Padres Postgame (8/13): Questionable call pushes Nationals over Padres late

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After an eventful news day turned into a 10-5 Padres’ win on Friday night, the Friars entered Saturday’s contest with their eyes set on just getting another victory. Yu Darvish (10-5) drew the start for the Padres, while Anibal Sanchez (0-5) opposed for the home team.

San Diego threatened early on in the first two innings, but the Padres walked away from both frames without a run on the board. They had runners on first and second with one out in the first and didn’t score, loading the bases in the second with the same result.

The Padres didn’t miss in the third and fourth inning, however. Manny Machado, who’s been red hot since he said “I’m Manny F****** Machado” blasted a 401 foot home run into the left-center bleachers for a solo shot to start the third inning. Trent Grisham followed Machado’s act in the fourth, scorching his second upper-deck home run in as many days, and adding onto San Diego’s lead. With two outs, Juan Soto brought another run in, spraying a single back up the middle for an RBI. Through four, the Padres led Washington 3-0.

For a large chunk of this game, Yu Darvish was his normal dominant self. He overcame a pair of long innings to start things off, but the Padres’ star right-hander hurled five and two-thirds scoreless frames before Yadiel Hernandez launched an opposite field two-run blast into the right field bleachers, bringing Washington within one. A hanging splitter to the red-hot Joey Meneses proved costly, as back-to-back home runs tied things up and squandered what would’ve been another strong start from Darvish.

San Diego threatened in the seventh, but came up short yet again. Machado led things off by scolding the 11th pitch of his at-bat off the left-center wall for a double. Josh Bell walked, and the duo advanced into scoring position on a fielder’s choice from Brandon Drury. The Nationals chose to intentionally walk Jake Cronenworth and it proved correct, as Ha-Seong Kim flared a weak fly ball to the shortstop and Trent Grisham struck out to end the inning. Up to this point, the Padres were 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position.

After all of that, the Nationals answered with a run of their own in the seventh. Cesar Hernandez started the inning off with an infield single and stole second base to put himself in scoring position. After back-to-back strikeouts from Luis Garcia, Victor Robles punched a single through the right side that found the glove of Soto. Soto charged quickly, firing an absolute laser home that nabbed Hernandez as he crossed home. Washington challenged, however, that Padres’ backstop Austin Nola didn’t allow Hernandez a lane to slide into homeplay. Upon further review, the call was overturned, giving the Nationals their first lead of the entire series.

Even with the heart of their order up to the plate in the eighth and ninth inning, the Padres failed to tie things up and dropped a game they absolutely should’ve won. This came on a day where, with a victory, the Friars could have jumped over Philadelphia for the National League’s second wild card spot. Instead, they drop to 64-52, while the Nationals jump to 38-77.

TOP PERFORMERS

+ Yu Darvish: 6 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, BB, 9 K

+ Manny Machado: 2-for-4, HR, RBI, BB

+ Trent Grisham: 2-for-3, HR, RBI, BB

+ Juan Soto: 1-for-3, RBI, 2 BB

WHAT’S NEXT

The series finale will take place tomorrow at 9:05 a.m. PST. Blake Snell (4-6) draws the start for San Diego, while Washington opposes with Paolo Espino (0-4).