San Diego Padres Fell Of The Mountain And It Gets Worse

The San Diego Padres fell to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday night, meet Clayton Kershaw Saturday.

Rich Hill just owned the San Diego Padres. It’s Players’ Weekend, so Dick Mountain just owned the San Diego Padres.

The only hits San Diego could muster in last night’s battle against Hill were a Hunter Renfroe double and a Freddy Galvis triple as the offense put in a particularly awful performance at Dodger Stadium on Friday night.

Hill’s final line read: 6 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 8 K. Using Baseball Reference’s game score results, it was the second-best outing of the season (75 game score) for the 38-year-old left-handed pitcher who is having another solid season as part of the Dodgers rotation.

Teams have bad games, that’s understandable. Over the course of a 162 game schedule, you’re going to have nights that just don’t click. However, last night was just another example of how unwatchable much of this 2018 season has been.

San Diego fans watched as players reached base just six times in the nearly three-hour contest. Manuel Margot chipped in a base hit, joining Renfroe and Galvis (two hits), while Cory Spangenberg and Franmil Reyes each drew a walk. Rich Hill is a veteran pitcher who is having the type of season every team would love to see out of their #4/#5 starter but when the Padres send out a lineup consisting of Eric Hosmer, Wil Myers, Manuel Margot, Renfroe, and Austin Hedges, there needs to be more than six baserunners.

On second thought, this could have been predicted, seeing as 25% of Hill’s 16 best starts of his career have come against the San Diego Padres (according to Baseball Reference Game Score).

Things were even worse when the Padres went on defense. Clayton Richard gave up seven runs on nine hits, failing to get out of the fourth inning. Praised for his ability to eat innings and save a bullpen, Richard has been unwatchable since the All-Star break.

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• Padres News: Fernando Tatis Jr. trade rumors, Seth Lugo chase, Manny Machado
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“Clay Clay” (not everyone should be allowed to participate in choosing their own nickname) is now 0-3 with an 8.57 ERA, 1.62 WHIP, and a 16/13 K/BB ratio since the Mid-Summer Classic. I wanted to take a look at what exactly he was doing differently to get these sort of results but then I thought, I’d rather do literally anything else.

The sky doesn’t look any more blue for Saturday night, as Brett Kennedy takes on Clayton Kershaw in game two of the series. Kennedy enters the contest with an 0-2 record and 8.36 ERA, having surrendered 26 hits in his first 14 innings of work as a professional.

Clayton Kershaw brings a career 1.89 ERA when he pitches against the Padres and has been dominant through the month of August, working a 2.00 ERA, walking three, and striking out 24 in four outings this month.

First pitch is scheduled for 6:10 pm Saturday night.