The San Diego Padres are on track to clinch a playoff berth, but last night wasn't their night.
The San Diego Padres haven’t had much luck with the Los Angeles Dodgers this season, and that proved to be the case again on Tuesday night in a 7-0 blowout loss that allowed the Arizona Diamondbacks to pick up a game on the Padres in the wild-card race.
The Padres moved up starter Michael King in this one to have him available for the final game of the season, and King made them wonder why. He lost his command completely in the bottom of the second inning and gave up four runs, starting with a bases-loaded walk to Tommy Edman, then another to Mookie Betts.
Freddie Freeman capitlized on the traffic with a two-run RBI single to center, and the hole got deeper in the fourth when Freeman singled home another run. That made it 5-0, and for all intents and purposes the game was over.
The Dodgers did get single runs in the sixth and seventh off relievers Wandy Peralta and Griffin Canning, respectively. Both runs came on solo homers, with Edman getting the first in the sixth and Will Smith following up with the one in the seventh that accounted for the final score of 7-0.
LA went with Brock Stewart as their opener instead of listed starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and usually that means opportunities to break through against at least one reliever. But the Padres couldn’t score at all against anyone as the Dodgers bullpen wound up scattering five hits with two walks and ten strikeouts to get the collective win.
The loss itself wasn’t a complete shock, but it was surprisng given how hot the Padres were coming into this one. They get two more chances to get a win in LA, but this game made it look like their postseason fate is going to come down to their final series against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Speaking of Arizona, they picked up a game by beating up on the Colorado Rockies, 7-2, while the Philadelphia Phillies won and the Chicago Cubs lost. As a result the Padres are now back in a three-way tie with the Phillies and Cubs for the three wild-card spots, so last night produced no clarity.
It did help the Dodgers, though, as they moved to within a game of the Milwaukee Brewers in their race for the best record in baseball. The Padres get another shot against LA on Wednesday night as the jumbled-up race continues.
