Getting past the fact that the Padres offense has been among the worst in the major leagues, there has been some excellent pitching the past two evenings at Petco Park.
The difference is that the Cardinals have done enough on offense, including a couple of fortuitous hits to right field, while the Padres have five hits in all through the first two games of the series.
On Friday, a pitchers’ duel was ruined by a circus act of an inning, and the Cardinals beat the Padres 6-0.
The visitors won Thursday’s series opener 2-1, the decisive hit coming in the seventh inning when a flare to right field bounced in front of and then past right fielder Nick Castellanos’ attempt at a sliding catch.
In Friday’s fifth inning, the Cardinals scored six times on five singles, two walks, a double and a sacrifice fly. While all the runs were earned, because the inning got away from Padres starting pitcher Griffin Canning in a river of hits, there was also an error by right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. that resulted in a Little League grand slam.
A night after getting four hits and scoring their lone run on a check-swing single, the Padres’ only hit Friday was a single by Jackson Merrill leading off the fourth inning.
“I just think we saw some pitches to hit (and) we just didn’t hit them,” Merrill said. “Just classic baseball night, you know, just kind of went that way. … We just missed some pitches.”
The Padres actually made Michael McGreevy throw 26 pitches in the fourth, as Gavin Sheets and Tatis drew two-out walks. But Miguel Andujar’s grounder to shortstop ended the threat.
The next half-inning was a slow build and then a dam breaking on Canning.
Masyn Winn lined a single through the middle and Nathan Church beat out a chopper to the right side against Canning, who had allowed a pair of singles through the first four innings. Canning acknowledged he was late getting to the bag because he had jumped along with first baseman Gavin Sheets before begining his sprint off the mound.
After getting a strikeout, Canning walked No.9 hitter Victor Scott II to load the bases.
That is when JJ Wetherholt grounded a single into right field that Tatis charged in preparation for a throw home, only to run past the ball as it rolled under his glove and to the wall.
There was virtually no doubt from the moment the ball evaded Tatis that Wetherholt would make it all the way around the bases, which he did.
“It’s baseball,” Canning said of Tatis’ gaffe. “It happens. I gotta find a way to pick him up after that. I let the next couple guys get on. It’s a team game. Stuff like that happens.”
Said Merrill: “The guy is being aggressive. I’m not going to (rip) that. He’s being aggressive. In that situation, go for it. I don’t careif he misses it. He never misses those. He’s gonna go home. He’s gonna sleep good. He’s gonna come back tomorrow. He’s gonna rake. That’s who he is. So I just look forward to it.”
Tatis, who is usually at his locker and willing to answer questions about whatever occurs in a game, had departed by the time the media entered the clubhouse Friday.
After another single, a double and a walk, Canning was finished. Yuki Matsui took over with the bases loaded and allowed two runners to score, on a single and a sacrifice fly.
How it looked was indefensible, but losing to the Cardinals on its own is not shameful.
The teams began the game with the same record, at 22-15. The Cardinals took two of three from the Dodgers last week.
And being shut down by McGreevy for six innings made the Padres just the latest team he did that to. Friday was his fifth quality start of the season, and he has thrown six scoreless innings in three of his eight starts this season. The 25-year-old right-hander has habitually gone six innings, doing so 17 times in 27 career starts.
But McGreevy (3-2, 2.18) was just the latest starting pitcher to dominate the Padres, who have had 19 quality starts thrown against them in 38 games. It’s actually worse than that given that the Rockies used an opener against them three times.
The Padres entered Friday’s game with the fifth-lowest average (.231) and fifth-lowest OPS (.684) in the majors, and they are headed in the wrong direction. They are batting .185 with a .669 OPS while losing seven of their past 10 games.
“It just looks like the pitcher is kind of dictating the at-bats and from the box we’re not able to dictate and force the pitcher into throwing the pitches that we can hit,” manager Craig Stammen said. “A lot of things on the table to figure that out. We’ll get back to the drawing board and keep working on it.”
