Padres Series Recap: Padres Once Again Swept By Giants
The San Diego Padres have just been swept by San Francisco Giants for the second time this year. Now on a four game losing streak, the Padres are where everyone expected them to be. In last place, several games out of first. Seven and a half games now to be precise.
This series was an important one that illustrated the gruesome reality which is the 2016 season. This wasn’t supposed to be a season where the Padres had success. The players though were sure giving everyone hope. After this series, we now know something. Fact is the Padres are simply not good enough to contend this year.
There is just too much inconsistency within this ball club to contend. One thing the Padres did stay consistent with was unfortunately losing to the Giants. The Padres only scored a run a game in this series, which is ridiculous. However not everything was a negative in this series. The pitching was a bright spot in the dark abyss which the Padres now find themselves in.
Game 1: Frustration
It took only two players from the Giants to beat the Padres in game one of this series. One was the starting pitcher of the game Madison Bumgarner. Mad Bum had an excellent day on the mound. He would throw a complete game, only allow a run and strike out 11. The other man who would ultimately win the game for the Giants would be Brandon Crawford. He had a great day at the plate producing five runs on the day. Three of those runs would come from a three-run home run off of Padres starting pitcher Colin Rea.
Colin Rea would look decent. He would go five innings and only allow those three runs from the Brandon Crawford home run. The bullpen would let the team down as Carlos Villanueva and Tayron Guerrero would allow a run each. Although that wouldn’t be a game changer as the offense wouldn’t produce anything. Only Matt Kemp would send that last gleam of hope for the Padres in the ninth inning. Kemp would hit his tenth home run of the year to avoid the Padres the humiliation of their tenth Shutout of the year. We would also see frustration by the players in this game. Wil Myers would start an altercation with Madison Bumgarner after getting struck out to end the third innings. The benches would clear but nothing would escalade as the two would only exchange words. This would be a frustrating game for both the fans and the players.
Game 2: Here’s Johnny
The Friars would start with a right foot out of the door in this one. Alexei Ramirez would get an RBI single in the second inning to put the Friars up 1-0. Drew Pomeranz would be on the mound for the Padres in this one. Pomeranz would have a quality start going six innings and only allowing two runs via a Hunter Pence home run. Unfortunately no more offense would surge for either team after that Pence home run in the fourth inning. The game would end 2-1.
The man on the mound for the Giants, Johnny Cueto would pitch his second complete game of the season. His first came against the Padres up at AT&T Park. In that game Cueto would throw a shutout and strike out 14. In this game Cueto would go the distance, only allow a run while striking out eight. Cueto has absolutely dominated the Padres this season. The only player who has been able to figure him out has been Alexei Ramirez. The “Cuban Missile” has gone 3-6 without striking out and with an RBI and a double against the “Dominican Dandy” this season. The bats just couldn’t produce in this game and unfortunately could not help out the Padres pitchers. The Padres bullpen would also look strong on Wednesday. Among the key performers would be Ryan Buchter. Buchter would now lower his ERA to a miniscule 0.47 on the season. Real shame that offense couldn’t get it going in this game.
Game 3: “The Shark” comes in for the sweep
The Giants couldn’t possibly get three straight complete games from their pitchers could they? Well actually they almost did. We saw another masterful performance by a Giants pitcher on Thursday. Jeff Samardzija would go eight Shutout innings.
James Shields would also look solid for the Pads. Shields would go six and two-thirds innings and only allow two earned runs. Alexi Amarista would come back from injury and look great. He would get the lone run of the day for the Padres. The game would finish 3-1 as Santiago Casilla would come in for the save to end the series and get the Giants the sweep. Another game in Which the offense could just not get anything going.
Storylines
Back to Padres ways
With this series I believe the Padres have now established an identify. The harsh reality is that this team is what we expected it to be. The front office tried to paint a Mona Lisa but got the knockoff instead. This team hasn’t played bad, but it just simply isn’t capable of competing in this division. The Giants are clearly far superior than the Friars as they have now gone undefeated in six games against us. None of these games were blowouts or even badly played. It was just inconsistency which killed this cat. Earlier on we saw inconsistency within the bullpen and now we see it within the offense. I’m not upset with this team and neither should you. We are just living up to expectations. We are now back to Padres ways. Back to the ways that a whole generation has seen this team play. Now let’s just enjoy the season with no pressure and frustration. Let’s enjoy seeing our pitchers kill it. Let’s enjoy those games where we go off with the bats. Let’s enjoy some Padres Baseball! They won’t lose em all, I promise.
Francisco, 26, Chula Vista/Tijuana. I have been a Padres fan all my life, did most of the series previews and recaps in the Padres’ 2016 season for EVT. Now I focus more on the local soccer scene. Tijuana Xolos, San Diego Loyal, San Diego Wave.