San Diego Padres: Positive Takeaways From Another Loss to Dodgers

The San Diego Padres lost a heartbreaker last night to the Los Angeles Dodgers in twelve innings. Here are some bright spots that this writer noticed.

Though the San Diego Padres missed their fair share of chances to win the game last night, there were certainly some notable positives to take away from the loss.

Bryan Mitchell gave up two runs on two hits in the first inning, one of them a two-run homer off the bat of Matt Kemp.

He didn’t allow another base hit until Cody Bellinger‘s triple to lead off the fourth inning. And then proceeded to get out of the no-outs, man on third-base situation unscathed.

After allowing a run to score on a Kemp sacrifice fly in the fifth, Mitchell made it out of another jam in the sixth, striking out Alex Wood with runners on the corners to finish his day.

His line (six innings, three earned runs on five hits, four strikeouts, three walks) definitely doesn’t scream “READY TO EXPLODE”, but him battling through and leaving the Padres still very much in the game, as opposed to being down five or six runs, showed grit. Love to see that : )

Padres wake up in the ninth

From AJ Cassavell of MLB.com, Eric Hosmer, who hit a looooong home run in the bottom of the ninth to bring the Padres within a run, had this to say about getting to Kenley Jansen, “To get two off of Kenley says a lot for a team, for an offense…”

Here’s Hosmer’s shot, courtesy of FOX Sports San Diego:

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After Hosmer’s blast, Christian Villanueva almost hit a line-drive home run to tie the game, but Chris Taylor nabbed it at the top of the wall in left-centerfield.

Headley ties it up for the Padres….wait, what?

Franchy Cordero drew a walk in the next at-bat, and up came Chase Headley, pinch-hitting for A.J. Ellis.

I know what we were all thinking, but can’t type it out in this forum due to all the obscene language.

In a shocking turn of events, Headley, who had only one hit in twenty-seven at-bats up until last night had a terrific turn at bat and pulled a game-tying double down the right-field line to score Cordero.

After the game, Padres manager Andy Green had this to say about Headley’s at-bat, again from Cassavell, “For somebody that’s obviously scuffled so far this year, I thought the at-bat was outstanding.”

Green continued, “Game on the line, a battle, to get the double, that’s a tough at-bat against a really good pitcher. We had some really good at-bats that inning. We’re still searching for that last big hit.”

There’s still work to be done for Padres

Despite all of the missed opportunities last night, including Hunter Renfroe striking out in the tenth with Cory Spangenberg on third base with one out when a deep-ish fly ball would have surely won the game, there were enough bright spots to still have a somewhat rosy outlook for this team.

One last note, Craig Stammen still hasn’t allowed an earned run this season.

With consistent progress and continued strings of at-bats like they had last night against Kenley Jansen, I still very much believe that this team could end up shocking a lot of people this season.

Next: Quantrill Pitching Well in San Antonio

While a postseason berth would indeed be a very long shot this season, it’s still nice to dream, isn’t it?