San Diego Padres embarrassed all around in loss to Dodgers

The San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers met again on Tuesday, and the Padres were shut out for the second time in less than a week at PETCO Park.

The San Diego Padres are not contenders in 2019—a reminder which was driven home when the division-leading Los Angeles Dodgers schooled them in front of the Padres’ home crowd.

Coming off a hard-fought win against the Dodgers and with Cal Quantrill on the mound, San Diego had high hopes for Wednesday’s second game of a two-game series. Those hopes vanished and then some in a 9-0 loss.

It was frustrating deja vu for a team that once again failed to get anything going in any element of their game.

Quantrill (now 6-5) didn’t get out of the fifth inning, in which he surrendered five runs. The starter left with a disappointing eight runs allowed on eight hits, including a home run, and three walks.

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But that line wasn’t entirely his fault. Reliever Michel Baez, who succeeded Quantrill to finish out the fifth, allowed all of the runners he inherited to score.

The final run came when the Friars had given up on the game, asking new third baseman Ty France to pitch the ninth (to be fair, the Dodgers did the same, using catcher Russell Martin to close).

In all, the Dodgers hit almost 50 percent with runners in scoring position during the game—they were 6-for-11.

Conversely, the Padres never got on the board Tuesday, and only mustered five hits against Dodgers phenom Walker Buehler (now 11-3) and three relievers. They were 0-for-6 when they had someone in scoring position, and one of those five hits came from Cal Quantrill.

There were also two errors committed by the San Diego Padres defense—they’ve now racked up three errors in three games, and their 97 errors is the most in the National League. It’s also third highest in Major League Baseball in 2019.

So whether it was starting pitching, relief pitching, offense or defense, the Padres stumbled on Tuesday. And what made it embarrassing is that the exact same thing happened less than a week ago, when they were blown out by the visiting Boston Red Sox in an 11-0 rout.

No one necessarily expected the Padres to slug it out with the Dodgers, given that LA has a clear lead in the division and San Diego has played themselves out of even wild card contention. But it was also clear on Tuesday just how large the gap is between the two teams.

Even in Monday’s win over Los Angeles, the Padres still only had four hits and starter Eric Lauer gave up two home runs. With performances like this, the idea of San Diego being in the mix for the NL West title next season seems less and less likely. They’ll try to take the three-game series with a win on Wednesday, but can’t afford more disasters like this—they’re now 61-70.

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