Padres offense remains stuck in loss to Diamondbacks

Kevin Acee, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Jun 14, 2025

Published in Baseball

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PHOENIX — What’s up with the Padres?

Just the same old thing.

The offense did close to nothing. The starting pitcher did not make it out of the fifth inning.

The San Diego Padres lost 5-1 to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday night at Chase Field.

It was their third loss in four games.

The Padres’ biggest shortcoming is they have not been hitting well for a while.

They had a paltry six hits Friday, which was more than they had in four of their previous 13 games.

They went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position and scored just one run for the third time in their past 11 games. They have scored fewer than three runs in half of their past 14 games.

After a walk and two singles in a scoreless third inning, the Padres reached base twice — on Fernando Tatis Jr.’s one-out single in the fifth inning and Jackson Merrill’s lead-off walk in the sixth.

Their paltry production has been enough much of the time since the offense went mostly dark a cliff a month ago, because the starting pitching has been adequate and the bullpen has generally been outstanding.

The bullpen did not get a chance for its work to be relevant Friday.

The only real issue lately with the Padres’ starting pitching — aside from Yu Darvish’s continued absence as he works back from an elbow issue and Michael King being sidelined the past three weeks by a nerve impingement in his shoulder — has been an inability to go deep in games.

Stephen Kolek, who did come within one out of completing six scoreless innings in each of his previous two starts, made it just 41/3 innings while allowing five runs Friday.

Padres starting pitchers have gone six innings just three times in the past 16 games while going fewer than five innings seven times in that span.

Kolek would have had to be a lot better for it to have been relevant.

The Padres put a runner into scoring position with less than two outs in each of the first three innings.

They scored once and required help doing so.

Their unearned run came in the first inning when Tatis lined the first pitch of the game for a double down the right field line, ran to third on a fly ball by Luis Arraez and ran home when center fielder Alek Thomas’ throw bounced wide of third baseman Eugenio Suarez and rolled to the side wall.

It briefly appeared the Padres got another unearned run in the second inning, but umpire interference negated that because it almost certainly had caused it to happen.

Singles by Gavin Sheets and Jake Cronenworth gave the Padres runners at the corners with one out. On the pitch that struck out Elias Díaz, Jake Cronenworth took off for second base and stopped short as Sheets broke from third base. Catcher Gabriel Moreno’s throw bounced on its way to second base and then skipped into center field as Sheets jogged home.

But Moreno’s arm had hit umpire Jansen Visconti’s mask as he threw, and both runners were sent back to where they had started.

Tyler Wade flied out to center field to end the inning.

The game was tied one pitch later, when Josh Naylor, who played for the Padres in 2019 and ‘20, sent the first pitch in the bottom of the second inning over the right field wall.

It was the first home run Kolek had allowed in five starts, and it ended his scoreless streak at 162/3 innings. That run of no runs was built over parts of four starts, including the back-to-back games against the San Francisco Giants and Milwaukee Brewers in which he went 52/3 innings.

Kolek followed Naylor’s blast by retiring five consecutive batters.

He took just three pitches to get the first two outs in the third inning and then struck out Corbin Carroll.

But Kolek’s last pitch to Carroll, a changeup that faded down and in on the left-handed batter, bounced off Díaz’s glove and rolled far enough that the speedy Carroll easily beat Diaz’s throw to first base.

Kolek followed that by walking Ketel Marte, and Geraldo Perdomo made it matter when he bounced a single up the middle that brought in Carroll.

It was Carroll who scored (and drove in) the Diamondbacks’ next run. His homer began a three-run fifth inning that Kolek did not survive.

A single by Marte and double by Perdomo was followed by Naylors’ sacrifice fly, which made it 4-1. Kolek then hit Suarez with a pitch before Lourdes Gurriel Jr.’s single drove in Perdomo and drove Kolek from the game.