The San Diego Padres added Robbie Ray at the trade deadline, but he definitely didn't have it last night.
The San Diego Padres added two important starters to shore up their pitching staff for the stretch run, but Robbie Ray became the second failure of the week when he struggled mightily in the Paderes 6-3 loss to the Houston Astros last night.
Traffic and a lack of command did Ray in against the Astros, as he walked five and gave up seven hits in his five inning stint. The fact that he made it through five was rather amazing in and of itself, according to AJ Cassavell of MLB.com.
“His command was definitely off,” said manager Craig Stammen. “He got behind in a lot of counts. … He grinded that outing out, gave us five -- which is big. Showed how competitive he is.”
Some of this was due to the scheduling chaos that often comes with trade deadline acquisitions. Ray hadn’t pitched since he baffled the Padres back on July 30 for the San Francisco Giants, but he looked nothing like that pitcher last night.
“I just put myself into bad situations,” Ray said. “The walks -- I think that was the biggest thing. I was just getting a little quick tonight. … Overall I’ve got to limit the walks.”
Stammen also chose to go big picture in his comments, even with the Padres in the thick of the wild-card race.
"You're looking at: Will we be better with those guys over a period of time?” Stammen said. “Not just one single first start. I know the reaction is this is their first start, and they didn't pitch their best.
“We're thankful that they're on our team. And we're looking forward to the next eight, nine, 10 starts -- and the playoff starts that they get."
The Padres did show some fight in the middle innings to get back in the game after Ray left them down 4-0, as Fernando Tatis Jr. finally got into double digits with his tenth homer of the season in the fifth after an RBI triple from Jackson Merrill helped spark a two run rally in the fourth.
But the Padres bullpen wasn’t up to holding down the fort after that, as Yuki Matsui gave up a solo home run to Cam Smith in the sixth and Wandy Peralta allowed the Astros to add another run in the eighth. It was a disappointing night after the excitement of the deadline additions, and the Padres will try to get back on track tonight with Michael King facing Peter Lambert for the Astros.
