Cronenworth's big night undone by Padres' costly mistakes in extras

SAN DIEGO -- The Padres rallied to force extras, but came up short, running and bunting themselves out of the 10th and 11th innings in a 3-2 loss to the Pirates on Monday night at Petco Park.

Ultimately, Nick Gonzales’ go-ahead single in the 12th proved decisive, as San Diego went scoreless in all three extra innings.

“We had plenty of opportunities there to take the lead and win the game,” said second baseman Jake Cronenworth. “They did, too. It seemed like we were just [playing] ping-pong, back and forth for a few innings. Obviously, they took advantage of their opportunity in the 12th.”

The Padres (71-61) didn’t lose any ground on their direct rivals in the National League Wild Card race, with the Phillies and Diamondbacks both losing. San Diego remains two games ahead of Arizona for the final playoff spot (and two games back of Philly for the No. 5 seed).

Here are some takeaways from Petco Park:

Cronenworth’s big night

The Padres trailed by a run with the tying run 90 feet away when Cronenworth came to the plate with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning. He found himself in a 2-2 count against Pirates reliever Luke Weaver -- and he got to work.

He fouled off a changeup at the bottom of the zone, then a fastball at the top of the zone, then another changeup at the knees. Weaver’s eighth pitch was a cutter that caught a bit too much plate, and Cronenworth smacked it into center field, tying the game.

“He’s got a good changeup,”Cronenworth said. “You’ve just got to get him up [in the zone], and I stayed through the middle with that.”

He wasn’t done. Cronenworth prevented the go-ahead run from scoring in the ninth with a diving stop at second. He essentially saved another run in the 11th with a brilliant glove flip.

“Some of the at-bats he took tonight and especially the defensive plays he made, he really saved the game, gave us a chance to win,” said manager Craig Stammen.

Bunts (and baserunning) prove costly

The Padres had their chances. They stranded the automatic runner in the top of the 10th and 11th. But they opened the bottom half of both innings by popping up a bunt.

Bunting, of course, has largely gone out of style. But if there’s ever a place for it, it’s with the winning run on second base and nobody out. But both Dustin Harris and Cronenworth popped up their bunts.

“Game of failure,” Stammen said. “We struggled in that aspect, and we'll get back at it. Go on the bunt machine tomorrow, and we'll work on it, and hopefully be better in that situation next time.”

On the first of those bunts, Luis Campusano -- who started the 10th inning on second base -- was caught straying too far from the bag and was doubled off. Stammen acknowledged encouraging Campusano to get a big secondary lead, but it was still an inexcusable baserunning blunder that ultimately proved costly.

Meanwhile, the Padres would finish 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position. They left the bases loaded in the 11th, even after Cronenworth’s failed bunt, then went down on three straight strikeouts in the 12th with the tying run at second base.

“Definitely some missed opportunities, for sure,” Stammen said. “We're gonna regret losing that one.”

A bullpen loaded with quality lefties

Adrian Morejon is perhaps the best left-handed setup weapon in baseball. He was brilliant again on Monday, working two scoreless extra innings -- with an auto runner on second base in both.

But there’s an ongoing battle in the San Diego bullpen among the other left-handers for the higher-leverage lefty lanes that don’t belong to Morejon. And lately, pretty much everyone has risen to the challenge.

Kyle Hart has been one of the Padres’ most important pitchers as they’ve reeled off a stretch in which they’ve gone 21-8. His versatility proved especially useful while they executed their pitching chaos strategy before the Trade Deadline. Hart has since risen to higher-leverage roles, and he met the challenge again with a scoreless inning on Monday.

Yuki Matsui, meanwhile, has a 2.13 ERA this season and pitched a scoreless frame for a second consecutive day. On Sunday, the Petco Park crowd took to chanting his name in the ninth inning. (Wandy Peralta did not pitch on Monday, but he’s been solid, too.)

"We’re all just trying to use each other’s energy and each other’s success and bounce it off one another,” Hart said. “That’s what you saw tonight, guys coming in and attacking, making pitches. Yuki, Wandy and Morejon, they’ve all been really fun to watch. And I’ve learned a lot from all three of them.”