The theme of inconsistency for the Padres was once again present on Monday evening as the Orioles cruised to win. A Ryan O’Hearn home run put the Orioles up 1-0 early before Gunnar Henderson would add on and make it 4-0 with a bases-clearing double. That would be all the run support that Baltimore needed as the only Padre run all night would come from Garret Cooper, who hit his first home run as a member of the team. Overall, it was another disappointing night for the team as they failed to establish any momentum and once again put themselves in a deeper hole.

Here are three takeaways from the loss:

Grayson Rodriguez, Felix Bautista are a dangerous combo

As the Padres struggled all game long to string together hits on offense, Grayson Rodriguez was the main reason why. Rodriguez, who was recently a top prospect in the Orioles farm system, earned his 3rd win of the year in a dominant outing against San Diego. He made quick work of the Padre lineup as he allowed just 3 hits and 1 ER over 7 innings. He struck out 6 along the way and set a major tone for Baltimore in the game. Behind Rodriguez came Jacob Webb (8th inning) and Felix Bautista, an absolutely dominant closer who will be in the conversation for best relief pitcher of the year at the season’s end. He shut the door on the Padres in the ninth as he earned save number 32 on the season and brought his ERA to a lethal 1.57. Bautista has made life hard for hitters across major league baseball all season long, and the Padres were no exception. The 1-2 punch of Grayson Rodriguez and Felix Bautista in full effect can be a nightmare for Baltimore’s opponents going forward and help them make some major noise in the playoffs. Hopefully, for the Padre’s sake, they will not have to see Bautista close any more games against them in this series.

Darvish makes history in the loss

Yu Darvish, one of the Padre’s aces, made himself a little bit of impressive history against the Orioles on Monday. While he took a loss in the game to bring his record to 8-8 and his ERA to 4.24, what he was able to accomplish was quite the feat. Darvish became the all-time strikeout leader in MLB history for Japanese-born players. With his 1,919th strikeout, he passed Hideo Nomo for first place, as well as other notable pitchers such as Masahiro Tanaka and Kenta Maeda along the way. The accomplishment goes to show how consistent of a pitcher Darvish has been throughout his career and emphasizes his importance in the San Diego pitching staff.

Going forward, the Padres will need their best from Darvish as they fall farther from playoff contention with each loss. Darvish will need to put his best foot forward and provide the team with some dominant innings in hopes of picking up some much-needed ground as soon as possible.

Quiet day from the heart of the Padre lineup

It was a very disappointing effort from the Padre’s lineup against the Orioles, as they were only able to muster 4 hits in the game. The 1-5 spots in the lineup managed to hit a combined 2-16 from the plate in the contest and left Yu Darvish and the bullpen with a margin for error that ended up being too much to keep up with. The theme of inconsistency within the San Diego lineup has been quite present over their past few series, with 10 or 8-run performances often being followed up the next day with 0-2 run displays. While it’s certainly nice to see the offense have games in which high quantities of runs are scored, those games simply become insignificant if they are not piled together as part of a winning streak that helps the team show some consistency and improvement. The Padres will need to clean up their act in the rest of the series and provide some consistent offense if they want to prove that they are capable of beating top teams and eventually becoming one themselves.

San Diego’s series against the Orioles marked the beginning of a critical 10-game home stand that will say a lot about the team’s legitimacy regarding a playoff push this year. With 2 games left in the series against Baltimore, ex-Oriole Manny Machado had some high praise for his former team. “I’ve never seen a team rebuild that quickly”, Machado stated. The Padres will certainly have to battle if they wish to come back and win the final two games of the series, with the next game taking place on Tuesday night.

First pitch is scheduled for 6:40 PST.