KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Padres know what is at stake.
“It’s the part of the season where it’s a sprint, especially in the position we’re in,” Gavin Sheets said. “We understand that, and it makes it even more frustrating.”
They simply cannot make it go their way often enough. Frustration seems to be their fate, though they insist their story is not complete.
“We’ve seen it from many other teams in the league already that it can change fast,” manager Craig Stammen said. “We’ve got to keep working. You can’t just expect it’s going to magically happen. We’ve got to keep working for it, change our mindset a little bit, believe it’s going to happen, then put the work in and get it done.”
There was no denying, however, that Saturday’s 6-1 loss to the Royals was very much the same old tale. The Padres fell behind early and stranded runners throughout.
“Just not coming together,” Fernando Tatis Jr. said. “Offense, pitching is just not coming together. When one is working, the other one is not. So just kind of rough that way.”
Before the Padres arrived at Kauffman Stadium on Friday and fell 7-6 in 10 innings, the Royals had lost five straight games. They had won seven of their 31 series and shared the worst record in the major leagues with the Angels.
The Royals now have a better record (6-10) since June 27 than the Padres (5-13).
The Padres (48-50) are stuck in a purgatory of inconsistency with time dwindling.
They embarked on this 10-game trip with everyone in the organization knowing how they fared would almost certainly determine their course at the trade deadline.
The evidence says — and team officials believe — the Padres are not a contender as presently constructed. Whether there is the motivation to spend the prospect capital and the actual money needed to add necessary parts for an October run depends on them being in a position where those in charge believe additions will make a difference.
Neither of the past two days provided a reason to think much can change.
Saturday was yet another game in which the Padres’ starting pitcher dug a hole and the offense did nothing to lend him a hand to help him out.
Griffin Canning allowed four runs in 3⅔ innings, marking the 10th time in the past 18 games and 24th time this season a Padres starter failed to get through five innings while allowing three or more runs.
Leaguewide, teams have won just 20% of games in which their starting pitcher turned in such a performance.
Still, the Padres had chances to mitigate the damage on Saturday but instead let the deficit keep growing.
Lane Thomas’ two-run homer in the first inning put the Royals up 2-0. Tatis’ home run halved the lead in the top of the third, but it was 3-1 by the time that inning ended and 4-1 when Matt Waldron replaced Canning with two outs in the fourth. Waldron allowed a two-run homer to Salvador Perez in the sixth.
Along the way, the Padres got a one-out double by Jake Cronenworth in the second inning, a one-out double by Ty France in the fourth, a double leading off the fifth by Freddy Fermin and another one-out double by France in the sixth.
“We created a lot of traffic,” Xander Bogaerts said. “But we just didn’t get the big hit, kind of like the whole season.”
Their only hit in nine at-bats with runners in scoring position was Cronenworth’s bunt single in the sixth inning that moved France to third base just before Miguel Andujar grounded into an inning-ending double play.
That came an inning after Manny Machado walked to the plate with one out and the bases loaded and grounded into a double play.
Saturday was the second consecutive day the Padres grounded into three double plays.
“Those are rally killers, clearly,” Stammen said. “Bases loaded, one out (and) first and third, one out. We’ve got two hitters up that we really like having up in those spots, and just grounding into double plays. It’s kind of been the MO the first two games after the break, and we’ve got to figure out a way to get the ball in the air in those situations.”
The Padres managed the one run on six hits and five walks while facing Randy Dobnak, who spent most of this season pitching for the Mariners’ Triple-A affiliate, and four members of the bullpen with the major leagues’ second-worst ERA.
“There were as many good ones as somewhat empty at-bats,” Stammen said. “It’s hard to score runs when the at-bats are just sporadic like that. We need them to be a little more consistent and put together, and we’ve got to figure out a way to get that done. Today we didn’t get it done.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.sandiegouniontribune.com ’
