The San Diego Padres were riding high after a three-game sweep of the Miami Marlins, which followed winning three out of four against the Colorado Rockies. They took that momentum into UNIQLO Field at Dodger Stadium to face the Los Angeles Dodgers and got smacked in the mouth while being held scoreless on just five hits in a 7-0 loss on Tuesday night.
The loss was made worse when you factor in the San Diego ace, Michael King, was on the mound. The right-hander had been dominant over recent starts and was the unquestioned leader in the rotation — and he still is, but he took some lumps in his latest outing against Los Angeles. King was tagged for five runs on six hits in just four innings of work. He also allowed two walks, both of which led to runs for the Dodgers, and recorded five strikeouts.
The red-hot Padres offense which had been putting up runs and hits in bunches, went quiet — a story the Friar Faithful know all too well after recent playoff struggles against the National League West rivals. Luis Campusano was the only San Diego player to have multiple hits in the game and that was two. Fernando Tatis Jr. opened the game with a hit, but did not get anything else in the contest. Xander Bogaerts was the only other Padres regular with a hit and Ethan Salas recorded a pinch-hit single in his first plate appearance in the top of the sixth inning.
The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Rockies. The Miami Marlins beat the Chicago Cubs and the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Milwaukee Brewers. The positive from all of that is the Padres have the same record as the Cubs and Phillies, but both teams have the tie breaker over the Friars. However, they remain in control of their destiny and the magic number to clinch a playoff berth remains at two. San Diego will try to move that number to one, and hope for some help from Colorado to knock off Arizona to claim a playoff spot.
The first step for the Padres is to beat the Dodgers and they will attempt to do that tonight at 7:10 p.m.
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