Cubs steal series at Petco, 7-5
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The San Diego Padres lost Wednesday’s ballgame by a score of 7-5 to the Chicago Cubs.
The Padres have gone .500 in the month of May so far, splitting games since the sweep of the Cincinnati Reds at the end of April. This year, offense has been hard to come by, even when pitching is cooking. Superstar shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. is still out with injury, so the Padres cannot be reliant on his magnetism and superpower to carry the offense at the start of the campaign.
On Wednesday, Chicago did just enough to keep San Diego in check, stealing a win off Padres starter Nick Martinez, who gave up four runs in the fourth inning.
Martinez started well, as his change-up was making the Cubbies look like they were swinging at a bottle cap. However, he couldn’t keep his stuff consistent, as although the eight strikeouts were pretty, he allowed more earned runs today than innings pitched, giving up five earned runs in four innings pitched. Willson Contreras smoked a home run to right in the first, and some savvy baserunning helped Chicago distance themselves from San Diego.
Although they ended up with more hits, the Padres also ended the game with twice as many men left on base. Timely hitting has helped the Padres to start the year, but now they need to rely on consistently making contact and having smart at-bats.
A couple of Padres’ first basemen hit home runs as well, including veteran Eric Hosmer, who homered to left-center. Hosmer has had a hot start to the year, but nobody needed a hot day at the plate more than slugger Luke Voit. The 2020 AL home run champ rocketed two separate moonshots that had incredibly similar trajectories, maxing out at the same height, and landing three feet away from each other in the first couple rows in left field. Voit hit dingers to Petco Park’s left field in the playoffs of the shortened season but has been ice cold to start the year.
Although it ended with a loss, long reliever Nabil Crismatt gave the Friars hope, pitching three shutout innings of relief. The Barranquilla, Colombia native only allowed one hit in relief, including right fielder Wil Myers robbing a home run near the short porch in right. Unfortunately, Crismatt’s efforts did not come to fruition as Luis Garcia came into the game in the eighth, allowing four straight batters to reach base, including Chula Vista native Alfonso Rivas who singled home the two winning runs.
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Former Padre Rowan Wick had a six-out save, which included getting Myers to fly out to the deepest part of left-center on the warning track.
An off-day Thursday gives the Padres a much-needed rest day. The team will be traveling to Atlanta in order to face the defending World Champion Atlanta Braves for a three-game weekend series.
Syracuse University ’23 B.S. Sport Analytics, San Diego born and raised, #FriarFaithful, #InPrellerWeTrust, Will Venable and Joe Musgrove fan, Bundesliga and UEFA Champions League
Apart from playing the worst teams for 9 games (the Reds and the Pirates) the Padres are a .500 team, yet have a top payroll. This is already shades of last year’s debacle.
They were a couple of feet from being swept by the 3rd worst team. They were one swing away from being shut out in three games in a row.
Preller’s answer is to sign a cheat, who is on the wrong side of 38, and who was just cut because he could hit his own weight.
At least Nick helped solve the conundrum of who should be headed to the bullpen.