San Diego Padres have three ejected in lopsided loss to Rockies

Three San Diego Padres were ejected during a tumultuous game that saw them give up more than a dozen runs to the Colorado Rockies.

The San Diego Padres lost another game on Saturday, but this time they had some help thanks to a questionable strike zone from home plate umpire Bill Welke.

San Diego surrendered 14 runs against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field—while shortstop Manny Machado, reliever Matt Strahm and manager Andy Green finished the game watching from the locker room.

Machado was ejected by Welke in the fifth inning, followed by Strahm and Green in the sixth. All three ejections had to do with arguing over Welke’s strike zone—although Strahm didn’t actually say anything about it.

The reliever said he was “cheering on my teammate Phil Maton,” according to MLB.com. “I think the confusion [between] ‘Phil’ and ‘Bill’ was what happened there. All it was, was ‘Come on, Phil.'”

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But Strahm was tossed along with Machado and Green, both of whom felt that Welke hadn’t been calling a proper strike zone for the Padres.

Even before the ejections, though, San Diego was in trouble. Eric Lauer was Saturday’s starter—with his history of being cringe-inducingly bad in Colorado. He had been winless there with a double-digit ERA, and history immediately repeated itself.

Lauer didn’t even get out of the third inning. In 2.2 frames, he surrendered five runs on ten hits, with two walks.

His replacement was Robbie Erlin, who made a bad situation worse. In his 2.1 innings, Erlin gave up six more runs on six hits, including a home run, and two more walks.

After a scoreless inning by Maton, Gerardo Reyes finished the game and was just as disappointing as he had been on June 13. He provided the Rockies with three extra runs in the final two innings; Reyes has now given up six runs in his last two appearances.

The end result is that the San Diego Padres have surrendered 26 runs in two days, and 35 runs in their three games at Coors Field.

Offensively, Machado was 2-for-3 before being ejected and Fernando Tatis Jr. was 2-for-2 while replacing him. Ian Kinsler was 3-for-5 with three RBIs.

But the loss ensures that the best San Diego can do is split the series with their division rivals, and therefore will gain no ground on Colorado in the National League West standings. Every NL West team, except the Padres, was able to capitalize on the Los Angeles Dodgers losing Saturday night to pick up a game in the division title chase.

The Padres complete their series with Colorado, and their road trip, on Sunday. With this loss, the best they can finish the road trip at is 2-4. That’s after a homestand in which they went 3-6. Their June record, then, currently stands at 4-10.

For complete coverage of the San Diego Padres’ 2019 season, continue following Friars on Base all season long.