Offense struggles again as Padres fall 4-2 to Colorado
Credit: AP Photo
The Padres began their four-game series against the Colorado Rockies with a splash, winning the first two games, including a 9-0 victory Friday night and a walk-off win Saturday afternoon in extra innings. Saturday afternoon’s victory was also their fourth in a row. San Diego, unfortunately, could not add to their momentum and lost the following two games to settle for a split of the four-game weekend series with their division foe.
Blake Snell took the mound for the Padres on Sunday, looking to correct the poor start to his season. In Snell’s first four starts, he went 0-3 while the team was 0-4 in the four starts. In his previous outing, Snell lasted only four innings while allowing four runs on 95 pitches.
Snell was much better on Sunday with a six-inning performance that saw him strike out seven and walk two Rockies while allowing just a pair of runs.
“With Blake, it’s pretty simple. When he gets it over the plate, he has success. It’s pretty clear early on in his outings. You can see it right away. He was pounding it early, and you can tell it was going to be one of those days that a lot of us have seen in the past from him,” said Padres’ acting manager Ryan Flaherty, in for Bob Melvin, who is sidelined due to Covid-related issues, about Snell and his promising outing Sunday afternoon.
Unfortunately for Snell and the Padres, the offense could muster up only two runs in the 4-2 loss in the series finale. It was the third straight game in which the Padres scores two runs, with Saturday afternoon’s game resulting in a 2-1 win for San Diego.
Rockies starter German Marquez came into Sunday’s start allowing 14 earned runs in his previous three starts. On the season, Marquez was 2-5 with a 6.49 ERA. He showed up against the Padres on Sunday, going seven innings and allowing just two runs and striking out six.
With the Padres trailing 2-0 heading into the fifth inning, Luke Voit cut the lead in half with a solo home run into the top balcony of the Western Metal Building. The Padres would then tie the game in the bottom of the seventh thanks to a sac-fly by first baseman Eric Hosmer.
The Rockies didn’t waste any time regaining their lead after the Padres tied the game, scoring twice in the top of the eighth off of Luis Garcia to take a 4-2 lead.
Garcia struck out the first hitter of the inning but then allowed back-to-back singles to put runners on first and second with only one out. Garcia followed that up with a strike out of Randal Grichuk and looked like he might escape the jam and preserve the tie. He could not do so, however, allowing a two-run double to Rockies’ third baseman Ryan McMahon.
The Padres’ offense could not close the gap after giving the Rockies the lead and fell for the second game in a row against Colorado.
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In the final three games of the series, including the win in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader, the Padres offense was held to just six runs and 13 hits while hitting only .077 with runners in scoring position.
The Padres will look to shake off the tough series on Monday night when they travel to Wrigley Field to play the Cubs for four games. Yu Darvish gets the start for the Padres to start the four-game set.
Kevin is a San Diego Native covering the San Diego Padres and their affiliates
Time to call up the Ruiz kid.