Padres drop finale to Dodgers after Kirby Yates’ blown save

The San Diego Padres couldn’t finish the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday, forcing extra innings but then losing in the tenth inning at PETCO Park.

The San Diego Padres were on the verge of a series win Wednesday, but couldn’t convert a rally into a victory when they had the Los Angeles Dodgers in their sights.

Instead, the Padres dropped to ten games under .500 as the Dodgers pulled out a 6-4 win thanks to a blown save by San Diego closer Kirby Yates.

Wednesday was another “bullpen day” for the Friars, who went through eight pitchers and that showed. After the offense staked them to a two-run lead almost immediately, they turned around and gave up three runs in the top of the second inning.

That instability proved to be the story of the game.

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After the teams exchanged runs in the eighth, San Diego rallied to tie the score in the bottom of the ninth. But Yates promptly surrendered two runs in the top of the tenth; the closer is now 0-5 on the season.

Elsewhere in the game, Eric Hosmer rebounded from Tuesday’s rough outing at the plate to have two of San Diego’s five hits. He finished 2-for-5 with two runs batted in, including his 20th homer.

He’s now hit the second-most long balls of his entire MLB career; Hosmer knocked 25 balls out of the park in both 2016 and 2017 with the Kansas City Royals. It’s possible that he could still meet or surpass that mark before 2019 ends.

And on a less happy note, Luis Urias committed his second error in as many nights, adding to the team’s already National League-leading amount of mistakes.

It’s disappointing to see another game slip away when the Padres could have taken a series from the division leaders. It’s not the first time they’ve been in this position; they likewise only won the second game when the Dodgers were at PETCO Park earlier this month.

San Diego has now lost six of their last eight games. They’ll attempt to end August on a high note as they welcome the San Francisco Giants for a three-game series starting Thursday.

It’s almost an even more important series, as the Giants have moved up in the NL West standings to be four games ahead of San Diego—a sweep would put the Friars on their heels to potentially take third place and build at least a decent end to the 2019 season.

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