San Diego Padres: It Happened For A Fourth Time In Franchise History

The San Diego Padres offense came out extremely flat on Friday night in one of their worst outings at the plate, ever.

On Friday evening, the San Diego Padres fell to the Los Angeles Dodgers by a score of 4-1. Clayton Richard‘s hot streak came to an abrupt cooling. The veteran LHP went six innings, giving up four hits, four runs, and three walks while striking out four and recording his sixth loss of the season.

Outside of second baseman Jose Pirela‘s three hits, the Padres remained largely frozen. Eric Hosmer and Freddy Galvis chipped in singles while Manuel Margot recorded the only other extra-base hit, besides a Pirela double. It was Margot’s seventh double of the season. He would later score the only Padres run on a groundball out by Travis Jankowski.

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This game reached the seventh inning when the realization came that the Padres had yet to draw a walk. A quick check of the Baseball Reference Play-Index showed that in the history of Major League Baseball, the Padres have struck out at least 12 times and walked none 38 times now. No other franchise has done it more often.

After strikeouts by Franchy Cordero and Christian Villanueva in the ninth inning, the Padres total number of strikeouts sat at 15. They also failed to draw a free pass over their last few frames, since the initial check of Baseball Reference.

Friday night was the fourth time in franchise history that a Padres’ lineup struck out 15 times and recorded no walks. The first time it happened, in 2002, the Padres actually won. They defeated the Chicago Cubs by a score of 6-5 behind 11 hits, including two home runs.

The last two instances happened in 2016 with the Padres falling both times, 8-0 and 3-0.

Time is up for this lineup that Andy Green sends out every single night. It’s time to inject some new life into the batting order, whether that be a Brett Nicholas or a Luis Urias. Two extremes, however, even bringing up Nicholas has to be a more productive option than the combination of AJ Ellis and Raffy Lopez, right?

Next: Padres Bullpen Continues To Shine

With the news of Austin Hedges removing himself from batting practice emerging, fans should not expect to see him back any time soon. The news only added insult to injury on a tough Friday night. However, tomorrow is a new day which brings with it a new opportunity to win a baseball game. Hang in their Friar faithful, we’re all in this together.