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Padres’ ‘Mr. Irrelevant’ did something that almost no hitter has been able to do

Jurickson Profar continued to prove his worth against one of the hottest pitchers in baseball right now.
Eric Cole
Eric Cole

Friars On Base

San Diego Padres v Chicago Cubs / Griffin Quinn/GettyImages

Ever since the Dodgers' Will Smith decided to call Jurickson Profar "irrelevant." Profar has been among the San Diego's best players. Through 39 games this season, Profar is slashing .338/.420/.538 with six homers.

Not too shabby for a guy that the Padres brought back to the team pretty late in the offseason and on a one-year deal. For those keeping score at home, Smith's production with the Dodgers has been pretty comparable to Profar's, although we doubt Smith feels the same way about himself that he does about Profar.

However, Profar and the Padres faced a very stiff test on Tuesday with Shota Imanaga on the mound for the Cubs. While San Diego did ultimately lose the game, they did make Imanaga bleed a little bit and it came courtesy of the bat of Mr. Irrelevant himself.

Jurickson Profar bests Shota Imanaga, but bullpen blows it in Padres' loss

While a rookie pitcher giving up a homer that just barely cleared the wall to a guy on an absolute heater isn't normally newsworthy, Imanaga is a special case. Before that two-run shot by Profar, Imanaga had given up just three earned runs all year long. While not nearly as heralded a signing as Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Imanaga has been lights out during his rookie campaign and Profar joined rare company in beating him on a really good pitch.

More importantly, Profar's knock gave the Padres the lead late against a tough Cubs team in a game where Imanaga was dominating through seven innings of work. Unfortunately, San Diego's bullpen coughed up the lead as Yuki Matsui and Enyel De Los Santos each gave up runs, including Michael Busch's walk-off solo shot in the bottom of the ninth.

While Profar's heroics ended up not being enough, the Padres have to be feeling pretty good about adding him to their lineup as he is clearly showing that he can change a game with one swing of the bat no matter who is on the mound.

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Eric Cole

Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.