Uniqlo Field at Dodger Stadium continued to be a house of horrors for San Diego, as for the second night in a row the Padres blew a multi-run lead to the Los Angeles Dodgers, falling 4-3 on Friday night.
Michael King gave San Diego (43-44) another strong start, pitching into the seventh for the second time in his past three outings, but Teoscar Hernández hit the game-changing grand slam off Adrian Morejon in the seventh for NL-leading Los Angeles (58-31). It extended the Brown and Gold’s rut to a season-long seven consecutive losses, dropping the Padres below .500 for the first time since the 11th game of the season.
"We're testing how we can handle the failures of the season and if we can come back, and I like the attitude of this team, I think we will come back. Right now it stinks, it feels very awful, it's a gut punch, but we've got to bounce back tomorrow and play our best game," San Diego manager Craig Stammen said.
After humming through the first six innings, King allowed a walk and a single to start the seventh and was lifted in favor of Morejon. Then, disaster.
Second baseman Jake Cronenworth botched a tailor-made double play grounder that loaded the bases. Hernández followed up by jumping on the first pitch from Morejon, a slider low in the strike zone, hitting it 419 feet to left-center field to turn a 3-0 Padre lead into a 4-3 deficit with one swing.
Morejon had not allowed a ball to leave the yard in 24 appearances prior. It was an especially cruel way to take his second loss of the season.
"It adds to the frustration of this last week of baseball for us. Those guys are very dependable players," Stammen said. "Michael is a dependable pitcher and walks the lead-off guy, so lead off walks always kinda start rallies, that's kind of what started that rally (and) gave them a little bit of belief that they could come back, and we make an error and make a pitch that's hittable and then we're down one."
King gave San Diego the kind of bulldog start they desperately needed, retiring the first 11 hitters he faced as he threw just 50 pitches over the first five innings. He threw first-pitch strikes to 15 of the 23 batters he faced, and was able to come back from a 3-0 count to fan Hernández that ended the fifth inning.
The San Diego starter avoided choppiness until the sixth, where he faced his only RISP situation of the night with two down after walking Andy Pages. But King was able to get Freddie Freeman to roll over a ground out to end that threat.
But having the first two batters reach to start the seventh ended his night, having thrown just 75 pitches. King allowed just three hits in his six innings pitched and was tagged for two of the runs (only one earned) as he struck out five and walked two.
"(King) dominated. It was a great outing by him, it was one of his best. He had a tough one the last one and he bounced back with one of his better ones. He knew we needed it and he gave it to us, we just weren't able to finish it off for him," Stammen said.
"He was very efficient with his pitch count and probably had more in the tank, but at that point we felt really good about going to our bullpen and using one of our best guys to get some of their left-handed hitters."
The Padres were able to give King support from the get-go, taking advantage of Shohei Otahni being unable to find the strike zone early in what became a 29-pitch first inning. Both Fernando Tatis Jr. and Cronenworth walked, then Gavin Sheets lined an elevated sweeper to right to drive in the first run of the game.
Ohtani was able to hone in, getting the next two via the K, as he recorded seven of his nine strikeouts over the first 11 batters he faced. But San Diego was able to touch up the NL’s top All Star vote-getter for seven hits and three runs in Ohtani’s six innings of work, in addition to working a pair of walks.
After winning an ABS challenge that showed the pitch was one-tenth of an inch low of the strike zone to set up a 2-0 count, Merrill made no mistake with an elevated fastball. He blasted his 10th home run to left-center field, leaving the yard for the second straight game and also his eighth long ball on the road. It's the first time this season Ohtani has allowed a home run at home.
Merrill stayed hot his next time up in the sixth, lining a two-out single that proved vital, as Xander Bogaerts followed up by going with an elevated single and lacing an RBI double down the line in right.
But that would be it, as reliever Kyle Hurt earned his third win of the season for the Dodgers, and former Padre Tanner Scott notched his 12th save of the season.
Prior to the game San Diego put Randy Vásquez, who had gone to the hospital last night after fainting, on the 15-day IL due to a right ankle contusion. The Padres also put Freddy Fermin on the 10-day IL for a head contusion. Stammen said Fermin didn’t have a concussion from last night’s game, but that the club wanted to be particularly careful with their catcher.
Righty Alek Jacob was recalled from Triple-A El Paso for the third time this season, where he had allowed six runs across the 12 appearances he made for the Chihuahuas since being last optioned down in mid-May. Additionally, Luis Campusano was reinstated from the 10-day IL, but did not make his first appearance fracturing his toe in early May.
Righty Griffin Canning (1-5, 7.09 ERA) is slated for his tenth start tomorrow, while the Dodgers will counter with right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto (8-5, 2.67 ERA). First pitch in Chavez Ravine is scheduled for 7:10 p.m.
"The good thing is it's somewhat the middle of the season, it's not at the end of the season where you're playing like this, so you have the opportunity to the rest of the season to play better and to be a better baseball team, shore up some of those mistakes we're making and improve on where we're at right now," Stammen said. "The length of the season is a good thing for us, we have the opportunity to get better and I know these guys are excited about that opportunity."
This story was updated at 10:10 p.m.