After taking the series against the first place Mets, a trip to Detroit looked on paper like an opportunity to stack wins on the way back to Petco Park.
It sure didn't play out that way on Monday.
The Tigers plated five runs in the third inning en route to a 12-4 beatdown of the Friars, on a night where San Diego also saw rookie pitcher MacKenzie Gore exit early with injury concerns.
Things started to go south when Eric Hosmer misplayed a routine groundball off the bat of Harold Castro to start the third. Back-to-back base hits loaded the bags, before a Javier Baez sacrifice fly tied the game at one. The frame would've ended shortly thereafter if not for Hosmer's mishap. Instead the Tigers loaded the bases for Eric Haase, who teed off on a Sean Manaea sinker to give the home team a 5-1 edge.
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Jeimer Candelario led off the fourth with a home run off Manaea to open up a four-run inning. Manaea was pulled after 3.1 innings. Only four of the nine runs that came across on his watch were earned, thanks to Hosmer's error.
Candelario went yard again in the fifth inning off of Gore. The rookie lefty got two more outs before coming out due to visible discomfort. Gore winced after striking out Willi Castro on a slider, then threw two more fastballs. He was seen stretching and flexing his hand before being visited by Bob Melvin and a Padres' trainer.
Melvin described the ailment as elbow soreness after the game.
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Detroit hit four bombs, the last coming off the bat of future Hall of Famer Miguel Cabrera in the sixth that capped the scoring at 12-4.
The Padres took a brief lead in the third inning on a solo home run from Jurickson Profar, his ninth of the season.
They have dropped two straight games by a combined score of 20-9.
