Padres remain quiet, drop below .500 with 2-1 loss
Credit: AP Photo
The San Diego Padres’ bats were quelled by NL Cy Young hopeful Walker Buehler, picking up just three hits, as the team continued to look like they have thrown in the towel.
Buehler managed to induce eleven outs via the groundout, as the Padres were unable to get the ball off the ground. Yu Darvish allowed two runs in what will likely be his final start of the season, and the bullpen handled the Dodgers lineup, but the Padres bats were unable to make a difference, only putting up a run on Jake Cronenworth’s ninth-inning home run.
The Padres had just four hits, and they weren’t particularly unlucky, putting up just a .178 expected batting average on the evening. The Padres didn’t pick up a hit until the fifth inning when Eric Hosmer hit an infield single before being erased on Wil Myers’ double play. Victor Caratini chopped a single into left field to lead off the sixth, but Fernando Tatis Jr. bounced into an inning-ending double play that killed the Padres’ momentum.
Eric Hosmer hit a two-out double in the seventh, but the Padres left him there as Wil Myers’ bloop did not find a hole, despite a 74% hit probability. After Cronenworth took Blake Treinen out of the yard with one out in the ninth, Ha-Seong Kim ended up on second base after pinch-running for Eric Hosmer.
Tommy Pham had the opportunity to play the hero, but he stared at a slider that came right down Broadway. Pham clearly was guessing either sinker or fastball, but it proved a symbolic ending to the game as the Padres dropped below .500 for the first time since the middle of the 2020 season.
Yu Darvish had a tough game on the mound, as he battled his way through five hits and four walks in just four innings, but only two runs came across the plate. Darvish has struggled immensely since the introduction of the new rules about sticky substances on the pitcher’s bodies. Reiss Knehr put two scoreless innings together, and while he did walk three batters, he also struck out three Dodgers players. Javy Guerra and Ross Detweiler each put scoreless outings together, and the Padres bullpen kept the Padres in the game, even though the bats weren’t able to make it matter in the end.
The Padres continue to struggle, winning just one of their last ten and three of their last 17 games. As recently as early September, the Padres were ten games over .500, but a 6-17 month dropped the Padres to 78-79, in a deserving conclusion to the Padres campaign.
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.