Padres fall behind early, lose to Dodgers 6-3

Petco Park- San Diego, California

It has been a season of youth for the San Diego Padres.

The youngest team in all of major league baseball trotted out 23-year-old Ronald Bolanos to make his third start of his career on Tuesday. The young Cuban was wild, walking five on the night in 3 2/3 innings. He allowed four runs in the game and struck out four in his 79-pitch effort. Bolanos now has a 6.62 ERA on the year for the Padres. “He put himself in a lot of problems,” interim manager Rod Barajas told local media after the game. “The velocity was more consistent with him, but he has to figure it out,” Barajas said.

Gerardo Reyes relieved Bolanos with the bases loaded and two outs in a 1-0 game in favor of the Giants. He served up a grand slam off the bat of Max Muncy that turned out to be the game-winner. Muncy’s 34th homer of the season was a no-doubter off the bat off the left-handed slugger. Reyes continues to get knocked around at the major league level. His ERA is up to 8.37 on the season.

Luis Perdomo and Matt Strahm threw an inning of scoreless baseball, and Michel Baez tossed two innings, only allowing a homer off the bat of Joc Pederson in the top of the 9th inning. Baez looked good for the Padres and now has a 3.33 ERA in his first 27 innings pitched and 22 games.

Offensively, the Padres only managed five hits in the game, and they all came in the 5th inning where the team scored three runs off reliever Dylan Floro. Luis Torrens doubled, and Manuel Margot tripled in that inning. Both men went 1-for-4 on the night with two strikeouts. San Diego was 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position, and they stranded six men on base in the 6-3 loss.

Twelve different Padres’ hitters went down by way of the strikeout on Tuesday. That is now 35 batters in the three games of the Rod Barajas’ era. Old habits die hard for this young team. “You would like them to grind out those at-bats a little better,” Barajas said after the game. He mentioned to the media that it was a process, and the team is working on resolving the issue.

The Padres face the Dodgers in game two of the series on Wednesday as Dinelson Lamet will pitch for the Padres. Ross Stripling will toe the rubber for the Dodgers.

7:10 game time.

James Clark

James was born and raised in America’s Finest City. He is a passionate baseball fan with even more passion towards his hometown Padres. Editor-In-Chief of EastVillageTimes.com. Always striving to bring you the highest quality in San Diego Sports News. Original content, with original ideas, that’s our motto. Enjoy.