SAN DIEGO – This was a gut-punch for the San Diego Padres, who were completely dominated by the Colorado Rockies, 4-2, on Friday at Petco Park.
The final score may not be persuasive enough view it as overpowering, but their recent inconsistent play offensively begs to differ. Until the seventh inning, the Padres didn’t have a runner on base, and the only hit they possessed was Manny Machado’s 24th home run of the season back in the first inning.
They had opportunities in the seventh and eighth inning to cut into the Rockies lead but failed both times with runners in scoring position. Their best chances, during those innings, came in the eighth when they had runners on first and second with nobody out, which led to Will Wagner, who pinch-hit for Freddy Fermin, grounding into a 6-4-3 double-play, followed by Fernando Tatis Jr., going 0-for-4, striking out for the fourth time in the game.
They did manage to put a run up in the ninth inning on a RBI groundout by Ramón Laureano that scored Machado.
The highly talented group were out hit tonight 9-5 with three batters striking out several times. Also, they went an uninspiring 0-for-7 with RISP and left five runners on base, including a pair during their last effort to rally a comeback in the ninth.
“I don’t think we’re pressing,” Cronenworth said. “I mean, we’re having fun. We’re in a great position to go where we want to go and we lost tonight. We didn’t have a great night at the plate. That was really it.”
The Friars should have jumped on Rockies RHP Tanner Gordon like they did last week, when they cashed in six runs on six hits and only let him pitch for 3 ⅔ innings. This time around, Gordon went through the Padres’ order twice through six innings and surrendered one run, two hits and struck out nine.
“I mean, shapes of his pitches are obviously different here than Colorado,” Jake Cronenworth said. “(He) pitched well against us here last year too… We just need to do a better job of making in game adjustments.”
On the other side, LHP JP Sears, at one point, looked like he was on the verge of putting up his best performance in the Brown and Gold, executing three hitless innings while striking out seven batters. However, he couldn’t avoid a nightmare of a fourth inning where he gave up consecutive lead-off singles and later coughed up back-to-back home runs on two pitches to Blaine Crim and Kyle Farmer.
“Obviously a tough pill to swallow tonight for me,” Sears said. “I came out feeling pretty strong. Command in the zone pretty well and obviously just a couple of tough pitches in the fourth inning. I mean a game comes down to results and obviously just didn’t do a good job there control it in the fourth”
Throwing a sweeper and a four-seam fastball, both of the pitches that resutled in HRs were placed in the exact same location of the plate. RHP Ron Marinaccio, who replaced Sears, pitched a career long three innings and didn’t allow a run but allowed three hits.
While they’ve dropped four of the last five series, the Padres still remain positive with the group they have, and expect better to outcomes to transpire over the next 14 games, heading into the postseason. They’re four games ahead of the Mets, who also lost tonight, for the second Wild Card spot and with the Giants walking it off against the Dodgers in their series, they are still chasing Los Angeles by 2.5 games in the division.
They’re hungry man, it’s a hungry group,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “I love this group. I have full complete confidence. I can’t be more excited about this team… One thing that I would like to appreciate is the fact how much they care and how hard they’re going at it. It’s a challenging game and I just want to continue to get back and, you know, create an atmosphere here where we can just enjoy it a little bit more.”
First pitch of Saturday’s game will take place at 5:40 p.m. with RHP Dylan Cease (7-11, 4.71 ERA) on the mound for the Padres. On the other side, the Rockies will have RHP Bradley Blalock (1-4, 8.62 ERA).