San Diego Padres Lose to San Francisco Giants, 5-3

The San Diego Padres lost to the San Francisco Giants this afternoon, 5-3. It is their sixth loss in their last seven games.

Jordan Lyles, who was slated to start this afternoon’s game for the San Diego Padres, felt some forearm-tightness during his pregame warmups and was scratched in favor of Matt Strahm; and boy did he impress. But back to him in a second.

Forearm issues are usually precursors to serious elbow issues. This could be a major blow to the Friars moving forward, as it’s more than likely a starting pitcher or two are traded. The team was likely banking on having Lyles as a back-end cog in their rotation. Let’s hope for the best.

Strahm keeps looking better and better

Back to Strahm. He entered the day with a 2.21 earned-run average and has been the talk of the Padres bullpen-days going back a month or so. He finished the third inning with 49 pitches, no runs, and five strikeouts, which gave us a pretty good idea of who is the next bullpen arm to get an actual start.

The stretching out of Strahm continued into the fourth, where things fell apart. Andrew McCutchen walked to lead off the frame, then Brandon Crawford lined a triple off of the bricks in right field to even the score at one.

Strahm’s day was done after that, but he could be ready to graduate from being a part of the Johnny Wholestaff conglomerate.  Jose Castillo came in to retire Pablo Sandoval and Joe Panik.

Bullpen day forges on

Adam Cimber worked a perfect fifth but ran into trouble in the sixth. Alen Hanson led off the inning with a single to first that he barely beat out Cimber on. Brandon Belt lined a one-out single to right, and Crawford doubled home his second and third RBIs of the game to give the Giants a 3-1 lead.

Phil Maton retired the last two batters in the sixth but allowed a run to score on a Gorkys Hernandez double to extend San Francisco’s lead to 4-1 in the seventh. In an exciting moment, after coming in high and tight with a pitch to McCutchen with two outs, he hit him in the top of his shoulder with the next pitch, to which Cutch took some exception with.

Robbie Erlin allowed the Giants’ fifth run of the game in the eighth on Austin Slater‘s sacrifice fly that scored Crawford.

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Padres’ offense couldn’t catch a break

The San Diego Padres went down in order in the first, with Wil Myers and Eric Hosmer going down on strikes. Christian Villanueva singled to lead off the second but was immediately erased by Jose Pirela‘s 3-6-3 double play.

Freddy Galvis and A.J. Ellis led off the third with singles. After Strahm failed to move the runners along on a sacrifice bunt attempt, Myers hit into the Padres’ second double play of the day to end the inning.

Hunter Renfroe hit his fourth home run of the season to give the Padres an early 1-0 lead in the fourth, but the Friars quickly gave it back. Manuel Margot continued his hot streak with a leadoff single in the fifth but was caught stealing at second during Ellis’ at-bat, which he singled in. A missed opportunity, indeed.

The Friars had two men on in the sixth thanks to Renfroe and Villanueva’s second hits of the game but were left stranded after Pirela lined out to center field. They left another man stranded in the seventh after Ellis walked (Cory Spangenberg pop out).

The Padres grounded into their fourth double play of the afternoon in the eighth but were able to get a minor rally going in the ninth before eventually succumbing to the Giants, 5-3.

Next: Padres Had a Tough Week, But Progress Was Made

Tomorrow’s game is at 1:05 PM. Eric Lauer (3-4, 5.47 ERA) will square off against Dereck Rodriguez (the son of Hall of Famer Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez), who owns a 2-1 record with a 4.56 ERA.