The Padres margin for error is completely gone. Either they turn things around right now or a season that started with immense promise will end without a playoff appearance.
The Friars lost to the Phillies 4-3 on Friday night, their 8th loss in the last nine games, while the Reds beat the Marlins to pull into a tie for the National League’s 2nd (and final) Wild Card spot.
Blake Snell got the start and had one bad inning. After getting the first two outs of the 3rd inning he walked Jean Segura and then things just went south. Snell got ahead of J.T. Realmuto 0-2, tried to get the All-Star catcher to chase a few pitches out of the strike zone, ran the count to 3-2 and left a breaking ball over the plate that Realmuto lined to left field for an RBI double and a 1-0 Phillies lead.
Up next was Bryce Harper, who fell behind Snell 1-2. Again the Padres lefty tried to nibble around the zone, worked the count to 3-2, and split the strike zone with a breaking ball that Harper deposited into the right field seats for a 2-run homer.
Snell threw 36 pitches in the 3rd inning alone but didn’t allow any other runs and was able to work through 5.0 innings with nine strikeouts.
In the bottom of the 3rd Manny Machado hit a line drive that streaked over the left field fence in left field. It left the bat at 119.6 MPH, making it the 4th-hardest hit home run of the Statcast Era (which began in 2015). Only Yankees sluggers Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge have hit harder homers.
San Diego had a chance to do more damage in the 6th inning. Hector Neris walked the bases loaded with two outs but Tommy Pham went after the first pitch and grounded out softly to shortstop to end the threat.
Philadelphia got one more run in the 8th inning against reliever Emilio Pagan and the Padres offense couldn’t get anything else going.
In the bottom half they squandered another scoring chance. Archie Bradley walked Eric Hosmer and gave up a single to Wil Myers but Adam Frazier and Trent Grisham struck out against Archie Bradley. Pham walked to load the bases again for Fernando Tatis Jr.
Phillies manager Joe Girardi summoned former Friar Ian Kennedy from the bullpen to try and get a 4-out save. He lost a fastball up and in that hit Tatis in the helmet. The 22-year-old superstar got up and stayed in the game. Hosmer scored to make it a 4-3 game and bring Machado to the plate.
Then Doug Eddings made his presence felt and not in the good way.
The home plate umpire whose obvious bias against the Padres in a game in Miami a couple of weeks ago made him a major villain on social media was calling balls and strikes again. He called a strike on a pitch that was obviously outside and Padres manager Jayce Tingler exploded from the dugout to give Eddings an earful about his strike zone, which was truly horrendous for most of the night.
Tingler was ejected and Machado would not be far behind. Manny struck out swinging at a pitch outside the zone because he couldn’t risk it being called a strike. He turned to tell Eddings what he felt about the strike zone, tossed his batting gloves in the ump’s direction, and was also sent to the showers.
On Saturday night Joe Musgrove takes the mound against Aaron Nola, the younger brother of Padres catcher Austin Nola.
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