Framing the Friars: Ross Flirts with History as Padres Win 4-1

PHOENIX, ARIZONA

Once again, the San Diego Padres flirted with history as Tyson Ross threw seven and two-thirds innings of no-hit baseball only to lose it in the bottom of the eight inning on a double by Christian Walker.

A three-run rally in the ninth inning helped the Padres capture the win 4-1 against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Let’s look at some takeaways from tonight’s game.

Tyson Ross comes close to Padres history

To say that Tyson Ross had everything going would be to put his performance very lightly. Ross was on fire all night and his slider was filthier than Pigpen’s wardrobe. He racked up ten strikeouts in the game, with nine of those strikeouts resulting from the slider, and only two of those strikeouts were in the zone.

He looked like the All-Star from 2014 and fooled Arizona hitters left and right.

However, Ross was slowly running out of gas as he kept going longer in the game and, by the time he got to the final inning, was losing more and more of his control. A leadoff walk to Nick Ahmed would come back to haunt Ross as he would’ve needed that extra out. Although Ahmed would get cut down at home thanks to Carlos Asuaje‘s laser beam to Austin Hedges erasing him, Deven Marrero reached first on the fielder’s choice. Walker cracked a 2-0 slider into deep center field and Franchy Cordero took two steps in, then raced back to attempt a catch, but was unable as the ball sailed inches over his head, losing the no-hitter.

Ross threw 127 pitches in the game, but only threw 73 for strikes. Many of these misses came in his final innings, but there is no doubt Ross would have fought hard to stay and pitch in the ninth inning. Cordero must have felt the worst out of everyone on the field, as Statcast had the probability of making the catch at… 99 percent. While it still very important to get the win and Ross was certainly valiant in his effort, some fans may be bitter at the fact that the Padres could have had their first no-hitter in franchise history.

Franchy Cordero's misread that ended Tyson Ross' no-hitter in the 8th was brutal.#Statcast catch probability on the Christian Walker double that got over his head: 99%.

He had 4.7 seconds to go just 50 feet. But his 1st step was extremely slow: 1.6 seconds… And it was *in.* pic.twitter.com/W49VPmYgHg

— David Adler (@_dadler) April 21, 2018

Offense was clutch

While the Padres only had two hits after eight innings, one of those hits was absolutely scorched. Cordero demolished a ball 489 feet to deep center field, reminiscent of the hit Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez had in The Sandlot. Said moonshot would be the only Padres hit aside from Wil Myers‘ single in the first inning.

. @Padres Franchy Cordero 🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/FtsVpSqyBt

— Daren Willman (@darenw) April 21, 2018

The offense awakened from its slumber in the top of the ninth inning, perhaps motivated by the loss of the no-no. Christian Villanueva  plated the go ahead run after Myers and Eric Hosmer reached base safely via singles. Thanks to Ahmed booting a Freddy Galvis ground ball, Hosmer scored while reliever Jorge De La Rosa couldn’t pick up Asuaje’s safety squeeze bunt.

The offense also struck out six times with two walks while doing a much better job at the plate, discipline-wise, than during their series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. While it would be nice to see an uptick in walks, it is at the least an encouraging sign. With Tyson Ross looking like the Tyson Ross of old, and rumors of Eric Lauer‘s potential Major League debut swirling, the pitching side looks like it is going to become very intriguing very soon.

The Padres will look to take the series against the Diamondbacks tomorrow at 5:10. San Diego will have Clayton Richard toeing the rubber, while Arizona will be countering with Zach Godley.

Jason Freund

I am currently attending San Diego State University while working on achieving a major in journalism. At SDSU, I write for The Daily Aztec while also hosting the sports radio show “Picked Off”, for KCR Radio. A loyal fan of San Diego sports, I hope to bring content that you will enjoy reading.