ARLINGTON, Texas — When Samad Taylor first scanned the lineup for Wednesday’s series finale in St. Louis, his eyes drifted to the bottom half of the order. The 27-year-old outfielder had never batted higher than fifth across a handful of brief stints in the big leagues. Not seeing his name, Taylor assumed he would be available off the bench for the San Diego Padres.Then he took another glance and noticed Xander Bogaerts, the five-time Silver Slugger, in the sixth spot.“I started looking from the top,” Taylor recalled, “and I was like, ‘Oh, I’m in the two-hole.’”Taylor, who signed a minor-league deal in January and was promoted from Triple A this month, has since remained an unexpected No. 2 hitter. In Saturday’s 6-4, extra-inning victory over the Texas Rangers, he laid down a pair of well-placed bunts to extend his hitting streak to 11 games, the longest by a Padres player this season. Coaches, teammates and others in the organization have taken to calling the 5-foot-8, 160-pounder a “spark plug.”Meanwhile, several of San Diego’s more famous bats have consistently served as anchors for the worst offense in the majors. Friday’s series opener against Texas brought a microcosm of the season: Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado, Jackson Merrill and Bogaerts — a quartet with contracts totaling $1.1 billion — combined to go 0-for-17 in a 9-7 loss, putting a damper on a multi-homer performance by minor-league signee Ty France.Saturday at Globe Life Field brought reminders of better times: Tatis, Machado, Merrill and Bogaerts combined to go 8-for-19 with all six of the Padres’ RBIs. It was the kind of performance that helped explain why rookie manager Craig Stammen, amid frequent lineup shuffling, has consistently stuck by his highest-paid star.Machado, the $350 million third baseman hitting a league-low .178, went 2-for-5 with a season-high-tying five RBIs, three of which came in a decisive 10th inning when he smashed his team-leading 13th home run.