Buehler Blows Up Big In Padres Brutal 8-0 Loss To Arizona

The San Diego Padres have been fighting back in nearly all of the losses in their recent slump, but that wasn’t the case last night as the Padres submitted an ugly, sloppy showing in their 8-0 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks last night. 

Manager Craig Stammen seemed all too aware of the ugliness of this loss, and as a result his comments were harsher than usual.

“That didn’t look good, feel good, taste good. We’ve got to wash that off real quick and get back at it,” Stammen said in a piece written by Bernie Wilson of MLB.com.

The quality of the loss was especially noticeable given the opponent, as the Padres are supposed to be fighting Arizona for a playoff berth now that both teams have fallen far behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West.  

It wasn’t hard to know where to lay the blame, either. Walker Buehler gave up seven earned runs in five innings, and he committed one of the two errors in the first inning that allowed Arizona to break on top, 2-0. 

“Second start in a row, can’t blame the weather conditions like in Chicago,” Stammen said. “He was leaving balls over the plate and guys were doing damage on it. There were a few seeing-eye singles tonight, a couple misplays in the first inning. The big hit was the home run Max Kepler hit. He just avoided that in all his previous starts in the month of June.”

Buehler emerged as a pleasant surprise in June when he turned back the clock and pitched like a top-of-the-rotation hurler, but the Diamonbacks feasted on many of his pitches in this one. 

“The strikes are not good enough, obviously,” Buehler said. “We get back home, and get a win yesterday, and I kind of want to carry momentum and just deflate our team, kind of right off the jump. So, you know, not a lot of good, but we'll keep working.”

The right-hander also has a knack for giving sideways excuses, and that surfaced in his post-game comments as well. There’s nowhere to hide when you give up 16 runs in two games, and Buehler mentioned that his margin for error isn’t what it was back in the day. 

“I felt good,” he said. “I felt my stuff was fine. I made some bad pitches in bad spots, and didn't get ahead enough. At this point in my career, the little details matter a lot more than maybe they did back in the day. And so, it's just hard. You go on a good little run, and then give up 16 in two games, it's difficult.

“Especially when, I think, at this stage of my career, I'm supposed to be a guy that can kind of help us get some momentum, or at least give ourselves a chance, and you give up those kinds of numbers, there’s not a whole lot you can do from there.”