After Saturday’s offensive explosion, the Padres hoped to carry over that into Sunday’s game. It was a bullpen game for the Padres and it actually didn’t go terribly. Adrian Morejon and Pedro Avila each went 3 innings giving up 0 runs. The Padres bats did not show up in the series finale after yesterday’s 12-run outburst. It was a scoreless afternoon for the Padres until the 1-2 combo of Kim and Tatis went back to back tying the game at 2.
Unfortunately for the Padres in the next half inning, pinch hitter Tyler Stephenson hit a 2 run home run to put the Reds up 2. The 2-run homer would be costly as Jake Cronenworth would double and cut the deficit to 1. The Padres situational hitting that has hurt them a lot would cost them again as they could not get the runner in.
Here are three takeaways from the game:
Inconsistency
After yesterday’s high-scoring outburst, the Padres looked like they may have found something on the offensive end. All season the team hasn’t been able to string together any sort of streak of consistency. Today was no different as the only way that yesterday’s win could have meant something is if they could win today. It is not like the pitching was poor today either it was just a lack of offense as they had 0 runs in 7 innings of play. That is not a good recipe for winning ball games. The at-bats taken during that run weren’t great either as the Reds starter Andrew Abbott in 7.2 innings of work struck out 12 Padre hitters.
Late Game Pitching Struggles Prove to be Costly
This season the Padres have lost several due to late-game pitching mishaps. Today one mistake overshadows the good job that the bullpen did today. This is the second time this weekend that the game was lost late. The Padres had newly named all-star Josh Hader warming up but elected not to put him in given he normally pitches in the 9th inning. Today’s hit wasn’t a walk off but it gave the Reds the lead heading into the 9th. Late home runs for any team are costly but especially given the season the offense is having scoring runners that are in scoring position.
Moving Forward
As we get into July it means that the trade deadline is approaching sooner rather than later. The Padres front office will have to make a lot of difficult decisions that have to be made. It is up for debate on who should be heading out but a lot of questions have been raised around Juan Soto. Given his contract will be up in a season will they want to invest more money into this team that hasn’t turned out the way they originally planned? Only time will tell.
The Padres will face the Angels tomorrow back at Petco Park with Blake Snell on the mound. The game will start at 6:40 PST and will be televised on FS1.
