much easier to score on Xander Bogaerts’ ensuing single to open up a 4-1 lead.

“We talk about that a lot,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said. “You know, taking the extra 90 (feet) and using our running game as part of our offense. Jackson, it’s been something that he’s been working on and trying to improve this year. Today was a good example of him taking advantage of that and giving us a couple runs.”

We meet again (and again and again)

Ty France was already a corner infielder in the Padres system when the club traded for Josh Naylor in July 2016. Four years later, they were in majors together and enjoying the team’s fantasy football draft after a day game in Colorado when France was shipped to Seattle as part of the package for catcher Austin Nola.

Some 10 minutes later, Naylor was moved to the Guardians in the deal for Mike Clevinger.

Tuesday might have been a good time for the two first basemen to catch up with each other, but they were too busy taking hits away from each other. Both had singles in the game, but France’s diving stab to his left in the fifth inning was one of three Naylor battled balls that he got a glove on.

On the flip side, Naylor fielded a 105.2 mph ball off France’s bat and started an unassisted double play on a line drive from the Padres’ back-up first baseman.

“Me and Naylor were just going back and forth with each other all game,” France said with a laugh.

He added: “We didn’t talk much (when we were at first base). He can be hard to get some words out of, but I’ll catch up with him (later in the series).”

Spark plug

Ramón Laureano entered Wednesday hitting .273/.351/.576 for a .927 OPS in eight starts as the Padres’ leadoff hitter. He was atop the order again for Game 2 against the Mariners.

“You’re just trying to find someone that’s not going fall into a slump when we put him in the leadoff spot, which is kind of what’s happened so far this season until Ramón,” Stammen said. “But we feel really good about him either against right-handed or left-handed pitching. He’s usually … pretty good at that and so far this season, he’s kind of handled both sides really well. He also brings a little bit of an attitude, a little bit of an ankle-biter kind of guy that the guys love in the dugout and in the clubhouse.

“So he’s perfect for us (at) leadoff.”