Padres News: Padres Lose Series to Dodgers on Error

Once again the Padres bullpen failed them Sunday afternoon as the Dodgers defeated the Padres 5-1 and took 3 of 4 from San Diego. Andrew Cashner pitched six solid innings and only allowed 2 runs, but things fell apart in the 7th inning when Nick Vincent came in relief.

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Marcos Mateo came in relief and started things off by hitting Scott Schebler. He was able to retire Carl Crawford and Jimmy Rollins before a single for Adrian Gonzalez. An interesting moment happened when the Dodgers called for a review that a pitch hit Gonzalez with a pitch. The review was negative, and on the next pitch Gonzalez singled. With that single, Padres skipper Pat Murphy called in Nick Vincent from the bullpen.

 We’ve covered recently here at FriarsOnBase the up and down year of Nick Vincent in 2015. He’s been shuttled up and down from AAA several times and it certainly seems like his Padres future is murky at best. Hopefully he did not seal his fate by mishandling a play that Little League ballplayers were making just a week ago in Williamsport, PA.

Justin Turner was the first hitter who got an infield single after the Padres did their own challenge on the tag and the play was not overturned Replay on this day did not go well for either team. Up next came Andre Ethier. Ethier has had a nice bounce-back season hitting .299 with 13 home runs. On Sunday a 3 hopper down the first base line did the trick. Vincent picked up the ball cleanly, then threw the ball well over first baseman Wil Myer’s head into right field. Alexi Amarista was late covering the errant throw and all three runners scored with Ethier on third base.

Murphy had this to say after the game, as reported by AJ Cassavell and Beth Maiman:

"“It’s a good lesson for young people out there that even big leaguers can botch that play. Both of them could have did something to help, ultimately you can’t throw the ball over a guy’s head from that short of a distance. It happened it costs us three runs, it made the lead difficult to come back … ultimately that play made a difference in the game, I won’t say it decided the game, but it sure had big impact.”"

Cashner had another tough luck loss which is certainly the theme of his season. For the Padres, they were unable to muster much offense at all of starter Brett Anderson or a team of relievers that followed.

Wil Myers continues to impress in the field since coming off of the DL three days ago. He did get his first hit since coming off of the DL and finished the day 1-4. He made a great running catch to end the second inning and steal a hit from Carl Crawford.

The Padres squandered a chance to keep alive any fledgling hopes of staying in some sort of contention and continue to watch the .500 mark taunt them as they get close and then keep falling backwards. The Rockies come to town Monday for a four game series including a makeup of a rain shortened game from 7/19.

Next: Bullpen Blows Lead in Shields Start