Normally reliable, Padres' bullpen stumbles in wacky 7th inning

ST. PETERSBURG – Things were lining up perfectly for the Padres on Saturday afternoon. The offense came to life with a rally that produced a three-run lead. One of MLB’s best bullpens was working in the seventh inning, nine outs to go. Game over?

Not exactly. The game took a few wicked turns. The shellshocked Padres found themselves on the wrong end of a 7-6 defeat against the Rays at Tropicana Field, a place where they’ve lost 10 of their last 12 games (dating to 2010).

There was the atypical seventh-inning work of normally reliable reliever Bradgley Rodriguez, whose control problems lit the Rays’ fire.

There was a potentially catastrophic injury to second baseman Luis Rengifo, whose right knee gave out on a throw to the plate, creating an error that allowed two runs to score. Rengifo crumpled to the ground and was helped onto a medical cart. The Padres said Rengifo suffered a sprained knee, but he will return to San Diego for further examination and imaging. Manager Craig Stammen said, “Obviously, it doesn’t look good.”

And then, after the Rays had pulled back ahead with a four-run seventh inning, the Padres went down quietly in the eighth and ninth innings.

The Padres took a 6-3 lead in their half of the seventh, getting to relievers Garrett Cleavinger and Kevin Kelly. Manny Machado’s two-run single provided a two-run lead. With runners on the corners, the Padres scored again when Rays catcher Liam Hicks threw down as Machado tried to steal second. With Fernando Tatis Jr. breaking from third, second baseman Richie Palacios fell down as he attempted a throw to the plate and Tatis scored easily.

With a three-run advantage, the Padres turned to Rodriguez, who hadn’t allowed a run in his last nine appearances. But that magic disappeared. Rodriguez walked Palacios after getting ahead in the count, 1-2. He opened with two balls to Cedric Mullins, who singled. Then Taylor Walls singled on the first pitch, loading the bases.

When Yandy Díaz slammed a liner to the base of the center-field wall, starting a wacky sequence that led to Rengifo’s injury and allowed the Rays to clear the bases, Rodriguez was done.

“Anytime you walk the leadoff guy … those are always tough,” Stammen said. “That’s just a blip on the radar for Bradgley. That’s one game that hopefully we can forget about quickly and get him back out there where he can be himself again.”

On Díaz's hit, Mullins got a late start from second base and stopped at third. Walls rounded second aggressively and was caught in no-man’s land. Rengifo correctly ran Walls toward third, then fired homeward when Mullins broke to the plate. But in a freak occurrence, Rengifo planted wrong, causing the injury and a wild throw. Later in the inning, Chandler Simpson brought in the go-ahead run for the Rays with a two-out slap single.

“Honestly, [the Rays] made a baserunning mistake,” Stammen said. “During that play, it looked like we did the right thing. We were going to get an out regardless and sitting in a better situation than what it ended up being. But that’s the nature of the game. That’s the nature of this ballpark. So that’s kind of the story of the game.”

Stammen said he was mostly pleased with the Padres’ work against Rays starter Nick Martinez (three runs over six innings). The offense seemingly did its part. Jake Cronenworth got the Padres on the board with a third-inning RBI double. Then Ty France provided a 3-2 lead with his two-run homer to the right-field corner, just inside the foul pole, in the sixth. From a 1-2 count, France fouled two pitches off, then delivered his homer against Martinez.

“He was fouling pitches off, then finally caught up to a heater and got one down the right-field line,” Stammen said. “Ty was able to put a barrel on it.”

In games started by Shane McClanahan and Martinez, two of the Rays’ best pitchers, the Padres scored 10 combined runs, but they came away with no victories to show for it. They’ll head into Sunday’s series finale facing right-hander Drew Rasmussen, another ace.

“That’s a really good team over there,” France said. “The game turned around on a freak play. Not in a million years would you have drawn it up that way. It’s unfortunate. We just have to rebound, play good [Sunday] and hope [Rengifo] is OK.”