Padres Struggle in 12-6 Loss to Orioles

The Padres struggled in the starting pitching and the bullpen faltered in their 12-6 loss to Baltimore on Wednesday afternoon. They have now lost three straight with the Yankees coming to town this weekend.

The Padres saw lefty Christian Friedrich struggle in the 4th inning, punctuated by a Mark Trumbo home run to give the Orioles a 4-0 lead. By the time the Padres put up 3 in the 6th it was a 7-3 deficit. Ryan Buchter uncharacteristically struggled in the top of the 9th – allowing 5 – to put the game out of reach for the Padres despite a 9th inning comeback.

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Padres starter Christian Friedrich did strike out 7 in his 5 innings of work, but he also walked two while allowing 5 hits in allowing his 6 runs. Only four were earned due to his own throwing error.

Brett Wallace provided the bulk of the Padres offense on the day with a three run home run, while Wil Myers did double in two runs in the 9th after Buchter had allowed the game to get out of reach.

It was a curious move by Padres Andy Green to put in Buchter in a game that the Padres already faced a four run deficit, as he is usually the 8th inning game in leads. He did throw out 3 left handed pitchers of the 5 on the day – and ironically only the two right handed pitchers didn’t allow runs in Brandon Maurer and Kevin Quackenbush.

The loss puts the Padres 16 games back in the NL West as questions continue to swirl about who will get traded from the team. The Jon Jay injury hurts his easy trade value, which might cause a mini-domino effect that could lead the Padres to trade Melvin Upton Jr.who is having a terrific season. All of a sudden his contract doesn’t look like the albatross it was even just one season ago.