You know that scene at the end of Return of the Jedi when Darth Vader discovers Luke has a twin sister that Obi-Wan tried to hide from him and when he realizes it Vader says, “Now his failure is complete,” you remember that?
That’s kind of what happened to the Padres in Colorado on Friday night. The Friars lost to the Rockies 7-4, becoming mathematically eliminated from playoff contention. So General Manager A.J. Preller’s failure is complete.
Still, I admire him for trying. The grand off-season experiment blew up but the vast majority of Padres fans would rather flame out in spectacular fashion than go away with a whimper, something the franchise has done far too many times in the past.
On Friday starting pitcher Ian Kennedy allowed four runs (three earned) in 6.0 innings. He was down 4-1 when Wil Myers smoked a solo home run to cut the lead to 4-2 and give the Friars a chance. But San Diego gave away far too many chances, going a miserable 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position.
The Rockies put the game away in the bottom of the 7th with three runs off a combination of relievers Jay Jackson and Marc Rzepczynski.
The Padres absorb their 79th loss of the year, meaning they’ll have to finish the season on a 12-2 run to avoid ending a fifth straight season with a losing record. Either way I think we can expect Preller to make another series of gigantic splashes in the off-season. I don’t know about you but I’ll be cheering him on all the way.
