San Diego Padres: 3 to blame for the disappointing series against the Arizona Diamondbacks

You had the feeling that the San Diego Padres had a huge opportunity in front of them with their current 10-game homestand, which started out on a good note with them winning two out of three over the American League East-leading Baltimore Orioles.

The Friars had a golden opportunity to make up some ground in the National League Wild Card race with sevne games at home against two of the teams that they would need to pass the Arizona Diamondbacks and Miami Marlins. It felt like the Padres were in a good place.

Unfortunaltely for manager Bob Melvin and his team, that good feeling after taking two out of three from the Orioles went away against Arizona and more than likely, so did their postseason chances.

Arizona takes three out of four from San Diego in crucial four-game series

Arizona came into Southern California and played like a team very much alive for a playoff berth, while the Padres were beating in nearly all facets of the game in the series. San Diego's lone win came Friday night, 4-0, and if it wasn't one thing that the Friars hurt themselves with it was another. Here are three areas to blame for the weekend collapse by the Padres.

San Diego's starting pitching let them down this weekend

Blake Snell has been the best Padres pitcher this season and the lefty did not throw in the series and he was missed. Seth Lugo was good Friday night, working six shutout innings, allowing five hits and the bullpen behind was nearly perfect.

Other than that, it was a nightmare on the mound for the Padres starters in the biggest series of 2023.

Newly-acquired Rich Hill went five innings Thursday night and allowed three runs and five hits which, by his standards, should be considered a good start. The problem was, he had three walks and surrendered two home runs, a two-run shot to Tommy Pham, and a solo blast to Gabriel Moreno.

The two teams moved up Sunday's series final one day to Saturday because Hurricane Hilary was expected to hit the area on Sunday. Matt Waldron was called up to make the start and the right-hander allowed five runs in five innings in a 6-4 loss in Game 1. Yu Darvish didn't fare much better in Game 2, allowing nine hits and four runs in an 8-1 loss.

San Diego's pitching has been better lately, but on a weekend when they needed them to step up, it just wasn't good enough against a free-swinging Diamondbacks team.

San Diego's offense failed to come through in the clutch

When your pitching is struggling, you need. your offense to help them out. That didn't happen as the Padres only managed to score 10 runs in four games combined off a Diamondbacks staff that is nothing special.

The biggest miss was in Game 1 Saturday when they lost 6-4. First-inning home runs from Ha-Seong Kim and Manny Machado even things up 2-2, but they could have easily had the lead after the first, but Juan Soto was picked off of first base right before Machado's homer. San Diego ended up leaving eight stranded in the two-run loss.

The one game in which the offense did anything to pick up the pitching was in the second game Friday in the bottom of the eighth inning. Scoreless entering the frame, two-run singles from Kim and Fernando Tatis, Jr. were the difference in the 4-0 victory.

Thursday night, the Padres left five on base, and then, in the second game of the doubleheader on Saturday night, they left six. In the big picture, the offense should be producing more than they have this season and it is one area to look at as to what went wrong in 2023.