San Diego, CA
Padres still can’t escape struggles against Rockies
Clearly, the surging Padres aren’t going to win every game.
They do need to win more games against the cellar-dwelling Rockies.
Manny Machado and Donovan Solano both homered, but a souped-up bullpen stumbled on Friday night and the Padres’ bewildering struggles against Colorado continued in a 5-2 loss in front of a sellout crowd of 44,393 at Petco Park.
“Tomorrow, we’ve got to change that,” second baseman Xander Bogaerts said. “These guys probably feel good playing against us. We have to come in here and change that tomorrow.”
The Padres began the weekend with a 29-23 record against teams in playoff position and have clinched their first season series against the Dodgers since 2010.
Lot of good that will do if they’re giving games away against the Rockies, who have won six of the first eight meetings and are a win away from clinching the season series.
Friday’s lead unraveled when it looked like the Padres’ strength was ready to bring it home.
Machado homered off Padres nemesis Austin Gomber to tie the game at 1 in the second inning, Donovan Solano added a solo shot in the fourth and Randy Vásquez got through five innings to hand a one-run lead to the bullpen that A.J. Preller strengthened ahead of Tuesday’s deadline.
First out of the gate on Friday: Jeremiah Estrada.
Only he walked the first two batters he faced, gave up an infield single to load the bases and coughed up three runs on Kris Bryant’s one-out single and Jake Cave’s two-out blooper.
“Jeremiah’s been fantastic for us,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “The two walks, that got him. Some softer contact and found a hole and next thing you know they threw up some runs.”
Alek Jacob got the final out of the sixth inning, but he allowed the Rockies an insurance run in the seventh on back-to-back singles and Ryan McMahon’s ensuing sacrifice fly.
It was the first run that Jacob has allowed in six appearances in the majors.
Jacob followed with a scoreless eighth and Yuki Matsui threw a perfect ninth.
The Padres can only hope Friday’s stumble is a one-off for a team that’s still won nine of its first 12 since the All-Star break.
For a team that’s gone through the Guardians, Orioles and Dodgers in stacking that second-half success, there certainly isn’t much logic in such drastic struggles against a team that walked into Petco Park 30 games under .500 and a 16-41 road record.
Except this.
“It’s the big leagues,” first baseman Jake Cronenworth said Friday afternoon as he assessed the challenge of carrying momentum forward after improving to 7-3 on the season against the Dodgers.
As in they are more than aware of the wrench that any team can throw into their plans at any point.
In fact, they’ve already been swept once at home by the Rockies after winning a series against the Dodgers, as was the case in May.
They believe things are different now.
“We’re further along in the season,” Cronenworth said. “We know who we are more than we have all year. I think the way we’ve been playing as well is different.”
It just didn’t materialize on Friday against the Rockies.
Their only runs scored on home runs from Machado, his 17th of the season, and Solano, his fourth.
Jurickson Profar looked like he’d put a charge in their hopes to start the eighth, but center fielder Brenton Doyle leapt against the wall in right-center to rob him of a home run to get his bullpen started on the right foot.
“That’s tough,” Bogaerts said. “The timing of the game, too, right there. If that ball’s gone, a home run? It sucked the air out of the whole ballpark for sure. … Credit to Gomber, he kept us off-balance the whole night. I feel like that ball from Profar would have been a nice game-changer possibility and he made an unbelievable play.”
By the time Gomber exited after seven innings, he’d struck out five and scattered five hits and a walk.
Through three starts against the Padres, Gomber has allowed three earned runs over 18 innings for a 1.50 ERA.
Two of his three wins this season are against the Padres.
Shoot, six of the Rockies’ 41 victories this season are against the Padres.
Rebounding from his worst start of the season (2 IP, 6 ER), Vásquez paid only for the solo homer that Brendan Rodgers pulled to left to start the second inning.
Vásquez struck out four in five innings and allowed just three hits despite walking two batters and hitting another before giving a one-run lead to the new-look relief corps.
“I was confident; I still am confident in that bullpen,” Vásquez said through interpreter Danny Sanchez. “We have a lot of talent in that bullpen, so I’m super confident in those guys.”
Originally Published: