The San Diego Padres are still searching for their first extra innings victory of the year after dropping today’s game 7-5 in the 11th inning. Coming into today’s game the Padres season has been nothing short of a disappointment. Meanwhile, on the other side, the Reds are one of the hottest teams in baseball.
To start the game starter, Seth Lugo gave the Padres a solid 5 innings of work with no runs given up. At the same time, the Padres would also score no runs on the Reds during that span. The game was a pitcher’s dual until the 9th inning where Matt Carpenter had a sac fly to tie the game at 2-2. The game in extras though would be a disaster as the Padres pitches would both be rookies. This would end poorly after giving up a home run with two outs in the bottom of the 10th and 11th innings to put the Reds over the top 7-5. The bats showed up when they had to but the pitching didn’t get the job done.
Here are three takeaways from today’s game:
Bullpen Depth
The Padres for most of the season have struggled with their bullpen. Other than Hader most of the bullpen has been inconsistent throughout the year. This past offseason the front office focused on the lineup without worrying about the bullpen. Those consequences are now happening the Friars move to 0-7 in extra-inning games this season. In extras today the team had two unproven rookies put in spots to win games its not the best idea to have a pitcher with little major league experience in to win.
Lack of Focus
All-season the Padres have been unable to put everything together at the same time. Today was more of the same even though the team had 5 runs, they only had 1 going into the 9th inning. During the game today there was a lack of communication between Grisham and Soto where Grisham ran into Soto on a ball that would tie the game at 1-1. With those mental errors, the team will never go where they need to be.
On Par for the Season
Today’s game shouldn’t come as a surprise to any Padres fans who have watched the team this year. There isn’t a lot to say that hasn’t already been said about this team. Until they can put every aspect of hitting, starting pitching, and relief pitching they will not win any game at a consistent rate. That is what they need too at this stage of the season as without a few win streaks this team will be way out of the playoff picture.
The Padres and Reds will face off again tomorrow at 10:40 PST in Cincinnati.
