The San Diego Padres have had an abundance of problems lately. Their offense has been rough, to say the least. Their starting pitching doesn’t look particularly great. But their bullpen has locked it down. On Saturday against the Washington Nationals, they did not.
After Michael King pitched six beautiful innings, he returned for the seventh and struggled. After giving up a leadoff single to CJ Abrams, José Tena reached on a fielder’s choice that failed to record the out. King lost control after that, issuing a walk to load the bases with no outs before hitting Dylan Crews with a pitch to make it a one-run game.
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King likely should have come out before that ever took place, but with the bullpen taxed from Friday’s series opener and King sitting at a low pitch count, he continued to pitch and it led to the monstrosity that would eventually play out.
Bradgley Rodriguez came in and had the worst outing of his MLB career. He induced a ground ball from Drew Millas that should have been a double play. However, Xander Bogaerts failed to touch second base and Crews slid hard into the bag, forcing Bogaerts to fall over.
It only got worse from there. Manager Craig Stammen received the first ejection of his Padres tenure before Rodriguez walked in another run. An out was finally recorded with James Wood striking out and it seemed like the damage might finally be over.
But then Luis García Jr. hit a single to score two runners, making the score 6-3, Washington. Daylen Lile grounded into an RBI force out and Abrams came back up to finally end the inning by striking out. It was a dismal performance from Rodriguez in what has been a phenomenal rookie year thus far.
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However, with all that in mind, the Friars slugged three homers and one of them was Fernando Tatis Jr. to end his season-long drought. Good things did happen for the Padres, but that one inning cost them the game. They’ll face off today in the rubber match against the Nationals.
Taking the mound
Zack Littell (WAS) v. Griffin Canning (SD)
Littell was a surprising signing by the Nats this offseason. The righty spent more time on the free agency board than most expected and had to settle for a one-year, $7 million contract with the club.
He hasn’t exactly rewarded that, posting a 5.23 ERA in 53 1/3 innings. But Littell has looked good lately, giving up just three runs over his last 17 innings pitched.
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Despite Canning having a phenomenal outing in his last start, he lost because San Diego failed to score a run against the Philadelphia Phillies. Across 6 2/3 innings, Canning only surrendered three runs.
He’s looked better lately after getting off to a rough start. Canning has been saddled with a 7.54 ERA that doesn’t tell the whole story. He’s had some tough luck with balls in play but has performed serviceably. He shouldn’t have any trouble limiting this Washington lineup.
Batter up!
It was beautiful to see Tatis break his homerless streak. It’s been rough going, but the slugger has heated up lately. Tatis is batting .481/.548/.630 with an OPS over 1.000 in his last seven games. Here’s hoping the home runs come in bunches.
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Machado, despite his lack of hits (.178 batting average), managed to mash his team-leading 10th homer of the season in Saturday’s game. He owns a .333 career average against Littell (12 at-bats).
The Padres have historically hit Littell well, with a combined .338 batting average and 1.148 OPS against the righty (74 at-bats). If they can rake against him today, a San Diego series victory would be markedly easier.
Relief corps
With the bullpen taxed after Friday’s game, the Friars only used Rodriguez and Wandy Peralta to finish out the game. That ended with an uncharacteristic implosion, but it shouldn’t today.
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The Padres have plenty of options to turn to if Canning falters. Jason Adam, Jeremiah Estrada, Ron Marinaccio, Yuki Matsui, Mason Miller and Adrian Morejon are all available to pitch in relief. If San Diego can clinch the rubber match, Miller will surely come in to pitch the save.
