Padres News: Robbie Erlin Strong but Padres Fall to Dodgers

By Daryll Dorman | Oct 3, 2015

Robbie Erlin of the San Diego Padres pitched a strong seven innings Saturday night, but in the end despite chances all the way up to the 9th inning the Padres lost to Zack Greinke and the Dodgers 2-1. Austin Hedges provided the offense for the Padres with his third home run of the season in a losing effort.

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With the win the Dodgers secured home field advantage in their upcoming Division Series with the New York Mets starting Friday and Greinke secured the National League ERA title over Jake Arrieta of the Cubs.

The Padres lineup this last week has certainly played a part in their poor play as they put an underwhelment point on their entire season, failing to match even last year’s win total. With injuries to Wil Myers, Matt Kemp, and Justin Upton, their starting outfield Saturday was Alexi Amarista, Melvin Upton Jr.and Travis Jankowski. As reported by Corey Brock, only Upton and Amarista have more than three years of service time in the major leagues.

Robbie Erlin pitched well for the Padres, going 7 and allowing just 5 hits and the 2 runs. After getting shelled his first start for the Padres this season last time out, he certainly showed much more of the promise that earned him 11 starts last season.

For Greinke, while this was mostly a tune-up for the post-season, he was able to convince his manager to go out for the 8th inning which allowed him to get his 200th strikeout on the year. Meanwhile his teammate Clayton Kershaw needs just 6 K’s tomorrow in his alotted four inngs to reach 300 K’s for the first time since Curt Schilling in 2002.

For the Padres, it will be a day for the bullpen to piece together nine innings, with Frank Garces getting the actual start. The lineup will likely be more youngsters and fill-ins as well to close out the campaign. Brett Wallace and Cory Spangenberg have shown to be top bench options with Spangenberg even making a case for the Padres to make more playing time for him next year.

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