PADRES SWEPT, HOPE AILING LAMET TO BE OK
The Padres lost a game 4-2 to the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday afternoon at Petco Park.
And as bad as that was, coming as it did with more atrocious situational hitting, they may have suffered an even bigger loss seven innings earlier.
Dinelson Lamet, their best starter a year ago, departed two innings into his first game of this season with what was termed by the team as forearm tightness.
And so, a season continued to creep along in growing misery.
A year of expectation has become a year of hope, beginning with the idea that maybe Lamet isn’t seriously
injured.
“Everything he’s gone through, all the work … we haven’t had any type of setback,” manager Jayce Tingler said. “This was the first time. I would imagine it’s tough to re-create the major leagues and being out there, the adrenaline. … The only thing I can think of is just a little more adrenaline today that maybe fired something up because we haven’t seen it over the last couple weeks.”
The hopeful tone continued for the offense, as well, after a day in which the Padres went 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position, including three straight strikeouts with the bases loaded in the eighth inning.
“Man,” Tingler said. “On the positive side, how the guys continue to battle and fight. They fought for everything and created some scoring opportunities. On the downside, not being able to cash in. That’s been the theme the last couple weeks. That doesn’t mean that’s going to continue to happen. I hope what continues to happen is we need to create more opportunities.”
The defeat dropped the Padres to .500 after 20 games. They have won just two of their six series. Their offense is a millstone around the neck of their pitching.
“We’ve got guys who are banged up,” Manny Machado said. “We’ve got guys who are grinding though things. You don’t win a championship in April. Are we putting ourselves in a lower spot? Yeah, we are. But you learn from these things. The only thing you can do is learn and keep grinding.”
Not that they’re not frustrated.
The loss was the Padres’ third in three days and their fifth in a six-game homestand, as the Brewers swept a three-game set at Petco Park for the second time in their past three visits.
“How do you think you’d feel if you lost and got swept and only won one of the last six?” Machado said when asked if players were feeling “demoralized” in the clubhouse. “I don’t need to answer that question.”
The offense was the living definition of scratching across runs Wednesday. They took a 1-0 lead in the third inning on Victor Caratini’s double, a sacrifice bunt by Craig Stammen and Trent Grisham’s single. It was their first run in 20 innings.
After the Brewers tied the game in the fourth, the Padres went back up in the bottom of that inning without getting a hit with a runner in scoring position. Jurickson Profar led off with a double, went to third on a groundout by Ha-seong Kim and scored on Caratini’s slow grounder to first base.
That was all they could manage.
They put together a rally in the eighth inning, loading the bases with no outs on a single and two walks before consecutive strikeouts by Tommy Pham, Wil Myers and Caratini.
Eric Hosmer came to the plate with runners at first and second following Fernando Tatis Jr.’s two-out double and Machado’s walk in the ninth inning. But after Tatis stole third base and Machado advanced to second on a wild pitch, Hosmer struck out against Josh Hader to end the game.
The Brewers took their first lead in the sixth inning at the end of a bizarre twopitch sequence.
With Travis Shaw on first base after a leadoff walk, Keone Kela threw a 2-2 curveball that Omar Narvaez took for what clearly should have been strike three but was called a ball. On Caratini’s throw back toward Kela, the ball hit Narvaez’s bat and rolled onto the infield grass toward third base as Shaw ran to second.
Narvaez launched the next pitch into the seats beyond right field.
Kela got the next two outs before Jace Peterson made it 4-2 by hitting a ball to almost same spot Narvaez had.
The Padres finished with seven hits Wednesday and are batting .162 (25-for-154) over the past five games. The team previously known as Slam Diego is 2-for-21 with the bases loaded this season following the three failures in the eighth inning. And after going 2-for-22 with runners in scoring position in this series, they are batting .207 in that situation this season.
“I’d be worried if we weren’t getting on base and we weren’t getting any hits,” Machado said. “I’d be really worried. But we’re getting on base. We’re having those opportunities. Those things will turn around quickly. Nobody will be talking about these first 20 games when that happens.”
Now they prepare for a four-game series at Dodger Stadium.
“Get some wins, not get swept,” Machado said of the Padres’ aim in L.A. “We’ve got to go in there and get some wins.”
And they await word on what is next for Lamet.
He will undergo an MRI, as the Padres attempt to determine if they have lost a second starting pitcher for the season.
The use of forearm tightness or strain in a preliminary diagnosis is often a precursor to an elbow injury. Padres left-hander Adrian Morejon underwent Tommy John surgery on Tuesday after leaving his April 11 start with what was at the time termed a forearm strain.
Everything seemed to be going according to plan at the start Wednesday.
Lamet had struck out four batters through two innings. He had thrown 29 pitches, almost half of them the late-darting slider that made him one of the game’s best starting pitchers in 2020. His fastball topped 97 mph on multiple occasions, and the last one he threw left his hand at 95.5 mph.
And then Stammen began warming up in the bullpen as the Padres batted in the bottom of the second inning.
Lamet’s first start of the season, delayed as the team brought him and his right elbow along slowly, was finished.
The 29-year-old did not start a spring training game until March 24 and made four other starts in Arizona, including one more in spring training.
His progression in February and March was purposely plodding. Lamet, who had Tommy John surgery in 2018, departed his final regular season start of 2020 with elbow discomfort and did not pitch in the postseason. He spent more of the offseason than he normally would have resting his arm following platelet-rich plasma injections in October.
“If there is any silver lining, I think these things happen quite a bit,” Tingler said. “I’m happy he said something and didn’t go on and keep going. Hopefully, that gives him a chance to continue to pitch and go forward. We’ll just have to wait and see.”
The story of the season so far.