PHILADELPHIA -- The Padres completed a dismal 1-5 road trip with a 6-4 loss to the Phillies on Thursday afternoon.
Here’s some instant reaction from Citizens Bank Park, after San Diego’s ninth loss in 10 games -- six of which have come against Philadelphia.
Can the Padres get more from Machado?
The first eight pitches of Manny Machado’s afternoon offered absolutely no indication of what was to come on the ninth. Zack Wheeler had thrown Machado eight straight fastballs. Machado struck out on three pitches in each of his first two at-bats and found himself down 0-2 in the seventh.
If there was any pent up frustration, Machado took it out on Wheeler’s ninth fastball. He launched it a Statcast-projected 435 feet into the left-center field seats, cutting the Padres’ deficit to one.
Put simply: The Padres need more where that came from.
Nearly everyone else around him has slumped, but even still, Machado’s struggles have been especially pronounced. He’s hitting just .174. Simultaneously, Machado has taken accountability for his lack of production, while self-assuredly insisting that he’ll find it and revert to his career numbers by the end of the season.
With 100 games to go, he’s got some work to do. But this was a start.
An untenable burden on the rotation
The Padres have scored the fewest runs in the Majors. They’ve eclipsed four runs just once in their last 11 games. They cannot continually ask their starters to win them games. Unlike their opponent this week, they simply don’t have the personnel for that.
On Thursday, Lucas Giolito lasted only four-plus innings, allowing three runs (two earned). He was relatively sharp at times. He punched out five and walked only one. There’s still every chance Giolito could become a serviceable back-end option, raising the floor of the entire rotation.
But these days, it feels as though Padres starting pitchers can hardly afford any hiccups. And Giolito dug them a hole -- not a deep one, but a hole nonetheless -- that the Padres offense couldn’t climb out of. The usually reliable Adrian Morejon followed by allowing three runs of his own, and that was too much for San Diego to overcome.
A nice day for Bryce Johnson, but…
Bryce Johnson is a wholly serviceable bench piece -- a speed-and-defense outfield type. He can be feisty at the plate, too. But let’s be clear about one thing: In a lineup like this one, Johnson should not be taking the team’s best at-bats.
Johnson broke up Wheeler’s no-hitter in the sixth with an opposite-field single and tacked on another single in the eighth, before he was stranded. He also made an excellent sliding play in right field, turning a deep Bryce Harper fly ball into a double play.
But again, San Diego needs so much more offensively than a couple hits from Johnson. Outside of those, Machado’s homer was the Padres’ only hit until Jackson Merrill launched a two-run shot in the ninth. By then, it was too late.