During their 8-game winning streak the Padres basically stopped making the little errors that have doomed their for most of the year. On Saturday night they returned in a 5-2 loss to the Cardinals, snapping the streak and very likely dealing a fatal blow to what were already razor-thin playoff hopes for San Diego.
The Padres scored in the 1st inning thanks to a guy who's driven in a lot of runs. Manny Machado singled up the middle to bring in Xander Bogaerts for a 1-0 advantage. After that, the offense dried up and the miscues presented themselves.
St. Louis got both of their runs in the 7th inning. With two runners on and two outs Pedro Avila gave up a ground ball single to Masyn Winn. One run scored and Andrew Knizner tried to test the arm of Fernando Tatis Jr. That's not a great idea. The throw had Knizner beat by a couple of steps but catcher Luis Campusano dropped the ball, allowing the go-ahead run to score.
San Diego had multiple chances to tie it. In the bottom of the 7th they put two on with one out ... and Juan Soto grounded into a double play. In the 8th Ha-Seong Kim drew a 2-out walk ... and inexplicably just ran right off 1st base, easily getting himself caught in a rundown.
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Finally, in the 9th they broke through. Ryan Helsley walked the first three hitters of the inning to load the bases with nobody out. Xander Bogaerts hit a dribbler to the left side. The Cardinals could only get one out, Eguy Rosario scored to tie it 2-2, and the winning run was sitting at 3rd base with one out. Again, the lack of situational hitting killed the Padres.
Tatis Jr. and Soto both struck out so it went to extra innings. That is not a good place for the 2023 Padres. Both teams failed to score in the 10th but in the 11th Richie Palacios hit a sacrifice fly, Luken Baker lined a single up the middle, and Knizner lofted a sac fly to make it 5-2 Cardinals and drop San Diego to a remarkable oh-and-12 in extra innings games. If they were even .500, they'd own a playoff spot right now.
Instead, with the Cubs winning again the Padres fall 5.0 games out of the final National League Wild Card spot and their elimination number is down to just 3.
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