Padres stymied by Quantrill, Guardians in 7-0 loss
Credit: AP Photo
Cleveland Guardians’ starting pitcher Cal Quantrill was once a highly-touted prospect for the San Diego Padres after being drafted in the first round in 2016. He was traded to Cleveland by the Padres in 2020 in a deal that sent Mike Clevinger to the San Diego and pitched like revenge was on his mind on Wednesday afternoon in the Guardians’ 7-0 blowout victory.
Quantrill went seven shutout innings against his former team, allowing just five hits while striking out six. Quantrill is a solid 2022 season for the Guardians, owning a 10-5 record with a 3.59 ERA after Wednesday’s start, but looked like a legitimate ace against a Padres’ offense that remains stagnant. In their last nine games (including Wednesday), the Padres have scored just 22 runs, 10 of which were scored in one game against Miami on August 17.
“Offensively, we’ve been not very good here recently. Today was hopefully rock bottom with the way we played,” said Padres’ manager Bob Melvin when asked about his team’s offensive struggles of late.
With Juan Soto missing a second straight game due to back tightness that he developed prior to Tuesday’s game, the Padres offense was overmatched by the Guardians staff, with Quantrill leading the way.
Blake Snell started on the mound for San Diego and struggled mightily against Cleveland’s lineup. Snell lasted only 3.1 innings, allowing six runs and eight hits on 79 pitches. Jose Ramirez led the way for the Guardians, reaching base four times while going 3-for-3 with a pair of solo home runs. Snell’s eight hits allowed were the most he has allowed in a game in over a calendar year.
Snell and the Padres were squarely in the game, even while struggling offensively, until the fourth inning when the Indians busted the game open. Back-to-back home runs by Ramirez and Oscar Gonzalez to open the inning were followed by singles by four out of the next five batters. In all, Cleveland scored five runs in the fourth that put the game out of reach.
The Padres threatened in the seventh inning, loading the bases with two outs, but Jorge Alfaro struck out to end the inning. The Padres would only get one more baserunner after that, and the loss capped off an extremely disappointing home stand that saw them go 2-4.
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“Unfortunately, we did not have a good home stand, the one that we expected to have much better, and certainly our fans who come out and support us didn’t deserve that,” said Melvin about the poor stretch at Petco Park.
A positive for the Padres was that struggling closer Josh Hader threw a scoreless eighth inning, even while allowing a couple of hits. Though the Padres were down 7-0 at the time, Hader showed signs of his dominant self, striking out the side and battling out of a first-and-third jam to get a much-needed confidence boost.
The Padres have a day off on Thursday before traveling to Kansas City to play the 50-75 Royals for three games, followed by a three-game series in San Francisco against the Giants.
Kevin is a San Diego Native covering the San Diego Padres and their affiliates
If Melvin and Preller were fired today, this team would almost assuredly make the playoffs.
This is not a rough patch, this is beyond embarrassing.