Kyle Hart, bullpen stutter as Padres give one back to Marlins

Jeff Sanders, The San Diego Union-Tribune on May 28, 2025

Published in Baseball

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SAN DIEGO — The Miami Marlins gave away leads their first two days in San Diego.

Guess a good host returns the favor every now and then.

Kyle Hart could not get out of the fifth inning, David Morgan could not strand the runners he inherited and the back of the bullpen could not hold onto the late lead provided by another Gavin Sheets home run in the Padres’ 10-8 loss on Wednesday afternoon at Petco Park.

The series began with the Padres coming from behind and winning in 11 innings on Monday and capitalizing on three errors in erasing Miami’s six-run first in Tuesday’s win.

A day later, the Marlins scored five runs off two Padres rookies in the fifth inning, went ahead once on a wild pitch from Jason Adam and had an error from Manny Machado factor in a three-run eighth that snapped the Padres’ three-game winning streak.

Sheets’ 11th homer of the season gave the Padres an 8-7 lead in the bottom of the seventh inning.

It did not last long.

Adam hit Connor Norby in the head with a change-up to start the eighth inning. A double-play ball might have gotten him out of trouble, but Machado botched a bouncer from Nick Fortes and the Marlins proceeded to rally for three runs off Adam and left-hander Wandy Peralta to take the lead for good.

With Jake Cronenworth’s two-run double keying a five-run fourth inning, Kyle Hart climbed the mound in the fifth inning with a 6-1 lead.

He’d already given up a solo homer in the third inning to Agustin Ramirez when the left-handed-hitting Jesus Sanchez took him deep to right with one out.

Fine.

Even if that blast pushed Hart into the team lead with eight despite spending a month in the minors, it only cut the Padres’ lead to 6-2. But what really unraveled a solid start to his return to the majors was the double to Javier Sanoja and a pair of two-out singles, including one from Ramirez to make it a three-run ballgame.

Hart was an out away from qualifying for the win but in a lineup loaded with right-handed hitters to face Hart, Padres manager Mike Shildt had seen enough.

Only the call to right-hander David Morgan backfired.

Making his second big-league appearance, Morgan grooved a middle-in, 97 mph fastball to the right-handed-hitting Otto Lopez and the Marlins second baseman pulled it out to left, just a few rows beyond the wall to tie the game at 6-6.

Lopez’s home run closed the book on Hart, whose ERA swelled to 6.66 after Morgan allowed two inherited runs to score. Hart did not walk a batter, but he struck out just one and allowed five runs on six hits in 4 2/3 innings.

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