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Padres’ Austin Hedges to honor coach who has helped with the hits

Austin Hedges finally found some space Monday.

After a few hard-hit balls found gloves, especially recently, Hedges connected on a ball that left his bat at 100.5 mph and got down in time to skip off the grass and into the glove of diving Rockies center fielder Ian Desmond for a 310-foot single.

“Off the bat, I was like, ‘He’s catching that ball,’ ” Hedges said. “Even when he caught the short-hop, I was like, ‘That’s how it’s going.’ ”

Maybe that long single broke the magnetic pull of balls Hedges has hit traveling directly to fielders.