Padres drop a tough one in extras to the Pirates
Credit: AP Photo
In the bottom of the first inning, Pittsburgh staked an early 1-0 lead against starting pitcher Sean Manaea as the leadoff hitter Ke’bryan Hayes singled to center, Bryan Reynolds drew a walk, and Michael Chavis was able to bring Hayes home with a bloop hit to shallow center. The Friars were able to roll a twin killing to put an end to the Pirates’ threat.
It took until their second look at starting pitcher JT Brubaker in the top of the fourth for the offense to get going. Jake Cronenworth doubled to right to lead off the inning and a walk earned by Manny Machado brought Eric Hosmer to the plate. Hosmer will be disappointed to see the calendar roll over to May as his scorching hot April continued. He reached out of the zone to send a breaking ball over the left-field fence bringing in three for the Padres, giving them a 3-1 lead. Ha-Seong Kim followed him with a laser that nearly left the yard, the second near home run of the road trip, he would have to settle for a one-out double. Unfortunately, Matt Beaty and Jorge Alfaro were not able to bring him home.
In the bottom of the fifth, Roberto Perez singled to left field to start the inning. Josh VanMeter hit a double to deep right, bringing Perez home to trim the lead by one. The first out of the inning was recorded by a Jake Marisnick liner to center field advancing VanMeter to third. Hayes would walk and on a slow-developing ground ball and a questionable 360 turn by Kim, Bryan Reynolds legged out a fielder choice and VanMeter scampered home to tie the game at three.
Despite his three earned runs allowed, Sean Manaea was solid on Saturday as he has been all month finishing with a 3.60 ERA to begin his season. For the first time in San Diego uniform, he eclipsed the 100 pitch mark finishing with 110 in his six and two-thirds innings pitched. He did not factor in the decision this evening, but he gave his team a chance to win, leaving in a tie game 3-3. Steven Wilson, another strong April performer, finished off the bottom of the seventh with a strikeout.
In the top of the eighth, Jake Marisnick made his second of two excellent plays against his former employer, taking away a possible extra-base hit from leadoff hitter Trent Grisham. After a one-out walk of Jake Cronenworth, Manny Machado absolutely murdered a ball 426 feet to center field, 109.8 mph off the bat to give him his fourth home run of the season and the Padres the lead 5-3.
Steven Wilson continued in the bottom half of the eighth in position to pick up the win. The Pirates however had other plans. Wilson was greeted by a solid single from Reynolds to lead off the inning. The next hitter, Chavis would tie the game at five with a two-run laser off the bat which was deposited into the left-field bleachers. Wilson would settle back in to retire his next three hitters, albeit with some scary contact that required two nice plays from Jurickson Profar to retire the side.
In their half of the ninth, Ha-Seoung Kim nearly gave the padres the lead, just missing his second home run of the series coming up a few feet short. The remainder of the inning was relatively uneventful, save for a fantastic bare hand play from El Ministero de Defensa, Manny Machado, to send the game to bonus baseball.
In the top half of the tenth, an awkward-looking bunt from pinch hitter CJ Abrams advanced extra-inning ghost runner Jorge Alfaro to third base and Trent Grisham brought him home with a solid single through the drawn-in infield.
[wpedon id=”49075″ align=”right”]
Luis Garcia, who pitched a scoreless ninth, stayed in to pitch the bottom of the tenth. It was apparent that Taylor Rogers was unavailable to close this game out. Leadoff hitter Ke’bryan Hayes wasted no time singling to center field to bring home the tying run for Pittsburg. The next batter, Bryan Reynolds hit a grounder under the glove of Hosmer that would bring home Hayes for the winning run. The play at home was initially ruled out, but upon review, it was apparent that Hayes’ hand touched the plate before being tagged, giving the Pirates the 7-6 walk-off win.
A tough way to close out the month, but the boys are back at it tomorrow (weather permitting). The Padres look to take the series as Joe Musgrove takes on his former team seeking his fourth win of the season against Mitch Keller, who is looking to avoid his fourth loss.
San Diego born and raised. Padres and Everton supporter… yes I’m a masochist. I’m a sports junkie with a love of stories. Hopefully we can learn a few things together on this adventure.
We are going to have games that get away from us. Poor coaching decisions, bad pitching, error? They’re going to happen. No one goes 162-0. Let’s hope these games are few and far between this year. Sometimes, you just need to say “we’ll get them next game”.
Horrible mismanagement, and some poor play.
Why wasn’t the closer used? Because the manager brought him in to close out a FOUR run lead…against a really bad team.