On Sunday afternoon in Denver, Padres lefty Blake Snell, as he usually does as the season progresses, looked like one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball. He threw 7.0 innings of 1-run ball with 12 strikeouts and exactly zero walks, which is fairly remarkable at Coors Field considering Snell came into the game with a 7.48 ERA in five career starts there.
What might be even more remarkable (or nauseating, depending on your point of view) is that Snell didn't get a decision in the game. The Padres bullpen coughed up a pair of late leads in a 5-4 loss that will leave several questions about late-inning decision-making.
Snell allowed a solo homer in the 1st inning to Ezequiel Tovar before starting his dominant day. The Padres tied it in the 3rd inning when Juan Soto hit a sacrifice fly to score Fernando Tatis Jr. (who was on base four times with two hits and two walks) and took the lead in the 4th on Jake Cronenworth's 2-run homer. At the time it felt like that would be enough.
But, Padres skipper Bob Melvin brought in Luis Garcia for the 8th inning, despite the fact Snell had thrown a season-low 85 pitches and was in complete control of the Rockies lineup. Garcia immediately neglected to cover 1st base on a ground ball to Jake Cronenworth, allowing Nolan Jones to reach on an infield single then coughed up a 2-run homer to Coco Montes, who was making his MLB debut.
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Gone was the lead. Gone was Snell's win. For a second it looked like Colorado would take the lead. They put two runners on with one out. Melvin called upon rookie Tom Cosgrove, who has been fabulous out of the bullpen. Tovar hit a sinking liner to left-centerfield and Soto, who is not known by any stretch as a great defensive outfielder, made a great defensive play. Soto dove to make the catch then threw to Manny Machado at 3rd base. Manny noticed Brenton Doyle had wandered too far off the bag and alertly doubled him up to end the threat.
In the 9th the Padres went back on top, almost by accident. Ha-Seong Kim walked and went to 3rd on a Matt Carpenter single to put runners at the corners with one out. Trent Grisham squared to bunt. Justin Lawrence threw a sweeper up and in, easily a ball. Grisham inexplicably left his bat out and popped the pitch up, an easy play for catcher Austin Wynns for the 2nd out. Luckily, Lawrence uncorked a wild pitch to allow Kim to score and make it a 4-3 game.
That lead lasted one hitter. With closer Josh Hader unavailable after working back-to-back games, Cosgrove went back out to start the 9th inning. He got ahead 0-2 on Ryan McMahon, and hung the slider that's made his so successful. McMahon hammered it into the right field seats to tie the game 4-4. All of this happened during an increasingly heavy rainfall so after the game was tied the officiating crew decided to put things on hold.
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After more than an hour, play resumed. Brent Honeywell took the mound and got the first two outs before Jones unloaded on a no-doubter 472-foot walkoff home run. The Padres once again fail to sweep a 3-game series, something they haven't done all season long.
They get a day off on Monday before starting another 3-game set against Cleveland at Petco Park on Tuesday night.
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