Padres Series Recap: Padres Finish Off 4-game Set in Embarrassing Manner
The San Diego Padres have just lost three out of four games from the Seattle Mariners. This was an absolutely atrocious series for the Padres. The Padres have really just validated the comments which were made by Ron Fowler a few days ago.
This team played like an absolute joke in their losses. I have been a Padres fan all of my life. I’m used to seeing some catastrophic baseball played. But when I was growing up, it was understandable. I mean we had guys like Justin Germano, Callix Crabbe, Kevin Kouzmanoff, Scott Hairston, Josh Bard, the original Luis Perdomo and guys like that. You know some of those guys weren’t too bad either.
Even if those players were bad they didn’t have the payroll of the current team. This team is frustrating because we are simply paying way too much for what we are seeing out on the field. Despite all of this there were some positives to take in from this series, as well as some interesting things to discuss. Let recollection of frustration begin.
Game 1: The Memorial Day Meltdown
The Vedder cup would kick off at Safeco Field. The Padres would start off this game quite well. Nathan Karns would be the man on the mound for the Mariners. He would give up an RBI single to Christain Bethancourt. This would open up the score in the second inning. Things would stay quiet until the sixth inning where Brett Wallace would produce an RBI double to make the score 2-0. Andrew Cashner had looked good for the Pads thus far. He would toss five scoreless innings up to this point. That of course would not last. In the bottom of the sixth inning, former Friar Seth Smith would kick things off for the M’s with an RBI double. Nelson Cruz would then drive in Seth Smith with a single to tie the game at two runs a piece. Kyle Seager would then Homer off of Cashner to end his day and give the Mariners the lead 4-2.
The Mariners would open up the score even more. Adam Lind would manage to hit a single off of Brandon Maurer which would drive in two more runs for the M’s. Dae-Ho Lee would then get a three run home run off of Maurer to make it 9-2 Mariners. Maurer would look abysmal in this outing as he would give up five runs in a third of an inning of work. Alexei Ramirez would provide the last run of the game as he would hit an RBI single in the ninth. The game would end 9-3. This is an absolutely ridiculous scoreline as the Padres were winning 2-0 up until the sixth inning. It is incredible how the team would manage to meltdown and eventually lose this game 9-3. Shockingly enough this would not be the worst meltdown we would see in this series. Stay tuned for that one.
Game 2: Shield’s Meltdown
James Shields would be the man starting for the Chargers…oh I mean Padres. This game ended 16-4 so the score was more fitting to a football game. Anyways Shields would not only throw his worst start of the season but he would go on to have one of the worst starts of his career. James Shields would pitch what seemed like an eternity, but would actually only pitch two and two thirds innings. Shields would give up 10 runs on eight hits. Kyle Seager and Seth Smith would go yard off of Shields to lead the way for the Mariners. Luis Perdomo would then go two innings and give up six runs. Yet again proving that he really shouldn’t be on an MLB team, not only for the team’s sake, but for his own sake. Perdomo would give up three home runs. One from Franklin Gutierrez another from Adam Lind and Seth Smith would mange to get his second home run of the game off of Perdomo. How ironic an outfielder we once had that wasn’t overpriced killed us in game two of the series.
The Padres would get all of their runs from home runs. Travis Jankowski would hit a two run shot in the sixth. In the same inning Matt Kemp would hit a solo shot. Then in the seventh Hector Sanchez would hit a solo shot as well. Getting four runs off a guy like Hishashi Iwakuma normally would be enough to get a win in a MLB game. Well of course that wouldn’t be the case for the 2016 Padres. The highlight of this game had to be seeing Christian Bethancourt pitch. That had to be the most entertaining moment of the whole game. Bethancourt would go from throwing a 96 mile an hour fastball to throwing an eephus pitch. We would also get the opportunity to see Alexi Amarista pitch in this game as well. Overall this game would just be an absolute joke. The Mariners would make a complete mockery of the Padres in game two of this series. Even yet this was still not the worst meltdown of this series.
Game 3: The Motivational Win
Just like game two of this series, game three of this series would have a football like score. The game would end 14-6. The first game at Petco Park in this series would be a nice one for the Padres. James Paxton would be the man on the mound for the Mariners, replacing the injured Felix Hernandez. He would have a rough go at things as he would give up eight runs in three and two thirds innings of work. The Padres would definitely be motivated to win after some just horrendous losses. Christian Friedrich would have an okay start for the Padres. He would give up four runs in five innings of work. The thing is he would walk four batters which isn’t too good. Overall an average start for the lefty. The bullpen would look solid for the Padres. The only negative would be that Brandon Maurer would give up another run.
The Padres offense would go off in this one going 19-43 in the game overall. However they would only manage to get one walk and they would strike out 13 times. some of the standouts from the game would be Wil Myers, Adam Rosales and Alexei Ramirez. Myers would bag a nice game as he would go 3-4 with three RBI, including a solo shot in the first inning. Adam Rosales would go 2-5 with a nice two run shot. The man of the hour, Alexei Ramirez would have a monster of a game. “The Cuban Missile” would go 3-5 with a whopping five RBI. Four of those RBI would come from a couple of two run homers. Ramirez would be the player of the game. Overall this was a great game for the Padres. But I wasn’t buzzing about it, to be honest. I mean sure all the runs were nice, but what did this win achieve? Absolutely nothing. Sure these wins are fun but definitely not when the other games have been almost un-watchable. I mean there are losses and then there are the losses in this particular series. The worst one was of course saved for the last day of the series.
Game 4: The Catastrophic Meltdown (The Self-Destruction)
The Padres would save their worst loss of the series and maybe of the whole season, maybe of theirs whole existence until the end. We have all been victims this year of witnessing some atrocious baseball out there. We all remember the opening series. Also that game in San Francisco which was decided by a fielding error. We’ve seen the lack of run support to Cesar Vargas and Drew Pomeranz. Well we can now add another one to the list. This game would turn out to be the highest scoring game in Petco Park History. The Friars would lead 12-2 after five innings. Okay so why are you complaining? Well because somehow the Padres would mess it up and end up losing 16-13. What! Yes you read that correctly. Colin Rea would be the starting pitcher for the Pads and he really wouldn’t be the one at fault here. Rea would go five and a third and give up six runs. Now that really wasn’t a problem as the Padres still would have a huge lead in his departure. The one’s that would really cause all of the mayhem would be the bullpen. Ahh the Bullpen. How they suffer from the plague of inconsistency. The plague has now even manged to hit Ryan Buchter. Buchter has not looked sharp in his last few outings. Well he wouldn’t look good once again as he would allow four runs to cross the plate. Brandon Maurer would also continue his struggles as he would give up three runs.
Somehow in all of this Fernando Rodney would still mange to keep up his scoreless mark. The bullpen would go three and two thirds and give up 10 runs. I mean that is just ridiculous. That is simply unacceptable. We have seen some games blown by the bullpen in this season before, but this had to have been the worst one yet. This was one of the most frustrating games I have ever seen. This series as a whole not only validated Ron Fowler’s comments, but also made the comments seem pretty nice at that. I mean these losses were just indescribable. This game was just a catastrophic meltdown. This series as a whole was, really. This was a big disrespect not only to the fans but to the players themselves.
Storylines
Is the Pitching Fortress Dead?
Petco Park has always been know as a great pitcher’s ballpark. But we sure have seen some high scoring games this year. I mean in these two games against the Mariners alone we saw 49 runs total. That game on Thursday was the highest scoring game ever at Petco Park. Is the pitching fortress really gone? Something came to mind when watching the last D-backs series. The batter’s eye at Chase Field plays a big factor as to why it is a hitter friendly ballpark. Could the change in the batter’s eye this year at Petco Park play a role as to why were seeing so many runs. I mean there’s still a huge Sycuan sign where the retired numbers used to be. But Might the change of scenery really play a factor? I mean it definitely seems a lot more baron out there without the numbers. The batter’s eye at Chase Field is completely baron. Maybe the Sycuan sign kinda blends into the background. I don’t know. But something is definitely going on this year which is making Petco Park lose it’s title of a pitcher friendly ballpark.
Is Andy Green at Fault?
It really is hard to say whether or not Andy Green is the man at fault here. Overall Andy Green has shown that he could potentially be a great manager someday. Green is an intellectual man. He sure shows it every time hes out there on the pitch. But there have been some moves recently which really haven’t made him look so good. For starters, why is Luis Perdomo still on this team? I was once convinced that Perdomo should be given a shot. But I mean you can clearly see that he is simply not ready for the bigs. The fact that he is still on the Padres is not only bad for the team, but it can also be detrimental to his career. Just abruptly giving someone a chance to pitch in the majors when they had only pitched in single-A doesn’t always work out. Not everyone is like Roberto Osuna of the Bluejays.
Another kind of questionable move was to let Maurer pitch on Thursday. Maurer has looked awful in his last few outings. He really has. Before stepping on the mound on Thursday Maurer had already gave up five runs in the series. Well he certainly didn’t help the cause by giving up three on Thursday as well. Ironically enough I would have even rather had seen Perdomo on the mound than Maurer. Maurer did not only give up three runs but he also did not mange to get a single out. Now these are subtle things which can cause an outcome in a ballgame. There are several more examples but these are just some recent ones. It really is hard to say whether Green is the man at fault here. Something that is clear is the fact that Green does not rely on his coaches too much. So perhaps he is at fault here. However I will give him the benefit of the doubt for now. Let’s hope that we can at least see some watchable baseball in this next series against the Colorado Rockies.
Francisco, 26, Chula Vista/Tijuana. I have been a Padres fan all my life, did most of the series previews and recaps in the Padres’ 2016 season for EVT. Now I focus more on the local soccer scene. Tijuana Xolos, San Diego Loyal, San Diego Wave.