Rough Road Trip Ends with a 16-4 Padres Loss

Bethancourt & Amarista Even Wound Up Pitching

After a rough road trip the Friars head back to Petco Park on Wednesday. The last of their eight game road trip was Tuesday afternoon against the Seattle Mariners in Interleague play, and it was a brutal one. James Shields got the start on the mound for the Padres, and he had a painful outing against the Mariners.

In the second inning Robinson Cano earned a bases loaded walk from Shields to bring in Luis Sandinas. That gave the Mariners an early 2-0 lead. The second inning proved to be a run-fest for Seattle. With two men on base for Kyle Seager, he stepped up and sent a long three run shot to the nosebleed seats in right field and the Mariners increased their lead to 7-0.

In the third inning, Shields faced Seth Smith at bat with two men on base. But the former Padre smacked a three run homer and brought the score to 10-0 in favor of the Mariners. That would be the end of Shields’ work for the day. In the worst start of his career, Shields allowed eight hits, 10 runs, and four walks. Luis Perdomo came in to replace him on the hill.

After five innings it looked like the Friars would give the M’s a no hitter. Cue Travis Jankowski. In the top of the sixth the Padres were down 16-0. Jankowski knocked a two run shot off Mariners pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma to get the Padres on the board. It was the outfielder’s first homerun of the season. That was about all the good news the team would see for the day.

The Padres were hit so hard they had position players as their relieving pitchers. In the eighth inning starting catcher Christian Bethancourt was on the mound for the Padres. His 53 mile-per-hour knuckleball got some laughs from Matt Kemp and a few of the players in the dugout. A few pitches later Bethancourt hit Seth Smith with a knuckle-curve. It was a short lived outing for Bethancourt who then traded places with infielder Alexi Amarista. Amarista had thrown three pitches in his career, and two of those were outs. He wound up throwing just one pitch which ended up being a bases-loaded groundout to mercifully end the inning.

The Padres lost to the Mariners 16-4 in the second of their four scheduled meetings this week. The Padres are in last place in the NL West and have lost 12 of their last 15 games. They hold a 20-33 record this season. The Friars are back in San Diego on Wednesday to close out the last two games of this interleague series at Petco Park.

Contact Us