San Diego Padres: Bullpen Falters, Friars Lose Opener

In somewhat of a shocker, the San Diego Padres’ bullpen gave away a win last night in the series opener to the Oakland Athletics.

The San Diego Padres didn’t necessarily need to win last night’s series opener against the A’s, but it sure would have been nice to shake the funk that’s come over this team in the last couple of games.

After losing the last two of their weekend series against the Atlanta Braves over the weekend, the Friars were looking forward to coming home, albeit for just a couple of days before heading off to San Francisco for a three-game set.

Eric Lauer pitched beautifully. The 23-year-old lefty went six innings, giving up just three hits and one earned run (fielder’s choice RBI via Stephen Piscotty in the second inning). He struck out seven Oakland batters and walked just two, lowering his earned-run average to a much more respectable 5.47.

Lauer had a 7.67 earned-run average on May 28, the day he surrendered five runs on seven hits to the Marlins at home. Since then, Eric Lauer has been nothing short of phenomenal, owning a 2.49 earned-run average since June 2 with nineteen strikeouts in 21.2 innings. He’s allowed eleven walks during that span, though. After all, we aren’t perfect creatures.

The Padres put a run on the board in the first on a Jose Pirela (.270) RBI groundout, scoring Cory Spangenberg. In the second, Franmil Reyes led the inning off with a scorched double to left and Rafael Lopez doubled him in two batters later. That was the extent of the Friars’ offense, for the most part.

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Padres futility at the plate costs them

Ten San Diego batters were set down in order after Eric Lauer walked in the second (after Lopez’ RBI double). The Padres didn’t put another man on base until Spangy singled with two outs in the fifth.

Freddy Galvis added his fourteenth double of the year with one out in the sixth, but Emilio Pagan struck out three Friars around him and escaped the jam.

Aside from a Travis Jankowski walk in the seventh inning and a Spangenberg single with two outs in the bottom of the tenth, the Pads’ bats were mostly quiet last night.

Friars’ bullpen gives one away

The Padres, as ineffective as their offense was against the A’s last night, were still in the driver’s seat heading into the ninth leading 2-1. After Brad Hand retired Matt Olson and Mark Canha to begin the frame, Piscotty homered to left to tie things up. Hand finished off Jonathan Lucroy to end the inning, but the damage was done.

Adam Cimber, who has been outstanding this season, came in to pitch the tenth, setting down Jake Smolinski to start things off. Marcus Semien singled, Chad Pinder popped out to right, and up came Jed Lowrie.

After Semien stole second and advanced to third on an errant throw by Raffy Lopez, Lowrie crushed his tenth homer of the season to right, giving the Athletics a 4-2 lead that they’d hold onto for the win.

Next: Lucchesi Back, Franchy Shut Down

The Padres must now look ahead to today’s series finale with Joey Lucchesi returning from the disabled list to face Frankie Montas at 12:40 PM (FSSD).