GOOD TRIP, SOUR END
Padres win 6 of 8 on road, but last one that got away hurts
CLEVELAND
They felt good, and then they didn’t. So it felt good. But then, it didn’t.
“I mean, look, if you go on the trip and you say 6-2, you’re probably going to take it,” Padres manager Bob Melvin said late Wednesday. “But when you have a chance to win and go 7-1 and you’re in that position, it’s all about the
D5 • Clevinger emotional about his return to the mound.
particular game that you’re playing. So, wish we could have pulled that one out.”
Four outs from completing a doubleheader sweep and what would have been the most successful long road trip since a 7-1 trip inaugural season in 1969, the Padres instead settled for a split and a 6-2 finish to their 10-day trek.
Wednesday’s doubleheader against the Guardians at cold and damp Progressive Field began with a strong return by Mike Clevinger, saw rookie MacKenzie Gore push further than he had before in the second game and didn’t go entirely the Padres’ way in part because of some of their former players.
Clevinger made his season
debut, and the Padres won 5-4 in the first game. After Gore went a career-high 52⁄3 innings in the second game and the Padres took a threerun lead into the bottom of the eighth inning, the Guardians tied the game in the eighth and won 6-5 in the 10th inning when Steven Kwan’s single off Dinelson Lamet scored former Padres prospect Owen Miller from second base with the winning run.
Miller and former Padres right fielder Franmil Reyes scored, and former Padres Austin Hedges and Josh Naylor each hit RBI singles in the Guardians’ three-run eighth inning.
“Tough way to end what was a good trip,” Melvin said.
“… We had that one, it felt like, by the throat there. Obviously had to use some different guys in a doubleheader
situation but still had a good chance to win the game. So, disappointing.”
The Padres used their frontline back-end relievers to close out the opener. So in the second game, it was up to Craig Stammen, Tim Hill, Robert Suarez and Lamet. All of them either were charged with at least one run or allowed an inherited runner to score.
Despite the success of the trip, the bullpen is leaking runs at an alarming rate. Padres relievers allowed 19 runs (14 earned) in 26 innings on the trip and were the culprits in both losses.
Not all of Wednesday’s drama was bad for the Padres.
Clevinger dined Monday night on an off-day for both teams with friend Zach Plesac, who opposed him in the first game for the Guardians.
“It was overwhelming at first,” Clevinger said after taking the mound in a major league game for the first time since the 2020 National League Division Series and against his former team. “It was amazing to get back out there and compete. It’s been a super long road.”
He allowed a run in the third inning, and when the two runners he left on base for Steven Wilson scored in the fifth, Clevinger’s final line had him allowing three runs on four hits and three walks with four strikeouts in 42⁄3 innings.
Nabil Crismatt worked the sixth and seventh innings, allowing a run, Luis Garcia pitched a perfect eighth, and Taylor Rogers set down the Guardians’ 2-3-4 hitters in order for his 10th save.
One-out walks by Jake Cronenworth and Manny Machado and a two-out single by Hosmer gave the Padres a 1-0 lead in the first inning of the second game.
Cronenworth reached on an error in the third inning and Machado followed with a home run on a 108 mph drive so much on a line that it barely cleared the 19-foot wall in left field.
After the Guardians tied the game 3-3 in the fifth, doubles by Haseong Kim and Austin Nola, a single by Matt Beaty and sacrifice fly by Cronenworth put the Padres back up, 5-3, in the sixth inning.
The Guardians got to 5-4 in the seventh when Miller drew a one-out walk off Crismatt, went to third on a double by Naylor and scored on a groundout by Amed Rosario. Both Miller and Naylor were part of the Clevinger trade.
So was right-hander Cal Quantrill, who started Wednesday’s second game.
Gore went 52⁄3 innings, an out longer than he had in any of his first three starts, and he became just the fourth Padres pitcher ever to go at least five innings and allow two earned runs or fewer in his first four career starts.
The run against Gore came in the second inning when a leadoff single and a pair of two-out singles loaded the bases and he walked Jose Ramirez. With his four-hit, three-walk, twostrikeout outing, Gore lowered his ERA to 1.71 in 21 total innings.
After the Guardians got to 3-2 with a run against Stammen in the seventh, the Padres went back up by three in the eighth.
Cronenworth was forced out on Machado’s grounder, but Machado stole second and scored when a checked swing by Jurickson Profar sent the ball down the left-field line for a double. Trevor Stephan walked the bases full, struck out Jorge Alfaro and then walked CJ Abrams to make it 5-2.
The Guardians scored three runs off Hill in the eighth, the final two on singles by Hedges and Naylor, who was pinch-hitting against Suarez.
Suarez pitched a scoreless ninth, and the Padres loaded the bases with one out in the top of the 10th before pinch-hitter Nola grounded into a double play.
“It’s still a good road trip,” Hosmer said. “This is a tough day. It was a grind of a day. Obviously, there’s no excuse, but a great road trip overall.”