Padres drop another one to Julio Urias, Dodgers; have lost a season-high four straight games
Padres shortstop Xander Bogaerts (2) and center fielder Adam Engel are unable to get to a fly ball hit by the Dodgers’ Max Muncy during the first inning Saturday. J.D. Martinez followed with a three-run homer.
The Padres can hardly beat anyone lately.
So that Julio Urías beat them Saturday seemed to be a matter of course.
A 4-2 loss to the Dodgers was the Padres’ season-high fourth consecutive defeat. They have lost six of their past seven games to fall to two games below .500 at what is essentially the quarter point of the season.
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“We’re just not winning games,” Jake Cronenworth said. “We’re not playing well right now. … We’re not executing when we need to and just gotta be better.”
That the Padres have lost nine straight games started by Urías, dating to his final two starts against them in 2021 and including his victory in Game 1 of the 2022 National League Division Series, seems extraneous. That Saturday cemented the Padres’ 11th consecutive regular season series loss to the Dodgers also feels beside the point.
“I’m tired of hearing that (expletive), to be honest with you,” pitcher Joe Musgrove said Saturday evening. “It’s baseball. These guys are a good team. We’re not playing sloppy, bad baseball. We’re losing by a run or two. We’re in games. But I think we as a group in here we’ve got to stop talking about these guys like they’re some unbeatable force. We beat these guys in the playoffs. We’ve beat them in big situations. We’re just not playing very well right now. So we’ve got to play better baseball.”
Musgrove took culpability for his part Saturday after allowing four runs in 5⅔ innings, which was unfortunate in that the Padres failed to score even three runs for the 17th time in 40 games this season.
Their record in those games is 1-16.
Since beating the Dodgers 5-2 on May 5 at Petco Park, the Padres have scored more than three runs once in seven games. That was in their lone victory in that span.
“We just have to play better,” Juan Soto said. “... We just have to go out there and keep playing, keep grinding.”
The Padres got home runs from Soto and Ha-Seong Kim to stay close Saturday but otherwise didn’t even do enough offensively to do their normal fizzling.
They stirred on their last breath before Cronenworth struck out to end the game.
With two outs in the ninth inning, Xander Bogaerts beat out a slow roller to third base. He was initially called out, but the call was overturned on a replay review. Nelson Cruz followed with a single to center field, giving the Padres their second runner in scoring position.
Left-hander Caleb Ferguson replaced Brusdar Graterol and ended the game on four pitches to Cronenworth.
Before that, the Padres’ only rally was essentially accidental.
Manny Machado became their first runner in scoring position in the sixth inning when Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy fielded his chopper and threw wildly toward first base and out of play. Soto followed by beating out a slow dribbler to the right side, giving the Padres runners at the corners with one out.
Bogaerts grounded the fourth pitch he saw back to Urías, who turned and threw to second base to start an inning-ending double play.
Urías was through six innings in 69 pitches, three more than Dustin May had taken to complete six innings the night before.
Where May tired in the seventh, Urías retired the Padres in order in Saturday’s seventh inning. The 17 pitches he took to do so were three more than he had thrown in any of the previous innings.
The left-hander improved to 7-0 with a 1.83 ERA during this nine-game run against the Padres.
Evan Phillips replaced Urías and pitched a perfect eighth before Graterol got in trouble.
Soto put the Padres up 1-0 in the first inning with a two-out homer.
Just as they had done the night before and just as they have done so often over the years, the Dodgers squashed whatever momentum the Padres might have felt was theirs.
It happened with two blooped singles and J.D. Martinez’s three-run homer over the wall in left-center field.
The second of the bloop singles fell between Bogaerts, the shortstop, and charging center fielder Adam Engel (after he had taken two steps back thinking Max Muncy had hit the ball harder) with two outs. Martinez’s homer came on an 0-2 slider that Musgrove left in the heart of the strike zone.
Kim pulled a 1-1 changeup from Urías to the bleachers beyond left field to cut the lead to 3-2.
Freddie Freeman’s double off the wall in center field and a single grounded through the right side to start to the bottom of the third pushed the Dodgers’ lead to 4-2.
“They’re playing good right now, and we’re not,” Cronenworth said. “... We’re both good teams, but they’re getting the big hits when they need to and doing what they need to do.”
For all their woes, the Padres have yet to be swept this season. They will attempt to avoid that Sunday afternoon — the opponent and its six-game lead in the NL West notwithstanding.
“Every game is urgent to try to get ourselves more than anything right offensively,” manager Bob Melvin said. “I think more than anything, it’s that. So I don’t think we’re focused too much right now on the standings. I think our focus should just be on getting better at-bats.”
Source: The San Diego Union-Tribune
