Gore struggles, Padres split twinbill
Credit: USA Today Sports
For the first time in his major league career, MacKenzie Gore looked like a rookie. The Padres made three errors, playing sloppy baseball, leading to a split in the doubleheader.
Gore looked solid early, as he did not allow a hit, striking out a batter in an easy frame. Gore looked like his usual self in the first before beginning to struggle in the second. He retired two of the first three batters he faced before he lost control. Gore walked Garrett Hampson after a nine-pitch battle before two more walks forced a run across. Gore’s three walks meant that he had matched his career-high for walks in a game in just a three batter stretch. In the third inning, the wheels ultimately came off, as the Rockies started the frame with four consecutive hits. The four hits came on four different types of pitches, as nothing was working for Gore.
After inducing the first out of the inning on a sacrifice fly, Gore’s day ended after he walked Hampson. Gore struggled with control throughout, and just about everything seemed to fall for the Rockies. He finished with 2.1 innings pitched, allowing five runs on five hits and four walks. Gore left with the game with the score 4-0, but two more runs scored off of Craig Stammen, who was not charged with any runs.
The Padres bats struggled, producing just two runs for the second straight game, picking up only four hits. However, the Padres did produce some hard-hit balls, as they could not seem to find gaps in the Rockies’ defense. San Diego did not pick up a hit in the first three innings, as Kyle Freeland shut down the Padres lineup. Jake Cronenworth finally put the Padres in the hit column with a hard-hit double into left-field. A pair of productive outs from Manny Machado and Luke Voit scored Cronenworth to put the Padres on the board. Luke Voit brought home Jurickson Profar with a double in the sixth, bringing the Padres within four runs. Unfortunately for the Padres, they picked up just one more hit, Austin Nola’s seventh-inning single, in the rest of the game. They never threatened to push any runs in across off of the Rockies bullpen, which has the worst ERA in the MLB.
The lone bright spot of the evening was Reiss Knehr, who was called up from El Paso before the game as a result of Mike Clevinger and Adrian Morejon being placed on the COVID-19 list. Knehr came into the game to start the fifth inning, and he was fantastic. Knehr worked 4.2 innings and did not allow a Rockie run. The Rockies did pick up three hits off of Knehr, but he looked extremely good in his 2022 debut. Knehr struck out three batters and demonstrated great control, as he did not walk anyone. He left with two outs in the ninth inning, having allowed a ground-rule double to C.J. Cron earlier in the inning. Ray Kerr, who was called up with Knehr, picked up the final out.
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All three Padres batters in the ninth inning struck out, as the game ended with a whimper for San Diego.
However, it was still a good day for the Padres. Manny Machado’s aggressive baserunning in game one assured that the Padres split the doubleheader. The Dodgers lost to the Giants, moving the Padres within just half a game of the NL West leaders.
Blake Snell will start on Sunday as the Padres attempt to win the series.
Sam is a Senior in High School. He has been writing for three years, and started at EVT in June of 2021. He’s headed to Syracuse’s Newhouse School of Communications in the fall of 2023.