Padres Fail to Sweep Reds, Big 7th Inning Plus Bailey Gem Hurt San Diego

Stults lost his 10th game of the season today. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

The Padres entered today’s game in search of their first series sweep since the month of June.  Although they had secured their third consecutive series win in their 4-2 win over the Reds last night, a sweep over Cincinnati would have provided San Diego with a tremendous confidence boost before their upcoming series against the Yankees.

Sadly for the Friars, Homer Bailey’s complete-game shutout and a three-run seventh inning by the Reds made sure that the sweep did not happen as San Diego lost 4-1.

The Reds jumped out to a 1-0 lead like they had done in the previous two games after Brandon Phillips tattooed a pitch over the wall for a solo home run.  I give credit to Phillips for the power behind that dinger, because he took a slow-changeup by Eric Stults deep to left-center field.  Thankfully for the Friars, nobody was on base and Stults settled down afterwards and pitched four scoreless frames after Phillips’ blast.

In the top of the seventh though, the wheels finally fell off for Stults.  With only one on and two outs, Chase Headley botched his throw to first base off of a batted ball by Derrick Robinson.  The error kept the inning alive, and the Reds responded with three runs after a single by Chris Heisey and a double by Joey Votto.

Down 4-0, the Friars were essentially finished because of how well Homer Bailey pitched this afternoon.  Cincinnati’s starter was simply outstanding as he allowed only one run and six hits over his 8.1 innings of work.  Best of all for Bailey though was the fact that he struck out seven and did not surrender a walk.

There isn’t much to discuss about the Friars’ production at the plate today other than the fact that Yonder Alonso and Alexi Amarista both had two hit days.  Besides those two though, the rest of San Diego’s hitters looked completely lost against Bailey until the bottom of the ninth when Headley hit an almost meaningless run-scoring double with one out.

Final Thoughts

The Padres will have a much needed off-day before they begin a three-game series against the Yankees this weekend.  Tomorrow’s game between C.C. Sabathia and Andrew Cashner should be fun to watch, and it will definitely be interesting to see how Tyson Ross responds after his incredible outing on Sunday against the Diamondbacks.

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