The Padres streak of disappointment continued Monday night in a 9-4 loss against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The game looked promising at first with the Padres getting out to a 3-0 lead in the top of 2nd thanks to a Ha-Seong Kim two RBI single and a Gary Sánchez single. It would be downhill from there as starter Reiss Knehr gave up 5 earned runs in 2 innings of work in his first game since April. The Padres bats never really got going after that only amounting to 1 more run for the rest of the game while the Pirates continued to pile it on.

Here are three takeaways from the game:

Continuing to Struggle

The Padres came into today’s game after dropping 2 out of 3 vs the Nationals. They came into today’s game mortified over the season they have had up to this point. This road trip for the team is arguably the biggest of the year. This trip most likely decides if they will be buyers or sellers at the deadline. The offense didn’t do all that bad today getting 11 hits. They still have to improve on situational hitting, but winning a game is hard when your pitching staff gives up 9 runs is hard. 

The Lone Bright Spot

In the past couple of games, Ha-Seong Kim has established himself as the team leadoff batter. After having a great series this weekend, he went 3-5 in today’s game. He is one of the few players that look to be giving it their all day in and day out. If the team gave the effort he gave they would be in way better shape. He puts together great at-bats and has been a bright spot in a rough patch for the team.  

Be More Efficient

Going into today we knew it was going to be a bullpen style of game. It didn’t go to plan obviously and there are several reasons why that happened. First off way to many hits were being given up. The solo home runs aren’t what is currently hurting them. When the Pirates scored all their runs today it was because of quality at-bats with runners on base. There need to be runners to not make those singles so costly.

The starter Knehr today gave up 6 hits and 2 walks in 2 innings leading to 5 ERs. That is not a winning recipe. Not every pitcher did terrible today but nearly every pitcher threw more than 40 pitches without going too far into the game. Obviously, this isn’t the only thing wrong with the team but it needs to be improved to help out the bats when they do well. 

The Padres will play tomorrow at 4:05 PST in Pittsburgh vs the Pirates in game 2 of the 3-game series.