Ha-Seong Kim day-to-day after suffering shoulder injury in Padres' series-sweeping win over Ted
Ha-Seong Kim is helped off the field after he was injured scoring the Padres’ first run.
Two steps forward and one step back just isn’t good enough anymore.
On Sunday, the Padres avoided the stumble that has kept them from making a sustained run this season by beating the Rangers 5-3 to complete a three-game sweep at Petco Park.
Gary Sánchez homered twice and Blake Snell lowered his major league-leading ERA to 2.50 by allowing one run over five innings. His 101 pitches, largely a product of eight strikeouts and four walks, did leave four innings for the Padres’ bullpen to cover against one of the major leagues’ most prolific offenses.
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Nick Martinez allowed two runs in the sixth inning before Steven Wilson, Robert Suarez and Josh Hader closed out the victory.
Whether the result has a lasting effect will be determined shortly.
The Padres gained a half-game in the race for the final National League wild-card spot. They are five games back with 55 games remaining in the season and one game to be played before Tuesday’s 3 p.m. PT trade deadline.
The good vibes from just their second three-game sweep of the season were immediately tempered by the loss early in the game of arguably their most valuable player to date.
Ha-Seong Kim departed with a jammed right shoulder suffered while scoring the game’s first run in the third inning. Manager Bob Melvin said following Sunday’s game that Kim is day-to-day.
Ha-Seong Kim has a jammed right shoulder and is day to day, according to Padres manager Bob Melvin.
Probably won’t play tomorrow. — Kevin Acee (@sdutKevinAcee) July 30, 2023
After having runners at first and second with no outs and failing to score in the second inning, the Padres broke through with what proved to be a costly run against Rangers starter Cody Bradford in the third.
A leadoff single by Kim and a walk by Juan Soto and single by Manny Machado with one out loaded the bases. Xander Bogaerts hit a fly ball to center field that was caught by Leody Taveras, whose throw home arrived at about the same time that catcher Sam Huff moved to block the plate and Kim began his dive into the plate. With Huff’s knee in front of the plate, it appeared that Kim’s hand missed on his first pass as the ball also got past Huff. Kim immediately grabbed his shoulder but crawled back to tap the plate and then remained on the ground in obvious pain.
He eventually walked off the field and was replaced at second base by Matthew Batten at the start of the fourth inning.
Blake Snell pitches during Sunday’s win over the Rangers. (K.C. Alfred/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Snell paid for his fourth walk of the game, which was issued to Ezequiel Duran with one out in the top of the fourth, though he might have continued to avoid getting burned had he not made the mistake of trying to throw out Taveras at first base after his two-out tapper in front of the mound. Snell’s wild throw skipped past first baseman Jake Cronenworth and allowed Duran, who had stolen second base, to score.
Snell’s strikeout of Marcus Semien ended the fourth.
Sánchez sent the first pitch from Rangers reliever José Leclerc off the facing of the top balcony of the Western Metal building to put the Padres up 2-1.
Trent Grisham was hit by a pitch and forced out at second on a grounder by Fernando Tatis Jr., who then raced around to score on Soto’s double down the left field line.
Soto’s two-out blast over the wall in center field pushed the Padres’ lead to 4-1.
The Rangers scored twice as many runs against Nick Martinez in the sixth inning as they had in the first two games at Petco Park.
Mitch Garver lined the first pitch he saw from Martinez into center field, and Duran followed with another line drive single to center. The first out of the inning was a grounder to the right side that moved the runners over, and Martinez got a strikeout before Semien lined a single into center field to make it 4-3.
Padres closer Josh Hader celebrates a win with catcher Gary Sanchez. (K.C. Alfred/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Suarez worked a perfect eighth.
Hader had an extra run to work with after Grisham led off the bottom of the eighth with a single, stole second and scored on Tatis’ single. The Rangers did load the bases with two outs on a pair of walks around Nathaniel Lowe’s double before Hader finished his 25th save by getting Josh Jung on a fly ball to right field.
Source: The San Diego Union-Tribune
