Padres Wrangled in Texas
The Padres' struggles continued in the Lone Star State where the team dropped two of three to the Texas Rangers. The team has just won three of their last thirteen and has fallen to 12 games back in the NL West.
The series began with a 7-4 loss on Monday night. The game was scoreless until the 5th inning when Manny Margot hit his 3rd home run of the year, drilling a cutter to left center to give the Padres a 3-0 lead. The Rangers scored a run in the bottom half of the inning but the Padres got the run right back on a Jose Pirela solo homer.
However, the wheels fell off for the Padres in the bottom of the 6th inning as the Rangers scored 5 runs to take a 6-4 lead. Texas added another run in the 7th to extend their lead to 7-4, a lead they would hold on to.
The Padres were on the verge of dropping the second game of the series on Tuesday but rallied late to win the game 3-2. Tyson Ross took the mound and pitched well, going 6 innings and allowed just 2 runs on 5 hits. However, he was on the hook when he exited the game. With two on and one out in the top of the 8th, Wil Myers doubled to put the Padres on the board and cut the Rangers lead to 2-1.
Christian Villanueva tied the game with a sac fly to drive in Eric Hosmer and Hunter Renfroe gave the Padres the lead with an RBI double to drive in Wil Myers. The Padres bullpen held on as Brad Hand picked up his 22nd save of the year to give the Padres the win in Arlington.
The Padres offense was stifled in the final game of the series as they were no-hit for the first 6 ⅓ innings and only had 4 hits the entire game. With the team trailing 3-0 and a runner on in the top of the 7th, Renfroe drilled a ball to center field that look like it was gone, only to have it robbed by Rangers center fielder Delino DeShields.
After the Rangers scored another run in the bottom half of the inning, the Padres scored two in the 8th to cut the deficit in half 4-2. However the Rangers added an insurance run in the bottom of the 8th and held onto the lead to clinch the series win.
The Padres' record is now 36-47 as the team travels back to San Diego for a three game series vs the Pittsburgh Pirates. Andy Green has yet to announce the starter for Friday’s game but Eric Lauer (3-4, 5.05 ERA) is expected to take the mound on saturday with Joey Lucchesi (3-3, 3.57 ERA) getting the start on Sunday.
