SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – AUGUST 19: Alek Thomas #5 congratulates Gabriel Moreno #14 of the Arizona Diamondbacks after his grand slam as Gary Sanchez #99 of the San Diego Padres looks on during the seventh inning of a game against the San Diego Padres at PETCO Park on August 19, 2023 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
It looks like buying at the MLB trade deadline was a bad decision after all. The Padres lost both ends of a doubleheader against the Diamondbacks on Saturday, the first one in a heartbreaker and the last one in an 8-1 blowout. San Diego falls to 59-66, just a half game better than the Mets, who realized they had a flawed roster and decided to send a bunch of high-priced pieces out of town and look to next year instead of holding on to hope.
The Friars took the opposite approach. You can't blame them for trying. You also can't make a case that it's worked.
The only run the Padres scored in the nightcap came on a monster home run by Xander Bogaerts that slammed off the railing on the 4th floor of the Western Metal Supply building in left field. Other than that blast San Diego could muster just four singles, half of those by Jake Cronenworth.
Yu Darvish got the start and was not bad, but not as sharp as he needed to be. He allowed four runs in 5.0 innings before giving way to Nick Martinez, who got himself in a bind in the 7th inning. A double and two walks loaded the bases with one out. Instead of making a change Padres manager Bob Melvin sent pitching coach Ruben Niebla out to talk to Nick.
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Seven pitches later catcher Gabriel Moreno ripped a grand slam to left field to make it 8-1 and, for all intents and purposes, put the game on ice. The Padres will hunker down and take a day off on Sunday to get through the arrival of Hurricane Hilary and hopefully get back at it on Monday when they're scheduled to open a 3-game series at Petco Park against the Marlins.
Now sitting 5.5 games out of the final NL Wild Card spot with just 37 games to play it's looking more and more likely that San Diego will not get a repeat feeling of the thrill that is postseason baseball.
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