Darvish exits early, Padres blown out 12-3
Credit: AP Photo
The San Diego Padres returned to Chase Field for the first time since April to face the last-place Arizona Diamondbacks.
Success for the Padres at Chase Field has been hard to come by for the Padres. In the last four series at Chase Field, the Padres had just one win, and it remained that way following a 12-3 loss.
With Yu Darvish on the mound, the Padres were supposed to have the upper hand Thursday in terms of the starting pitcher. After scoring two runs in the first inning, it seemed even more this way.
Leg day 🦵🦵#HungryForMore pic.twitter.com/OJNx73sdx7
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) August 13, 2021
However, in the bottom of the third inning, things fell apart for Darvish. A leadoff single and a walk followed before Darvish recording the first out of the third. With one out, Arizona strung together three straight hits, which were capped off by a David Peralta home run to make it 5-2 Diamondbacks.
Allowing five runs before completing the third inning made this start already tough. Still, it got dramatically worse with two outs when Darvish starting looking uncomfortable and needed to be removed from the game due to lower back tightness. Not only have the Padres struggled at Chase Field recently, but this is the second straight game in which the Padres starter left the game early due to an injury. It’s the last thing the already depleted Padres rotation needed.
Jayce Tingler was asked why Yu Darvish had to be removed early from tonight's game: pic.twitter.com/Q6vKPbhANk
— 97.3 The Fan (@973TheFanSD) August 13, 2021
After the Diamondbacks put up five runs in the third inning, there were still six more innings for San Diego to make a comeback against the 35-80 Diamondbacks. A comeback did not happen, as Arizona outscored the Padres in the last six innings by six runs.
Did the Padres get blown out on Thursday? Yes. Should they have been blown out? Probably not. On Baseball Savant, they calculate the expected batting average on every ball put in play based on the launch angle and exit velocity by looking at the database of all the balls in play at the same launch angle and exit velocity.
The Diamondbacks and Padres had the same expected batting average for the game, .257, but Diamondbacks tallied six more hits than the Padres and scored nine more runs. Arizona did walk six more times than San Diego, but it is easy to say when the Padres put the ball in play, the Diamondbacks were luckier than them Thursday.
San Diego will look to break their curse at Chase Field on Friday with Blake Snell on the bump. Snell is getting better on the road and is coming off seven scoreless innings in his last start. Arizona will start Madison Bumgarner. The first pitch is at 6:40 PT.
Dominic is a graduate of Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, with a bachelor’s degree in Sports Journalism. He also is the producer and co-host of the “Padres EVT Podcast.”
This is 2016 all over again, but much, much worse.