Scuffling Padres fall lower with series-opening loss to Pirates
It turns out that Sunday was not rock bottom.
After a flight across the country and a day off, the Padres’ season continued to wash away in a fine mist Tuesday night on the banks of the Allegheny River.
With a fill-in starting pitcher allowing five runs in two innings, two relievers who were in Triple-A last week combining to allow three more and their offense remaining largely inert after an early burst, the Padres lost 9-4 to the Pirates.
“We scored three runs, had some good momentum,” Padres manager Bob Melvin said afterward. “You give up three, but that shouldn’t be it. You know, they come back with a couple and then it just seemed like they had a little bit more spirit the rest of the game than we did.”
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If that was so, it seemed an inopportune and inexcusable time for it to happen.
The Padres’ sixth loss in eight games dropped them five games below .500 for the eighth time this season.
They have been six games below .500 once. But given that the Padres were coming off a series loss at home to the Nationals, who began play Tuesday with the National League’s worst record, this might constitute a new low for the Padres.
The Pirates celebrate a 9-4 win over the Padres. (Justin Berl / Associated Press)
The past 10 days have encapsulated a season of inconsistency. The Padres took two of three from the Rays, the team with the best record in the major leagues, to win their third straight series. They then lost three straight in San Francisco before scoring 23 runs in taking the finale against the Giants and winning the series opener against the Nationals. They have lost three straight since.
“We’re not in our best place right now,” Melvin said. “If you asked me this three days ago, I would have said we’re on the verge of being in a really good place. And it’s been that way all year to where we feel like we are doing some good things and then all of a sudden we go through bad spurts right after that. You know, you get tired of saying we need to sustain something. We haven’t done it this year. Coming off two pretty good offensive games, we weren’t able to sustain it again. So it’s not a good feeling right now. You gotta keep digging.”
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Fernando Tatis Jr., who grounded into two double plays Tuesday night, disagreed with the assessment the Padres lacked fire.
“They were hitting, and we were not,” Tatis said. “Just that. … I don’t think it’s being flat. Everybody’s putting the amount of effort that everybody can put out there. We just didn’t have the result we wanted.
Manny Machado declined to speak.
“I don’t have time,” he said.
Adrian Morejon walks back to the mound after giving up an RBI single to the Pirates’ Rodolfo Castro during Tuesday’s game. (Justin Berl / Associated Press)
The loss of a three-run lead fell on Reiss Knehr, and relievers Drew Carlton and Adrián Morejón did not make it any easier on the offense.
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But, not for the first time, the Padres appeared listless after falling behind.
They took a 3-0 lead in the second inning before getting eight baserunners the rest of the way, two of which were immediately eliminated by double plays. They finished 4-for-9 with runners in scoring position, with three of those hits coming in their big second inning.
The Pirates, playing in their City Connect uniforms for the first time, in front of a crowd of 16,539 on a drizzly night at PNC Park, were electric in contrast.
They came into the game having hit .176 with a .250 on-base percentage and nine home runs while losing 12 of their previous 13 games. Only once had they scored more than four runs in that span. They had three homers among their 16 hits Tuesday.
San Diego Padres starting pitcher Reiss Knehr delivers during the first inning. (Justin Berl / Associated Press)
The Padres jumped on 43-year-old left-hander Rich Hill in the second with five hits.
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Knehr, starting in place of Yu Darvish, who was home recovering from flu-like symptoms, saw the 3-0 lead disappear in seven batters.
He walked Jack Suwinski, who came into the game hitless in 29 at-bats since June 17, to start the second. Suwinski moved to third base on a single by Rodolfo Castro and scored on a sacrifice fly by Ji Hwan Bae, who entered the game 0-for-21 since June 18. Nick Gonzales followed with his first major league hit — a triple off the top of the wall in right field — to score Castro. Austin Hedges, who was hitless in 16 at-bats since June 16, walked before Andrew McCutchen tied the game with a single lined to left field.
Carlos Santana hit the first pitch from Knehr in the bottom of the third over the wall in right field, and the Padres would need a comeback. They have just 14 of those this season, and just three have been from a deficit of more than one run.
Suwinski followed with a home run to right-center on a full count to make it 5-3.
That was it for Knehr, who was replaced by Carlton, recalled from Triple-A on Tuesday when reliever Steven Wilson was placed on the 15-day injured list with a right pectoral strain.
Carlton got the final three outs of the third before allowing an unearned run in the fourth.
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After Carlton finished the fifth unscathed, the Padres got to 6-4 in the top of the sixth on a double by Xander Bogaerts and Nelson Cruz’s RBI single.
But Morejón surrendered two runs in the sixth on three singles and a wild pitch, as the Pirates extended their lead to 8-4. Gonzales hit a pitch from Morejón 442 feet and off the batter’s eye beyond center field to make it 9-4.
“When you start somebody that’s gonna give you limited pitches, you might give up some runs,” Melvin said. “We have to know offensively we have to do a little bit more than just score three runs in the second inning.”
Source: The San Diego Union-Tribune
