The Padres season ends on an Arizona walk-off
Credit: USA Today Sports
Chase Field- Phoenix, Arizona
A pitcher’s duel erupted in game #162 on the San Diego Padres season.
The Friars lost on a walk-off in the bottom of the 9th with two outs, as Luis Urias could not handle a ball deep in the shortstop hole with a runner on third base. The bounding hit off the bat of Tim Locastro was perfectly placed. Urias came up with a throw that short-hopped Eric Hosmer at first, but Locastro had already beaten out the well-placed strike.
The scoreless battle had more to do with two beaten teams just going through the motions; then it did in actual pitching dominance. Five different Diamondback’ pitchers held the Padres scoreless through nine innings, and San Diego sent five hurlers themselves to the mound keeping the game tied at zero through eight and one-half innings.
Michel Baez started the game and went two innings, striking out four in his 33-pitch effort. He showed a plus changeup on the day that was very impressive. Baez has three plus pitches and probably will be allowed to start at some point. He finishes his rookie campaign with a 3.03 ERA in 24 games, and 29.2 innings pitched.
Ronald Bolanos threw two positive innings to end his season as well. The Cuban right-hander went two innings and struck out four batters in his 29-pitch performance. He ends his rookie season with a 5.95 ERA. Another rookie came on to pitch after Baez and Bolanos, as Eric Yardley threw two shutout innings. The side-arm pitcher ends his season with a 2.31 ERA. He looked very impressive in his ability to change speeds and keep batters off balance.
Javier Guerra, the fourth rookie pitcher of the game contained Arizona in his one inning of work. He was topping out at 99 MPH with his fastball and is a very intriguing option for the team in 2020. Luis Perdomo pitched a scoreless 8th and finishes his 2019 with a 4.00 ERA in 47 games for the Friars. Perdomo took some positive steps forward in 2019 and could turn out to be a valuable pitcher for the Friars in the future.
A one-out bloop double off the bat of Christian Walker set up Arizona in the 9th. Matt Strahm was the victim in the loss as he finishes the 2019 season with a 6-11 record and a 4.71 ERA.
Offensively, the Padres managed eight hits but were 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position. “The effort is there. We didn’t score any runs but are trying,” Barajas said after the game. Manny Machado went 2-for-4 and finished his first season as a Padre with a .256 average and a .796 OPS.
The Padres only struck out seven times on Sunday, but 85 times this season, the Padres struck out more than ten times in a game. This is something that needs to be improved upon in 2020. The Padres finish with an overall record of 70-92.
James was born and raised in America’s Finest City. He is a passionate baseball fan with even more passion towards his hometown Padres. Editor-In-Chief of EastVillageTimes.com. Always striving to bring you the highest quality in San Diego Sports News. Original content, with original ideas, that’s our motto. Enjoy.
Before reyes tardes padres was 3games over 500 then afterwards reyes trade everything goes wrong.tatis was down .
Bummer. Season started with so much promise and excitement. Management, players and fans expected more. Sometimes it takes all the pieces coming together and some luck. They need to be better situational hitters. They swing the same if the count is 2 and 1 or 1 and two. Shorten up the swing, look for contact instead of home runs. This is a big reason they strike out so much and so many of their home runs are solo shots. They need to work on pitch recognition this off season. I realize pitchers are qualified, but an example today was Myers striking out swinging when the pitch bounced in front of the plate. Either he or they are not seeing or recognizing the pitch being thrown.
Another depressing season comes to an end.
Who would have thought, at the beginning of the season, that these would be the pitchers who would pitch in the last game of the year.
Another last place finish.