Padres’ skid hits new low with sweep at hands of Orioles
Mandatory Credit: David Frerker-Imagn Images
Petco Park- San Diego, CA
The Padres entered Wednesday’s day game against Baltimore needing a win to salvage the series and avoid the dreaded sweep. The Padres are currently struggling. They are now 2-8 in their last 10 games after today’s loss.
Nestor Cortes attempted to stop the slide for San Diego. Instead, he was pummeled. The first inning could have been way worse after Jackson Hollida led off the game with a solo homer. That marked the second straight game the Padres allowed a first-inning homer to Baltimore. After two walks and a single, the Orioles had the bases loaded and threatening for more. However, Cortes got Coby Mayo to pop out to end the threat.
It was a foreshadowing of things to come. After a scoreless second inning, the third inning is where things went south in a hurry. Cortes allowed two baserunners ahead of Colton Cowser, who slugged a three-run homer to right field. Mayo followed with a home run of his own. In a wild turn of events, Alex Jackson (Rancho Bernardo alum) launched his own home run, marking back-to-back-to-back home runs against Cortes.
Manager Mike Shildt saw enough and removed Cortes for Sean Reynolds. The Orioles were able to scratch across another run in the third thanks to an RBI single by Ryan Mountcastle.
Meanwhile, the Padres showed virtually no fight at the plate for the first five frames. San Diego got runners on first and third in the fourth after a Jose Iglesias double. However, Jake Cronenworth grounded out to end the rally before it even started.
Orioles starter Cade Povich came into this start with a 5.04 ERA on the season. Yet the Padres were unable to solve him for the first five innings. It wasn’t until Manny Machado hit a two-run homer in the sixth that the Padres showed any kind of life. However, that still had the Padres trailing 7-2.
Ryan O’Hearn followed that up with a single, and two batters worked walks to load the bases. At that point, Povich was chased from the game with the Padres threatening to make a massive comeback.
Cronenworth reached on an infield single to make 7-3. The rally ended with Jose Iglesias hitting into a double play, which scored one more run before the inning ended. The Padres had cut the deficit to 7-4.
Tatis led off the bottom of the seventh with a towering solo homer.
That is where the comeback effort would end. The Padres were unable to mount any more offense. The bullpen gave them a chance to come back, including a rare immaculate inning from Mason Miller. He tossed nine pitches, all of them strikes, for three strikeouts in the second ever immaculate inning in Padres history and first since 2002.
IMMACULATE INNING for Mason Miller 🔥 pic.twitter.com/VpFFh314Mt
— MLB (@MLB) September 3, 2025
Ramon Laureano did his part, robbing Cowser of what would’ve been his second homer of the season. He reached over the short left field wall to save a run.
Still, it was too little, too late as the Padres suffered a sweep at the hands of Baltimore.
They get an off day on Thursday to try and regroup before heading to Denver to face the Rockies this weekend.
Native of Escondido, CA. Lived in San Diego area for 20 years. Padres fan since childhood (mid-90s). I have been writing since 2014. I currently live near Seattle, WA and am married to a Seattle sports girl. I wore #19 on my high school baseball team for Tony Gwynn. I am a stats and sports history nerd. I attended BYU on the Idaho campus. I also love Star Wars.
Tatis not hitting like last yr what’s wrong is he hurt.
Thanks to Laureano the collapse is not worse. Tatis needs to drop to the bottom of the order where his occasional hit and strikeouts belong. Instead of standing on the Dodger’s neck, too many Padres are not championship level players.