It felt like the San Diego Padres’ game all day, in large part, because it was.

Michael King twirled six innings of two-run ball, sporting eight strikeouts and only one walk. He exited the game with a 7-2 lead over the Arizona Diamondbacks. It was over in a hurry.

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The Padres’ bullpen (uncharacteristically) gave up the game in a loud way. David Morgan and Bradgley Rodriguez combined to give up six runs — including a Tim Tawa grand slam — in the bottom of the seventh before Ron Marinaccio and Wandy Peralta gave up four more runs in the eighth to give the D-backs a five-run cushion.

San Diego tried to come back multiple times but couldn’t answer once, ending in a disappointing loss after what had started off as a promising game. Three home runs, two from Manny Machado and the other from Luis Campusano, had buoyed the Friars for most of the game until the relief blowup.

On most days, if the Friars scored seven runs before turning it over to the bullpen, there’d be no worry of giving the game up. But yesterday that was not to be.

The hard truth for the Friar Faithful is there will be games like this. It’s not an indictment on the bullpen, it’s just a long, long, season and leads will be blown sometimes — no matter how good the club is.

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That being said, San Diego will return home tonight hoping to best the similarly-hot Chicago Cubs. Their offense will be back in the pitcher-friendly confines of Petco Park so they’ll need to bet on a bounce back performance from the relief corps.

Taking the mound

Matthew Boyd (CHC) v. Randy Vásquez (SD)

That being said, Boyd (although feared in the past) has not been pitching like himself lately. He gave up six runs in his first start of the season before being placed on the injured list for two weeks. He’s been better since returning but still sports a 5.79 ERA on the year.

Boyd has also yet to go a full six innings in a game (5 2/3 at most). That’s good news for the Friars, who will hope to get to the Chicago bullpen quickly. They’ve been mostly solid but have struggled to a 3.95 ERA to start the year, and are without closer Daniel Palencia.

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Vásquez, on the other hand, has been San Diego’s ace to open the season. He’s tallied a 1.88 ERA and 1.08 WHIP to go with 30 strikeouts across 28 2/3 innings. He’s been a beast on the mound for the Padres and has only given up more than one run once.

Helping Vásquez significantly is his history facing Chicago. The righty owns a .194 opponent batting average against the Cubs’ lineup. If he can limit them similarly (like he’s done to opponents all season), Vásquez will have no problem tonight.

Batter up!

After some early tweaking by manager Craig Stammen, the lineup has been more or less set lately. It seems likely that continues tonight against Boyd, looking something like this:

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I’m hoping that Song makes his debut at the plate tonight. It’s possible that he debuts in a pinch-hit opportunity or DH-ing) as opposed to starting the game at second. But it seems possible he takes the start over Jake Cronenworth after Cronenworth’s slow offensive start to the season.

Tatis is still searching for his first homer of the year. It has been — by far — his longest drought without one. Hopefully he’ll hit one while being cheered on by the Friar Faithful tonight.

Relief corps

Like I said, the San Diego bullpen looked rough yesterday. But that’s hardly an indication of a downhill turn for the group. They’ve been dominant this year, ranking third in the majors with a 3.03 ERA.

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The high-leverage guys (Jason Adam, Adrian Morejon and Mason Miller) have continued to be dominant — showing no signs of stopping. Miller took the franchise record for scoreless innings pitched this weekend and will look to extend it tonight if San Diego has a lead in the ninth.

Behind those three is Kyle Hart, who will surely be first out of the ‘pen if Vásquez doesn’t perform as well as he typically does. Hart can cover several innings well for the Friars with his history as a starter, though he hopefully won’t need to so long as Vásquez pitches a gem.

The big package of reforms county supervisors want to put on the ballot has to go through one more approval before it’s officially something voters will consider in November. 

At least one state senator hopes they will change it significantly before it does. 

Sen. Catherine Blakespear told our Politics Report team that she finds the measure “outrageous” not because of what it does, necessarily, but because of when it does it. 

Main beef: Blakespear said she is uncharacteristically calling out her fellow Democrats at the county because the proposal includes limiting supervisors’ terms to three. Right now they’re limited to two terms in office. If, she says, such a change is a good one for the long term, then they should do it for future supervisors, not themselves. 

“It’s unquestionably a self-serving power grab. It gives us all a bad name,” she said. She also objected to parts of it that would limit the terms of the sheriff, district attorney, assessor and treasurer-tax collector. 

Also: We have a report about the disappointing revenue numbers from the trash tax the city began collecting. They didn’t anticipate people would want smaller bins at the level they do. 

The Politics Report is for Voice of San Diego donors. 

You can read it here.

Correction: The original version of the Politics Report included a line about what other legislators who represent San Diego think about putting term limits on the district attorney, sheriff and others. This was the result of a misunderstanding and has been removed. 

Sacramento Report: The ‘Stop Nick Shirley Bill’

Some Republican state lawmakers fear a proposed state bill intended to protect the privacy of people who work with immigrants would stop “citizen journalists” from investigating fraud. 

GOP lawmakers coined Assemblymember Mia Bonta’s bill the “Stop the Nick Shirley Act,” after a conservative activist whose videos about Somali-operated Minnesota day care centers spurred a immigration-enforcement surge. 

At the bill’s hearing, people testified they feared violence because they provide legal, health or social services to immigrants. Bonta’s bill would allow those workers to provide a substitute mailing address to the secretary of state’s office to protect their privacy, akin to survivors of sexual assault and domestic abuse. 

Nadia Lathan, our Sacramento Reporter, is also tracking a bill that would delay government response times to public records requests. Many city and county governments back the bill because they say people are abusing requests. First Amendment and civil liberties groups worry the elongated timeline would dissuade people from filing public records.

Read the full newsletter here.

VOSD Podcast: Those County Reforms

On the latest episode, our hosts talk about your ballot and the city of San Diego’s budget trouble.

First up! San Diego County supervisors have officially taken the first step to put a measure on the ballot that would extend their term limits. But there are other county government reforms in that measure that are way more interesting.

Next, Mayor Todd Gloria released his proposed budget. Some folks are very mad, but we saw that coming. We explain the proposed cuts on the show.

Finally: You got to be delusional to run for governor of California. The podcast crew goes through a voter guide to explore some of your more interesting options.

Listen here!

In Other News 

• Baja California officials convicted a woman to 20 years in prison in connection with the execution-style killings of surfers from San Diego and Australia two years ago. (NBC 7)
• SDG&E released a proposed route for a new transmission line from Imperial Valley to the Orange County border. At least one desert conservation group is already opposing the power line. (Union-Tribune)
• Construction on controversial tiny homes for unhoused people began in Lemon Grove. (Union-Tribune)
• New report says we have dirty air. (KPBS)

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The San Diego Padres went from spending like crazy under owner Peter Seidler to steadily slashing payroll after his passing. With the team finalizing a record-breaking sale, it appears new leadership will take things back in the other direction.

According to Jon Heyman of the New York Post, the “early belief around baseball is that new apdres owner José E. Felicianio “will be in it to win” and could become very aggressive to improve the team. That could include getting into a bidding war for Tarik Skubal.

MLB Power Rankings Week 4, Padres Sit Near Top

Heyman wrote that there’s a belief the Padres may begin “resuming the winning strategy” that fans fell in love with under the late Seidler. That could show up in the winter during MLB free agency, with San Diego potentially joining the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets in the pursuit of two-time AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal.

It would be a strategy that is certainly music to the ears of Padres’ general manager A.J. Preller. He’s consistently been one of the most aggressive decision-makers in baseball, as demonstrated last summer when he dealt prospect Leo De Vries to the Athletics to acquire All-Star closer Mason Miller.

One other thing to note is the Padres’ long-standing interest in acquiring Boston Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran. While he isn’t believed to be available right now, that could change if the team is still struggling this summer. In that event, San Diego stands out as a potential trade partner.

The Padres would certainly have to shell out $50-plus million per season to land Skubal, making him the highest-paid pitcher in baseball history. What will be interesting to see is if San Diego searches for ways to shed specific player salaries to make signing Skubal a little easier to afford.