SAN DIEGO – A pair of home runs and bullpen work, aided by the immaculate, helped the San Diego Padres climb back into it, but a hot start by the Baltimore Orioles proved too much in a 7-5 loss on Wednesday afternoon at Petco Park.
Manny Machado hit a two-run home run to spark a four-run sixth inning, then Fernando Tatis Jr. added a solo shot in the seventh, but it wasn’t enough for the Padres (76-64) to overcome three straight home runs as part of a six-run third by the Orioles (64-76) that saw Ryan Mountcastle’s RBI single to cap the inning to loom large.
“You’re pleased with the effort, you’re pleased with the fight, you’re pleased with the competitiveness, but you’re clearly disappointed and frustrated with the outcome, not only today but recently,” said manager Mike Shildt. “We’ve had two leads past the fifth inning in the last ten games and we’ve won both of them… It’s a little bit of a kick playing down.”
Reliever Mason Miller threw the second Immaculate Inning in Padres history, striking out the side on nine sliders in the eighth inning, as the bullpen combined to allow one run on one hit, 10 strikeouts and five walks.
“One of the other guys said ‘it’s like a perfect game for a reliever,’ so it’s an awesome accomplishment and something I’m proud of for sure,” Miller said. “Usually after six (pitches) is when you start thinking about it a little bit, tell yourself ‘hey, don’t throw a ball. If they’re gonna beat me their gonna beat me, but don’t let you beat yourself.'”
Machado hit his 22nd depth charge of the season and Jake Cronenworth had an RBI single in the sixth where the Padres loaded the bases against Orioles starter Cade Povich, but after reliever Keegan Akin allowed the Cronenworth knock got a run-scoring double play and a strikeout. Tatis teed off on an Akin fastball to lead off the seventh for his 19th round-tripper.
Ramón Laureano made a stunning catch in the ninth inning, tracking down and leaping to steal a would’ve-been second home run of the game for Colton Cowser at the short fence down the left field line.
Starter Nestor Cortes lasted 2 ⅓ innings in his fourth loss, allowing six runs on seven hits with three walks and two strikeouts in his shortest start since arriving in San Diego. He escaped a bases-loaded jam in the first inning after allowing a lead-off home run to Jackson Holliday.
“It’s frustrating… coming into today I knew where we were at as far as the bullpen taking a hit and covering up a lot of innings, and I wanted to be the guy to go out there and give as many innings as possible,” Cortes said. “We’ve just got to do a better job, plain and simple. Just have to try and get deep into games, especially me, two and three innings ain’t gonna cut it in this league, so just gotta be better.”
But his afternoon ended when the Orioles took him deep three times over a span of four straight fastballs; Cowser hit a three-run blast on an elevated four-seamer to right-center, Coby Mayo took a ball before hitting an outside-half pitch to center field, and after a mound visit Alex Jackson took another elevated offering to left-center.
Padres pitchers have given up at least one home run in 19 consecutive games, with the 32 total conceded since July 15 tied for most allowed in the Majors with the Colorado Rockies, who will complete their series against San Francisco later on Wednesday night.
“The keeping the ball in the ballpark part is a part of it, for me it’s more of ‘get back to the fundamentals,’ they’re going to hit their home runs occasionally and it’s gonna happen, but it’s the walks that are leading up to it and led to damage,” Shildt said. “Guys are going to earn walks, tip your hat, there’s occasionally where we’ll pitch around a guy and he gets a walk, we understand what we’re looking to do.
“But the walks, or hit by pitches that have started to show up a little bit more consistently, those (have) got to be eliminated, and the other thing is we’ve got to do a better job of pitching inside consistently… we need to use both side of the plate and keep people a little more honest, which will keep people in the ballpark a little more consistently.”
Sean Reynolds provided a key 2 ⅔ innings of middle-innings relief, conceding the hit plus run while striking out three and working around four walks. Kyle Hart, Jeremiah Estrada and Robert Suarez also threw scoreless innings out of the bullpen, as the unit held the Orioles without a hit over the final six innings.
Though the Padres have the weakest remaining schedule in the Majors, with a .433 opponent winning percentage, they’ve dropped six of the last seven against sub-.500 teams. The Brown and Gold were swept for just the third time at home, and the first since mid-May as Baltimore earned their first ever road sweep over an NL West team, with Povich earning his third win and Yennir Cano sealing his second save.
“We have everyone, we know we have a good squad,” Machado said. “Obviously the injuries with (Xander Bogaerts) and (Jason Adam) going down kind of hurt us a little bit and set our mood down a little bit, but overall we have confidence in the guys that are going to come in and step up.
“We know what type of team we have, and we’re going through a tough, tough stretch, it happens. We don’t want it to be happening… we know we’re going to come out of it, and when we come out of it we’re going to come out of it running.”
Thursday will be the first of three remaining off days on the schedule, before kicking off a stretch of 10 straight days with a game. It begins with a three-game set at Colorado, with both teams yet to name expected starters for the 5:40 p.m. Pacific first pitch at Coors Field.
This story was updated at 5:01 p.m.