Sometimes things just don't go your way. Sometimes you fail to make your own luck. Saturday night was both for the Padres.
The Friars went 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position against the Twins, and on one of those hits that should have tied the game the runner never moved in a 7-4 loss to Minnesota on Saturday night at Petco Park (their first setback wearing the new City Connect jerseys). If that sounds odd, it is. Allow me to explain.
In the 7th inning, trailing 2-1, the Friars tried to mount a rally. CJ Abrams singled and moved to 2nd base on a throwing error by Carlos Correa. Jurickson Profar hit a liner that came off the bat at 103 MPH right up the middle ... and into the leg of 2nd base umpire Jerry Layne. The MLB rulebook says any batted ball that hits an umpire after traveling past the pitcher but before reaching the outfield is automatically ruled dead.
Abrams, one of the fastest players in the game, would have scored easily. Instead he had to stay on 2nd base while Profar was given a single. Manny Machado struck out and Eric Hosmer popped to short, stranding Abrams and ending their last good scoring chance and, it seems, sucking most of the life out of the San Diego dugout.
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Joe Musgrove took the mound and turned in another quality start. Joe went 6.0 innings and struck out eight Twins. The only runs he allowed were on a solo homer from All-Star Byron Buxton and a bloop single by Gilberto Celestino. It should not have been enough to saddle him with a loss but one night after scoring 10 runs and hitting five balls out of the park, the Padres offense went back into hibernation.
Machado ripped a solo homer off Sonny Gray in the 3rd inning, his 18th of the year, to give the Friars a 1-0 lead. But the Padres didn't score again until it was far too late.
In the 8th inning Correa hammered a 2-run homer off Adrian Morejon to make it 4-1, then the bullpen just let it get away with a 5-run inning to make it 7-1. That was really the biggest difference in this game: the Twins got hits when they needed them and the Friars didn't. San Diego put runners on base in every single inning but, as has been the issue for this offense, they couldn't find the knock to break it open. Profar finally did it with a 3-run homer in the 9th inning that made it 7-4.
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The Padres can win the series on Sunday afternoon behind Sean Manaea, who makes the start against Dylan Bundy.
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