BOUNCED AROUND
Padres homestand could have been better
There remain 155 games — and then some, they hope — for the Padres to reach their potential.
But as of Wednesday, they have not been who they think they are.
“We had a chance to have a great homestand if we could have got this one today,” manager Jayce Tingler said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t get it done, so it was probably just an OK homestand.”
So they’re not great yet. They’re just OK. At this point, that means hardly better than average.
The Padres dropped a game for the third time in four days, because balls continued to bounce off gloves and batting averages continued to drop.
They came back to force extra innings Wednesday but lost for the third time in four games when they couldn’t answer the run the San Francisco Giants scored in the top of the 10th inning.
The 3-2 defeat at Petco Park completed the seasonopening seven-game homestand that had begun so spectacularly.
The Padres produced 19 runs in starting the season 3-0, only to score eight in the final four games.
With a runner placed on second to start the 10th inning, the Giants scored with two fly balls. The Padres got their runner, Jurickson Profar, to third base on a groundout but could not drive him home, as Jorge Mateo struck out and Tucupita Marcano flied out.
The Padres had four singles Wednesday before Wil Myers came to the plate with two outs in the eighth inning
and sent a high fly ball into the left-field seats to tie the game 2-2.
They had committed two errors and had one non-error help the Giants to their two runs.
“I think we’ve got a chance to be a really good defensive team,” Tingler said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t see it on this homestand. But I think there are some things we can clean up. … We need to tighten the defensive side up for sure on this road trip.”
Mateo, making his second career start in center field, ran a long way to make a sliding catch on a shallow fly ball for the first out of the second inning. But when the next batter, Darin Ruf, launched a long fly ball his way, Mateo went back and jumped in front of the fence and had the ball go off his glove and over the wall for a two-run homer.
“I felt like I did everything right, except catch the ball,” Mateo said. “When I hit up against the wall, the ball came out. I’ve got to make sure next time I make the play.”
Mateo was not charged with an error, but the Padres did commit a pair of miscues to move into the major league lead in that category.
Even in the 10th inning, another play that was not an error was nonetheless a devastating misplay. Instead of getting the ball in position to also check the runner, Alex Dickerson, at third base, pitcher Tim Hill approached Mike Yastrzemski’s slow roller along the first-base line with his back to the third-base line. As Dickerson stood still and the ball
stayed fair, Yastrzemski raced past Hill to get to first base uncontested rather than becoming the second out. The next batter, Donovan Solano hit a sacrifice fly to right field.
“If we’re able to get that out there, who knows how it would have played out,” Tingler said. “You’d like to go back and have that out and go from there. … It was a little defensive mistake, which we’ve been making. But we’ve got to be in a situation where we’re putting more runs on the board.”
Profar’s single with one
out in the fifth inning was the Padres’ first hit by someone other than starting pitcher Blake Snell, whose single in the third inning was his first hit in 10 big-league at-bats.
Giants starter Kevin Gausman, who completed seven innings in 96 pitches, threw just 47 pitches in cruising through four shutout innings before the Padres got a run and made the right-hander work a bit more by throwing 21 pitches in the fifth. It was the normally patient Padres’ plan to try to jump on Gausman
early in at-bats, as his fourseam and split-fingered fastballs form a difficult combination from which to battle from behind in counts.
“Gausman has turned himself into one of the better pitchers in the league,” Tingler said. “… We just couldn’t get him squared up enough today.”
After his single to center field, Profar went to second on a wild pitch and scored on Mateo’s single, as the rookie got back half the runs he had let carom off his glove in the second inning.
Brian O’Grady pinch-hit
for Snell, who had thrown 87 pitches, and f lied out to right field to end the inning.
Meanwhile, Snell was unable to maintain his early efficiency and was also the victim of some shoddy play.
“He certainly did his job and kept us in the game,” Tingler said. “He came out in the first and looked as sharp as I’ve seen him. He battled all day, made good pitches. I know the guys are frustrated, just not being able to get him some runs on the board.”