Padres Series Recap: Padres Lose Two of Three from Jays in Toronto
The San Diego Padres have just lost two out of three games from the Toronto Blue Jays. The series took place north of the border in Toronto and would be the Padres first ever visit to the city. They would unfortunately lose the series in a heart-breaking manner.
Still there were plenty of positives to take from this series. The clear positive from this series would be the offense. The Padres bats would have a very nice showing in this series. They would only score two runs in the first game. However, after that they would score six in the second game and eight in the final game of the series.
The main star of the series had to be Alex Dickerson, but we’ll get more into him later. The pitching, well at least the starting pitching was actually also a huge plus in this series. Two out of the three starting pitchers would deliver quality starts. That is not an easy thing to do against an offense like the Toronto Blue Jays. We would see plenty of interesting things throughout the series. Among them a Friar switching dugouts after a trade.
Game 1: The Pride of Poway Steals The Show
There were two main positives to take from this game for the Padres. One would be Colin Rea and the other would be Alex Dickerson. Colin Rea would be on the mound for the Padres and he would have a very solid outing. Rea would throw three scoreless innings to kick off the game. It wasn’t until the fourth inning when someone would finally break the 0-0 tie. A familiar foe in Troy Tulowitzki would drive in Michael Saunders with a sac-fly to open up the score. The Blue Jays would continue to do damage in the fifth inning with two more runs. Devon Travis and Josh Donaldson would provide the run support to make it a 3-0 game. Colin Rea would throw a quality start as he would go six innings and allow three runs to score. For the Jays, Aaron Sanchez would have something more than a quality start. The All Star pitcher would have a tremendous outing. He would hold the Padres to only three hits in seven shutout innings. This would extend Sanchez’s undefeated streak to an impressive 15 games.
The Jays bullpen would allow two runs and the Padres bullpen would allow a run. Matt Thornton would allow the Jays to score via a Kevin Pillar double in the eighth. That would be the final run that the Padres would concede on the day. They would go into the ninth inning down by a score of 4-0. Bo Schultz would be on the mound for the Jays. Matt Kemp would start the Padres ninth the right way with a double. Yangervis Solarte would then ground out. Then the man of the hour, Alex Dickerson would step up to the plate. Dickerson already had a solid game as he was already 2-3 with a double and a single. Well he would turn that solid game into something special. Dickerson would hit an absolutely monstrous home run into the fifth deck at the Rogers Centre. This had been a feat only accomplished by 16 other ball players. Oddly enough Mark McGwire had been the first to do so exactly 20 years before Dickerson would blast his. The score would remain 4-2, Roberto Osuna would come in and shut the door on the Padres and the game would be over. Even though we would lose this game, that home run would make everything feel all right. That in itself would be a win in my book.
Game 2: Another Walk Off
We have seen plenty of walk offs this year, and I’m not talking about at Petco Park. We have seen many heart breaking ninth inning or extra inning losses for the Padres this season. Well unfortunately Tuesday’s game would bring that feeling back again. Although this game would leave me with a bitter taste in my mouth there were still many positives to focus on. Both the offense and the starting pitching would be on point for the Friars yet again. Andrew Cashner would have another quality start as he would allow three runs on four hits though six innings. The runs he would allow would come from home runs produced by Josh Donaldson and Justin Smoak. The Padres would do a good job getting through Jays starter, Marcus Stroman in this game. Ryan Schimpf would be the first Friar to open up the score as he would get himself an RBI double. Later on in the game, Alex Dickerson would rise up yet again. Dickerson would blast a three run shot in the sixth inning to give the Padres a lead of 4-3. That lead would not last.
Brad Hand would throw a wild pitch in the seventh inning which would allow Russell Martin to score. Things would be tied up at four runs a piece. After that both bullpens would stay in tact up until the 12th inning. Matt Kemp would bring us that false hope with a two run shot off of Jesse Chavez. The Padres would lead 6-4 going into the bottom of the twelfth. The bottom of the twelfth would just be something catastrophic. Carlos Villanueva and Paul Clemens would be the authors of this horror movie. The Blue Jays runs would come via the simplest of things. Villanueva would leave the bases loaded for Paul Clemens. The Blue Jays wouldn’t need a single hit to score the runs to win this game. First Clemens would walk Jose Bautista with the bases loaded. Then Josh Donaldson would bring in a run with a ground out. Then would come the worst of the worst. We would see something that we already saw in this game. The reason we were in extra innings in the first place was because of a wild pitch. Well the reason the Padres would lose this game would be because…of a wild pitch. This lost was absolutely heart breaking. I would have preferred to lose to a Joey Bats grand slam or something less embarrassing and appalling. The way the Padres would lose this game would just be heart breaking. But I mean overall there was some light in horror movie of a loss. Like Cashners’ quality start, and the fact that Alex Dickerson has now hit a homer in three straight games.
Game Three: Unlikely Heroes, The Sequel
We had seen a game in the Nats series where the runs would be produced by some unlikely candidates. Well in the finale of this series the same would occur but on a much bigger scale. These unlikely heroes would lead us to an 8-4 victory against the Toronto Blue Jays. We wouldn’t see Kemp or the Myers rise up in this one. In fact they would go a combined 0-7 in the game. That is just incredible when you think that this offense produced eight runs without the support of Kemp Or Myers. As far as the pitching goes it would be okay. Luis Perdomo would have a decent start and add another victory to his belt. He would allow four runs through five and two third innings of work. The bullpen would be amazing in this game for the Padres. They wouldn’t allow a single hit through three and a third of work.
Luckily for the Padres All Star, Marco Estrada would not be starting in this one. Instead knuckleballer, R.A. Dickey would get the nod for the Jays. Dickey would make it three straight losses as he would allow seven runs to score. Now we finally get into those “Unlikely Heroes”. Adam Rosales would be the first one to produce a run foe either team in the third inning. He would hit a two run shot off of Dickey to make it 2-0 Padres. Then in the fourth inning, Christian Bethancourt would make it a 4-0 game. Bethancourt would drive in a couple via a double, he would only get credited with one because of an error. The unsung heroes would continue to do damage in the fifth inning. This time it would be Brett Wallace ho would hit himself a home run. The Padres would now be five runs up. Christian Bethancourt and Brett Wallace would continue to produce runs in the sixth inning. Bethancourt would get an RBI via a double and Wallace would get himself an RBI single. The Jays would then score some runs in their half of the sixth to make it a 7-4 game. The final run of the game would come in the eighth inning via a more likely hero. Unbelievably, Alex Dickerson would do it again, he would homer in his fourth straight game. That would make the final score of 8-4. It almost seems impossible for Dickerson to have done that. This would be another great game for the Friars. It showed us that we do have some depth and can rely on other players. This series was filled with ups and downs, but overall it turned out to have some very exiting baseball. That is all I asked coming into this series.
Storyline
Farewell Melvin Upton Jr.
We’ve had to say goodbye to some solid players on this team as of late. This definitely was the one that hurt the most as a fan. Never would I have thought coming into this season that Melvin Upton Jr. would make some of my days brighter. He was the most exiting Friar to watch on the field without a doubt. I mean we saw some just fantastic catches. We would even see the man steal home. I mean he would be the literal form of “Willie Mays Hayes” in some instances. Well Melvin would switch dugouts and be traded to the Toronto Blue Jays in this series. We would get a young arm in Hansel Rodriguez. The bad thing about this trade would be that the Padres would still be eating all but three million of Upton’s contract. When I heard this, this trade really did not seem right. We should have gotten a better caliber prospect for the amount of salary we are paying. What made me forget about this was the emergence of Alex Dickerson. Dickerson wouldn’t have had the opportunity to shine if Melvin had still been on the team. That in itself is very beneficial to this team. Now it still may not be worth all the money. Even so, Dickerson has been incredible as of late. I can’t wait to see what he can do in more series to come. So overall in this trade we received a young arm, some money off of Melvin’s contract and the opportunity for a young player to shine. That is definitely a win in my book. Thanks to Melvin for everything this season. He sure made a fan out of a lot of people this season.
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.