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PITTSBURGH — There’s by no means an excellent time to scratch a frontline pitcher from a begin. Nevertheless, Tuesday night time appeared like a superb time for the Padres to get away with it.
The Padres have been dealing with the Pirates, who had managed a complete of 30 runs of their previous 13 video games, dropping 12 of them.
Nevertheless, right-hander Reiss Knehr struggled because the Padres fell to the Pirates 9-4 within the opener of a three-game sequence at PNC Park. Referred to as up from Triple-A El Paso on Sunday, Knehr made a spot begin for Yu Darvish, who, affected by an sickness, didn’t be part of the Padres on their journey from San Diego to Pittsburgh.
Knehr lasted simply two-plus innings and gave up 5 runs and 6 hits. He was lifted after permitting back-to-back dwelling runs to Carlos Santana and Jack Suwinski to guide off the third inning, which gave the Pirates a 5-3 lead that they wouldn’t relinquish.
However Padres supervisor Bob Melvin absolved Knehr of a lot of the blame. As a substitute, he was upset that the offense produced just one run over the ultimate seven innings after opening the scoring with a three-run second.
“We scored three runs and had good momentum, then they scored three and that shouldn’t have been it for us,” Melvin mentioned. “It simply looks as if [the Pirates] had a bit of bit extra spirit the remainder of the sport than we did.”
The Padres (37-42) misplaced their third straight recreation, persevering with what’s been a tricky season following a visit to the Nationwide League Championship Collection final yr.
“I’d say usually, while you’re not scoring and never enjoying effectively, you look flat,” Melvin mentioned. “While you rating three runs within the second inning, it’s best to be ok with your self placing collectively good at-bats. After which simply not have it the remainder of the sport, we received outplayed for positive.”
Star proper fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. didn’t essentially agree with Melvin’s evaluation of the Padres being flat.
“They stored hitting and we didn’t. That’s all,” Tatis mentioned. “Now we have been capable of bounce again. It’s that easy. All people is enjoying with lots of effort. We simply didn’t rating sufficient runs tonight.”
Early on, it didn’t appear that scoring was going to be an issue. Manny Machado led off the second inning with a double and got here dwelling on Gary Sánchez’s one-out base hit earlier than Ha-Seong Kim capped the inning by hitting a two-run single with two outs. It was the second of three hits for Kim.
Nevertheless, the Padres managed just one run after that, on Nelson Cruz’s RBI single within the sixth. That drew the Padres inside 6-4, and shortly after that, they’d runners on second and third with two outs, representing the tying runs.
Trent Grisham, although, hit an inning-ending comebacker to Pirates starter Wealthy Hill. Roansy Contreras adopted with three scoreless innings for his first skilled save.
The loss to the slumping Pirates got here after the Padres dropped back-to-back video games over the weekend to the Nationals, who’re in final place within the NL East. Previous to the present skid, the Padres had scored double-digit runs in back-to-back video games.
The Padres haven’t gained greater than three video games in a row all yr.
“We’re not in the most effective place proper now,” Melvin mentioned. “If you happen to had requested me three days in the past, I’d have mentioned we have been on the verge of being in a extremely good place. It’s been that means all yr, to the place it appears like we’re doing a little good issues, then swiftly, we’ve got dangerous spurts proper after that. You get uninterested in saying you’ll be able to maintain one thing, however we haven’t carried out it this yr.”
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Printed : 2023-06-28 03:48:22