Padres undone by rare King struggles, costly baserunning 

SAN DIEGO -- Ty France homered, and Fernando Tatis Jr. pounded out three hits, but the Padres’ late rally fell short, as they dropped their series finale against the A’s on Sunday, 5-2.

Here’s some analysis from Petco Park:

An encouraging day for Tatis

Nope, still no homers.

But the Padres will take a day like this one from their leadoff hitter every time.

Tatis notched his first three-hit game since May 1. And he used the whole field to do so, singling to right field in the first and to left-center in the third, before doubling down the left-field line in the fifth.

“That was a great sign,” said manager Craig Stammen. “There were some swings that we’re used to seeing -- some Tati running around the bases with the hair flying around like we’re used to seeing. And that’s good stuff. He’s trending in the right direction.”

Through the first six games of the homestand, Tatis is hitting .364, and he’s reaching base at a .462 clip. He says he feels comfortable with the adjustments he’s made recently, specifically with his hips.

“I’m getting to a better spot, feeling more comfortable at the plate,” Tatis said.

A rare off-day for King

Generally speaking, even when Michael King struggles, he’s able to grind his way through an outing. At the very least, he’s typically able to preserve the Padres’ bullpen, while keeping the game close. That was not the case on Sunday.

King dealt with an uncharacteristic lack of command. He threw some hittable mistakes early (particularly with two strikes). Then, he lost the zone entirely later in his outing. Add it all up, and he lasted just 3 2/3 innings, allowing four runs while walking four and allowing five hits. It was his worst start of the season.

“I just never felt like I had it,” King said. “Even in the counts that I got to two strikes, I felt like I couldn’t execute strike-to-ball. They had four two-strike hits -- which just can’t happen.”

King has been so good for the Padres this year that he gets a pass for an occasional rough start. His ERA is 2.76. He’s been mostly excellent, when the San Diego rotation has desperately needed him. But King believes he’s capable of being a front-line-type ace. This start certainly did not fit that description.

“I’m not trying to do that ever,” King said. “I try to grind through the ones where you don’t have anything. But yeah, [it was] just a lack of execution.”

Aggressive? Or overaggressive?

On a day the Padres found themselves lacking in offense, they also ran into a pair of outs on the basepaths. Both are somewhat excusable, given the situations. They both came with two outs, and they were both the product of the Padres aggressively trying to force the issue.

They were still extremely costly -- although in Stammen’s eyes, the risk is almost always going to be worth it. He has urged his team to be aggressive on the basepaths.

“We cannot be afraid of making mistakes,” Stammen said. “We start playing passive, unaggressive baseball, we’re just going to set ourselves up for a conservative, ‘You didn’t do anything wrong, but you didn’t win the game.’

“We lost the game, but you know what? We put it all out there and did what we could do to try and create some energy, create some runs with some aggressiveness. We’ll go home happy with that.”

In the third inning, Tatis was caught at second, trying to stretch a single into a double. Again, it was somewhat sensible considering Tatis was trying to work his way into scoring position with two outs.

“Just being aggressive,” Tatis said.

Then, in the fifth, France was thrown out at the plate, trying to score on Tatis’ double. Again, if there’s ever a time to be aggressive, it’s with two outs. Relying on a hit from the next batter is usually only a 30% proposition at best.

France, like Tatis earlier, forced the A’s defense to make a play. And the A’s defense made it.

“Everything has to go perfect for them to get us out,” France said. “And they made two really good plays. Tati, one of his best features is speed, you don’t want to tell that guy not to run. It was just two really good plays.”