There’s the thrill of the Padres taking two out of three from the Dodgers, sure, but that flame has been well and truly doused by the wet blanket of a sweep at the hands of the Rockies.
Wednesday’s 8-0 beatdown by last-place Colorado – which followed 5-4 and 6-3 losses Monday and Tuesday – came on the heels of the triumph over first-place Los Angeles. The sweep also left the Friars again fighting to get back to .500, a goal they reached with Sunday’s series-closing win over the Dodgers.
“We haven’t played at a superstar level,” Fernando Tatis Jr. told MLB.com. “It’s just as simple as that.”
Michael King went 5.1 innings, but the Rockies, winners of seven straight, were not kind, tagging him for six runs, starting with a Brenton Doyle home run in the second inning. And the Padres, hitless until Jurickson Profar broke through with a leadoff single in the fourth, were down 7-0 by in the seventh by the time they managed to get two hits in an inning.
“Listen, the sky is not falling in our clubhouse, I can tell you that,” manager Mike Shildt told MLB.com, noting how the production of Profar, Jake Cronenworth and rookie Jackson Merrill has made up for lengthy slumps by Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts.
The Padres hit the road, and after an off-day Thursday, begin a four-game series in Atlanta. They head to Cincinnati after facing the second-place Braves.
They are set to send Matt Waldron and Yu Darvish to the mound Friday and Saturday with the Sunday and Monday starters TBD.
A pitcher likely to fill one of those slots? Joe Musgrove. The club has targeted this weekend as the best time for the return of the right-hander, on the IL since May 1 with elbow inflammation.
Note: Photo credit, inset – Padre fans had few reasons to cheer Wednesday, but Jackson Merrill made a great grab in center in the ninth. Screen shot, mlb.com/Padres