Padres Fall Back to Earth
The Padres have hit a rough patch as of late losing five in a row and have won only three of their last ten. The team sits 8.5 games back in the NL West and 8 games back in the Wild Card race. After dropping their final two games in Atlanta last weekend, the team headed back to Petco Park for a two game series with the Oakland A’s.
The series began with a heartbreaking loss for the Padres. The Padres took the lead in the 1st inning on a RBI groundout and re-took the lead in the bottom of the 2nd on a Raffy Lopez double to take a 2-1 lead. The Padres held onto this lead until the 9th inning when they were just one strike away from taking the first game of the series. However A’s outfielder Stephen Piscotty hit a fastball from Brad Hand into the second deck in right field to tie game 2-2. In the top of the 10th, Jed Lowrie hit a two run home run to give the A’s a 4-2 lead, a lead they would hold on to.
Things did not get any better for the Padres on Wednesday afternoon as they were pounded by the A’s bats. Oakland hit five home runs including back to back home runs in both the 2nd and 3rd innings to blow the game open early on. Joey Lucchesi got the start in his return from the DL and proceeded to give up 4 runs in just 1 ⅔ innings. In total, Padres pitching gave up 12 runs on 15 hits in Wednesday 12-4 loss.
Following the short two game series vs Oakland, the Padres continued their trend of Bay Area opponents, traveling up to AT&T Park for a four game series vs the San Francisco Giants. This game marked the return of Wil Myers to the Padres for the first time since late April. However, the Padres were shut down by Giants starter Madison Bumgarner. Bumgarner tossed 8 shutout innings, allowing just 3 hits while striking out 8.
Padres starter Tyson Ross pitched very well, going 7 innings while allowing just 4 hits and 1 run but received zero run support from the Padres offense. With score tied at 0 in the 5th inning, Bumgarner helped out his own cause with a sac fly to give the Giants a 1-0 lead. San Francisco added two more run the bottom of the 8th to take a 3-0 lead, a lead they would hold on to.
The Padres record is now 34-43. They will face the Giants three more times this weekend. Clayton Richard (6-6, 4.31 ERA) will face Chris Stratton (8-4, 4.22 ERA) on Friday and Jordan Lyles (2-4, 4.46 ERA) will take the mound on Saturday opposite of Andrew Suarez (2-4, 4.70 ERA). Following the series in the Bay, the team will head to Arlington, Texas for a three game series vs the Texas Rangers.
