Padres late rally not enough in first series loss of 2020
Credit: AP Photo
Denver, Colorado
The San Diego Padres late offensive surge fell short in the series finale, 6-9.
With the loss, the Padres dropped their first series of the season and moved into third place in the National League West.
For all three games in Colorado, the Padres failed to score before the sixth inning.
With the Los Angeles Dodgers coming to town this week, the Padres will need to get back to playing as they did in the first week of the season.
The Colorado Rockies deserve credit this weekend. Their bats came alive at Coors Field after being quiet for the first week of the season. On top of that, they pitched well all weekend considering it is Coors Field and how well the Padres were hitting coming into the series.
As for the game on Sunday, the Rockies got the scoring started in the second inning on ” “Coors home run” off the bat of Daniel Murphy. He just got enough of a Zach Davies changeup to get it over the tall wall in right field.
Matt Kemp, a former foe, turned to a friend and now foe again, killed the Padres as if he were still sportinDodgers’ blue. In the fourth inning, he crushed a two-out home run to left to extend the Rockies lead to three.
Jake Cronenworth grew tired of watching Padres hitters struggle and decided to take matters into his own hands out of the nine-hole with a leadoff triple in the sixth inning. With Jurickson Profar struggling with the bat, don’t’ be surprised if Cronenworth receives more playing time going forward.
Instead of sparking a rally in the sixth, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Trent Grisham struck out, leaving Manny Machado to drive in the run with two outs. The “300 million dollar man” delivered with an RBI-double to get the Padres on the board.
Manny
Machado
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Moves pic.twitter.com/klejW48Vn2— San Diego Padres (@Padres) August 2, 2020
Pham followed with a walk, but the inning ended when Greg Garcicouldn’t’t cash them in.
Davies exited after five innings of three-run ball, which is pretty good considering it is Coors Field, and Joey Lucchesi failed to finish two innings the night before.
The Colorado Rockies did what good teams do in the bottom half by answering with some runs of their own. Tim Hill came in for the inning and retired the first two batters, but Daniel Murphy reached on a weak infield single.
Given how Hill pitches, he is prone to some dribblers down the first baseline resulting in hits. The hope is that when that happens, it doesn’t hurt him afterward. That was not the case in the sixth inning. Ryan McMahon cashed in Colorado’s second two-out, two-run home run of the afternoon.
Javy Guerra came in to finish off the sixth and came back out for the seventh. The seventh inning did not fare well for the San Diego Padres, as the Rockies added four more runs, extending the lead to 9-1.
The Padres, however, did not go away without a fight. Fernando Tatis Jr. continued to kill bullpen pitching by reaching on a double. With two outs, Machado tallied his second RBI of the day by hitting him in. Pham and Garcia followed by getting on base, setting up Wil Myers with the bases loaded. Myers cashed in with a base-clearing triple, but Profar stranded him to end the inning.
With the lead cut to four, the Padres gave themselves a chance for another miracle ninth-inning rally in Colorado. They were able to muster across one run in the ninth, falling 6-9.
The Friars look to carry over the strong hitting late into the series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, and they’ll need to. The Dodgers own the best run differential in the league and lead the majors in runs scored, and team Monday’s matchup will be between Chris Paddack and Walker Buehler, two of the best young pitchers in the league. The first pitch is at 6:10 p.m.
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.”