Padres eager to flush bad-luck avalanche in series opener

ST. PETERSBURG -- For the Padres, who endured one bizarre occurrence after another, Friday night’s 9-4 defeat against the Rays was definitely one to forget.

After a botched throw by right-hander Casey Mize (5-8) on a likely double-play ball that would have ended the fourth inning, the Padres surrendered five unearned runs. The Rays batted around, but got just two singles during the foray.

In the sixth, Tropicana Field’s infamous catwalks robbed Xander Bogaerts of what appeared to be a no-doubt solo home run to left field that would have pulled the Padres within 7-5. With Rays left fielder Chandler Simpson backed against the left-field wall and Bogaerts’ blast projected at 386 feet by Statcast, the ball struck the Trop’s B-ring (some 150 feet above the playing surface) in fair territory and was caught by third baseman Junior Caminero just beyond the infield.

“That was a you’ve-got-to-be-kidding kind of thing,’’ Padres manager Craig Stammen said. “You wonder how those are the rules. That’s the way Xander’s season has gone. Just a lot of bad luck. I mean, he’s as unlucky a player offensively as I’ve seen this year. He’s hitting a lot of bullets and has nothing to show for it.’’

“That’s the Trop,’’ Mize said. “It sucks for Bogey and it sucks for us. Just a couple of weird things that happened, I guess.’’

Afterward, Bogaerts was still in disbelief.

“I knew it was a homer,’’ Bogaerts said. “I knew it was a homer, but hell, what do you want to do, man? From a homer to an out. This is tough.

“I heard the fans [cheering] after Caminero caught the deflection, so I figured something was wrong. I’m like, ‘Let me just run.’ I thought maybe it hit [the catwalk] and it did hit it. Oh, man.’’

For good measure, Cedric Mullins hit a seventh-inning solo homer that was caught on the fly by a fan who reached near the wall. Right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. immediately pointed to him, claiming fan interference. After replay showed the ball had cleared the yellow line, the home run call was upheld. Tatis, in a playful retort, turned and leaped high, giving a fist bump to the fan, who wore a Tatis City Connect jersey.

“The ball was not bouncing our way tonight,’’ Stammen said. “That’s a fact.’’

With the Rays leading 1-0 on Yandy Díaz's third-inning home run -- and Mize pitching well into the fourth -- the avalanche began.

Mize hit Caminero, the leadoff batter. One out later, the speedy Simpson bounced back to the box and Mize whirled to start a double play. He hesitated briefly as shortstop Bogaerts ran into the position, then yanked the throw into the turf, putting runners on second and third.

“It got to me really quick and when I looked, Xander’s making his way over there, so I was gearing up to throw,’’ Mize said. “Then my body told me to give him a second. At that point, I had already let go of the ball. I should have taken a second with the ball in my glove before gearing to throw. I just didn’t do the little things right.’’

“It snowballed from there,’’ Stammen said. “The Rays found some holes tonight. That’s how they play. They put pressure on you. They make you play defense in different spots to account for their speed and what they do with the bunch game. They’re very hard to defend. And they made it hard to defend after we made a few mistakes.’’

One run scored on a wild pitch. Another came home when first baseman Ty France fielded a bases-loaded grounder, then froze … and everyone was safe. One sacrifice fly and a pair of RBI singles later, the Rays had a 6-0 lead.

The Padres got to left-hander Shane McClanahan (10-6), scoring twice in the fourth, then chasing him with a 3-2 walk to France and a two-out, two-run homer by Jackson Merrill in the sixth.

“But we didn’t do enough,’’ Tatis said.

Afterward, Stammen already was looking to Saturday’s middle game.

“We’ve got to move on,’’ Stammen said. “It’s a long season. You have games where you know things don’t go your way and maybe you don’t play good on top of that. But the good thing is tomorrow [Saturday], today [Friday] doesn’t matter. We can move on, show up with a good attitude, some energy, give a little more effort, try to put a good game out there and get a W.’’