There will be a lot of second-guessing about the Padres’ 2-1 loss to the Diamondbacks on Sunday. Most of it involves replacing players, which has Padres fans calling for a replacement of the manager.
Andrew Cashner was, once again, the tough-luck loser. He allowed two earned runs in 7.0 innings, both on solo homers, but watched his record fall to 1-6, which is criminal for a guy with a 3.07 ERA (insert frustrating rant about how useless the WINS stats is for pitchers here).
Cashner was involved in one of the game’s more controversial decisions, but not on the mound. In the 6th inning the Padres had a rally going. Jedd Gyorko had doubled in a run to cut the D-Backs lead to 2-1 and was standing at 3rd base with the bases loaded and two outs when Cashner’s spot in the order came up.
Padres manager Bud Black decided to let Cashner hit for himself instead of sending in either Matt Kemp of Derek Norris, who were both getting a day off to rest but available to pinch-hit. The thinking was; Cashner was throwing well and San Diego’s bullpen was on fumes after a string of outings so making them go at least four innings would be difficult. Cashner hit the ball hard but right at shortstop to end the inning and the threat.
In the 8th inning, Buddy made another curious decision. With runners at first and second and one out he let Alexi Amarista hit instead of going with a pinch-hitter. Amarista is batting .167 with runners in scoring position this season. Of the guys on the bench, Kemp is hitting .256 with RISP; Norris is batting .419 and Yangervis Solarte, a fellow infielder who could step right in and not burn another player in a switch, is hitting .444 with runners in scoring position.
Amarista grounded in to an inning-ending double play and the game was basically over. The first situation with Cashner was a complete toss-up with no right answer. The one with Amarista, however, seems to have been a blown call by Buddy.
San Diego falls to 17-16 on the year. They take a day off and head to Seattle for a quick two games starting on Tuesday.
