Padres' bats stymied by Guardians' offspeed-heavy attack in 1-hit effort

CLEVELAND -- The red-hot Padres had their six-game winning streak end with a thud, thanks to Joey Cantillo and three Guardians relievers on Saturday night.

Jake Cronenworth’s high-hop single over first baseman Nathaniel Lowe in the first inning was San Diego’s only hit in a 6-1 loss to Cleveland at Progressive Field.

It marked the third time the Padres have been one-hit this season, following shutout defeats to the Cardinals on May 8 and June 15.

They avoided being blanked when Fernando Tatis Jr. walked to begin the game, then scored two batters later when Manny Machado grounded into a double play that erased Cronenworth.

“We’ve got to flush this one quickly and move on to tomorrow,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said. “We’ll come back and try and win the series.”

San Diego, which has won 16 of 21 games since July 24, fell into a three-way tie for the second and third Wild Card spots in the National League with the Diamondbacks and Phillies.

This was just one of those evenings for the visitors, who have split the first two games of the Interleague set. Luis Campusano and Xander Bogaerts each had three RBIs in a 7-5 victory Friday, but the Padres only managed five baserunners in the rematch.

Cleveland’s starting pitchers followed the same script in both, limiting the number of fastballs they threw against a San Diego team that was hitting an MLB-high .271 since the beginning of July.

Cantillo, who worked six innings, only used his heater 18 times in 87 pitches with a 50% strike rate. The left-hander relied on his curve and changeup to keep batters guessing, registering 78% strikes on 23 of the latter.

“We’ve hit the fastball well all year,” Cronenworth said. “But I don’t think I saw one all night. [Cantillo] threw a lot of changeups for strikes.”

One day earlier, hard-throwing Gavin Williams offered just 23 fastballs in his 91 pitches. They often weren’t in the zone, either, with a 52% strike rate as the Padres scored five runs off him in 4 1/3 innings.

Cleveland will start right-hander Tanner Bibee, who throws his four-seamer 22.1% of the time, in the series finale.

“Maybe that’s something we can use tomorrow against Bibee,” Stammen said, referring to the Guardians’ ongoing trend. “We’ll find out in the first inning, I guess.

“Cantillo definitely kept us off-balance with cutters and changeups, just like Williams. Maybe we can take a little bit of credit for getting them to use a different strategy.”

Freddy Fermin gave Cantillo a little bit of help in the third, striking out after being called for a pitch-clock violation by umpire Adam Hamari. He stepped out of the batter’s box for the second time in the appearance for the automatic strike.

Fermin told Stammen that his elbow guard unbuckled, prompting him to ask for another timeout.

“The umpire didn’t know about the elbow guard,” Stammen said. “So he made the call.”

San Diego pitchers Wandy Peralta, Kyle Hart and Randy Vásquez weren’t at their best, either, giving up six runs in seven frames. Peralta worked as an opener for the fifth time this year, giving up one run on three hits in the first.

Peralta said he was told he would be in the role late Friday. The 35-year-old lefty was scored upon for the initial time in seven career outings as an opener, covering eight innings.

“It was just not executing the pitches in the moment,” Peralta said through interpreter Jorge Merlos. “That’s all.”