SAN DIEGO – With hits in short supply for the second straight night, this time the San Diego Padres couldn’t grind it out in a 5-0 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday night at Petco Park.
The Padres (32-24) managed just a pair of opportunities with runners in scoring position, both coming in the first inning, against left-hander Bailey Falter, who held San Diego to a pair of hits with a strikeout and a walk in 6 1/3 innings.
“Tonight wasn’t a night that was representative of us,” manager Mike Shildt said. “It’s about consistency in this game, and the consistency in the quality of at bats and the approaches. I know the preparation is really good…We have a chance tomorrow to win our third series in a row, so that feels very good.”
It snapped a ten-game winning streak against the Pirates (22-37) and was another instance where San Diego hitters struggled against a lefty. The team is currently batting .018 lower against left-handers and failed to get a hit after the third inning before the 25th sellout crowd of the season.
Right-handed reliever Bradgley Rodriguez made his MLB debut wearing No. 72 when he replaced Yuki Matsui with one out, two runs in and runners on first and third during the seventh inning.
After missing his first pitch high with a four-seam fastball, Rodriguez jammed Alexander Carino in on the hands with a 98 MPH sinker. It induced a comebacker that the righty zipped to Jake Cronenworth covering at second to start an inning-ending 1-4-3 double play.
The 21-year-old worked his way around a leadoff walk in the eighth, inducing back-to-back pop outs before plunking Isiah Kiner-Falefa with an overthrown changeup. Rodriguez got out of the inning by notching his first Major League punchout, catching Oniel Cruz looking at a knee-high inside fastball.
“One thing I love about our group is we pull for each other, they care about each other and pull like heck for each other,” Shildt said. “Everybody’s really happy for him, it’s quite an accomplishment.”
Rodriguez, who was signed out of Venezuela during 2021, finished with 1 2/3 innings pitched. He ranked No. 14 overall and as the top reliever in the Padres system according to MLB Pipeline when his contract was selected from Double A San Antonio for May 30.
The San Diego offense didn’t get much going against Pittsburgh pitching for the second night in a row. Fernando Tatis Jr. led off the first with a single and was sacrificed over, but after a groundout to short and Tatis stole third, the inning ended with a lineout.
Falter had his fifth start of the season with more than six innings pitched and no runs allowed, picking up his fourth win of the campaign.
A big part of it was being able to take out the few runners that the Padres worked, as Martín Maldonado’s one-out, third inning single was erased by the first of two double plays for the evening. The Pirates also wiped away Gavin Sheets’ walk in the fifth, his first of two in the game, with a twin putout.
Dylan Cease, who took his fourth loss, allowed three runs on seven hits over 4 2/3 innings, throwing 95 pitches to notch six strikeouts and a walk. Pittsburgh did most of their damage against the four-seamer, knocking four hits with two going for extra bases off the fastball.
“I thought Dylan couldn’t quite get into rhythm, that was probably the biggest takeaway,” Shildt said. “(His) stuff was good, just never really quite got into that consistency of being able to boom-boom, but it was good and he competed his butt off to get us almost to the fifth…
“(The Pirates) were patient and took some good at bats.”
Andrew McCutcheon tagged Cease’s first pitch of the fifth inning for a home run, his fourth of the season and 239th as a Pirate — one behind Roberto Clemente for third in franchise history.
The Pirates got it started in the first when Cruz led off with a double and Bryan Reynolds singled him home. They added another in the fourth when Adam Fraizer hit a two-out double and Ke’Bryan Hayes followed up by singling him home.
Sean Reynolds pitched an unblemished 1 2/3 innings with a pair of strikeouts, before the Pirates tagged Matsui for a pair of runs in the seventh. With the first two batters reaching on singles, Reynolds followed up with a sharp RBI double and Spencer Horowitz inside-outed a pop up that arced over Manny Machado into shallow left field for an RBI single.
The rubber match of the series will take place at 2:10 p.m. on Sunday, with Randy Vásquez set to start for the Padres against Andrew Heaney at Petco Park.
This story was updated at 10:02 p.m.