Kirby Yates is the guy who, in the moment, doesn’t care his team is 30 games out of first place and about half that far from sniffing a playoff spot.
“You never want to give up a lead,” he said, as if the idea is as obvious as daylight.
So he keeps himself as sharp as possible, and when he’s a little rusty and walks the first batter he faces in his first game in eight days, he figures it out and gets the next three batters out and earns his 41st save.
That’s what happened Wednesday in Milwaukee, in the Padres’ only victory on a 1-6 road trip and the only one in 10 games before Sunday’s 6-4 victory over the Diamondbacks.