A celebration 14 years in the making will have to wait (at least) one more day.
The Padres had a chance to secure their first playoff spot since 2006 but lost to the Mariners 4-1 on Saturday night at Petco Park. San Diego's magic number for a post-season berth still dropped to 1 because the White Sox hit five solo home runs, two by shortstop Tim Anderson, to beat the Reds 5-0 in Cincinnati.
Former Padre and Aztec Ty France lined an RBI single to right field in the 1st inning off rookie Luis Patino to make it 1-0. Patino made his first career big league start because Mike Clevinger, the prized acquisition at the trade deadline, was a late scratch with biceps tightness. Patino only lasted 1.2 innings so this one suddenly turned into a bullpen day.
San Diego tied it in the top of the 3rd (remember they're the road team for this series that was supposed to be played in Seattle) when Fernando Tatis Jr. finally barreled a ball up. The 21-year-old superstar snapped a 2-for-32 stretch with a double the left-center. He scored on a Manny Machado RBI single to tie it 1-1.
However, Machado was thrown out at 2nd base trying to advance on a deep Austin Nola fly ball, one of three baserunning blunders the Padres committed in the game.
Seattle took the lead back thanks to another former Padre hurting his old club. Luis Torrens laced a 2-run double to left to make it a 3-1 Mariners lead. In the 5th inning Adrian Morejon gave up a long solo homer to Kyle Lewis, who's going to win the American League Rookie of the Year award by a landslide.
The Padres brought the go-ahead run to the plate in the 9th. Wil Myers, Eric Hosmer and Tommy Pham singled to start the inning but Jake Cronenworth grounded into a double play and Jurickson Profar grounded out to end it.
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So, the Padres can try again on Sunday in a very simple scenario: win and they're in the playoffs. They have the right guy on the mound to do it. Dinelson Lamet, arguably their best pitcher right now, gets the start against Seattle rookie Justin Dunn.
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