Padres’ offense sputters in 5-1 loss to Arizona
Credit: AP Photo
Chase Field- Phoenix, Arizona
The San Diego Padres are fresh off a 17 game in 17 days stretch that ended with three of four wins against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The momentum was high, as the Padres traveled to Arizona for a brief two-game set against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
However, Tuesday night didn’t go as planned.
Chris Paddack has pitched extremely well against Arizona in his career and started pretty well. Carson Kelly and Nick Ahmed scored on an error by Trent Grisham in the second inning to give the Backs a 2-0 lead. After that, Paddack settled in.
Then in the sixth inning, things began to unravel. David Peralta drove in Josh Rojas, and then Kelly hit a two-run bomb to extend the lead to 5-1. Paddack ended the day with 5.1 innings pitched with six hits and five runs- three earned- and zero walks. The 95 pitches is a bit of a concern, but the control issues and command were huge positives for Paddack.
“I thought he had all his pitches working,” Jayce Tingler said of Paddack’s performance. “He was as good as I’ve seen him in a long time.”
For the Padres, the offense just stopped. This team had one of the best comebacks in team history by storming back from a 7-1 deficit against the Dodgers and ended up winning in the 11th by a score of 8-7. Unfortunately, the bats couldn’t get going.
“We have got to get it going. We’re just not able to string enough quality at-bats together,” Jayce Tingler said after the game.
Merrill Kelly went six strong with four hits and a run, with the lone run being off a Manny Machado grounder in the sixth that scored Fernando Tatis Jr.
The four hits for the Padres are disappointing, but Kelly was fantastic in the first game of the two-game series.
The good news is that the Padres will be tossing Ryan Weathers on the mound on Wednesday night. The young southpaw has been terrific, going 1-0 with a 0.59 ERA with 18 K’s in five outings this season. Last time out, Weathers went 5.2 innings with one hit and one walk while shutting down the Dodgers.
Ryan Weathers was dealing 👀
5 2/3 IP
1 H
0 R
1 BB
6 K pic.twitter.com/WtQpxMPfeV— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) April 23, 2021
Hopefully, Weathers can continue his impressive start to the 2021 season, especially given the injuries to Adrian Morejon and Dinelson Lamet. The Diamondbacks will send Taylor Widener to the mound. Widener went 5.1 innings last time out against the Cincinnati Reds and gave up four runs.
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The first pitch on Wednesday night will be at 6:40 PST as the offense looks to get back on track before another off day and a trip back home to face the San Francisco Giants.
Matthew Wadleigh, born in Oceanside and currently lives in Fresno. He lives with his wife and 2 dogs and is a sports enthusiast. Retired drummer and member of the Fresno State Marching Band. He has been a Padres fan since childhood and has suffered during the struggles just like everybody else.
And the winner for the most underperforming team with the most talent goes to……the Padres!!!!!
They are in fourth place out of five teams. This is horribly embarrassing. 2015 repeat? It seems the manager can’t make it work.
Also, FTJ’s high ops is cloaking his horrible performance, especially in the field. Has anyone in history had as many errors per game as him?
This team’s theme this year is weak offense and poor pitching when they reach our pen. The starting pitchers must cringe knowing the bullpen will likely give up a lead.
We are not a playoff team. We are a starter, two relief pitchers, and a third and fourth outfielder away. If we wait until the trade deadline, we might be too far out to make up the difference.