PHOENIX — What’s up with the Padres?
Just the same old thing.
Their offense did close to nothing. Their starting pitcher did not make it out of the fifth inning.
And they lost 5-1 to the Diamondbacks on Friday night at Chase Field.
The biggest shortcoming for the Padres, who have lost three of their past four games, is they have not been hitting well for a while.
Pick a time span.
Friday was the ninth time in their past 20 games they have had six or fewer hits. They are batting .218 over their past 26 games, worst in the major leagues.
They went hitless (0-for-5) with runners in scoring position for the third time in eight games. They scored just one run for the third time in their past 11 games. They have scored fewer than three runs in half of their past 14 games.
“This game is tough,” Fernando Tatis Jr. said. “We’re giving a tough battle. We’re going to keep grinding and find a way.”
After a walk and two singles in a scoreless third inning, the Padres reached base twice — on Tatis’ one-out single in the fifth inning and Jackson Merrill’s lead-off walk in the sixth.
Their paltry production has been enough much of the time since the offense went mostly dark about a month ago, because the starting pitching has been adequate and the bullpen has generally been outstanding.
The bullpen did not get a chance for its work to be relevant Friday. Still, it should be noted that Sean Reynolds took over with two on and one out in the fifth and and retired all five batters he faced to get through the sixth inning, and Wandy Peralta worked a 1-2-3 seventh inning before David Morgan took got through a scoreless eighth.
The only real issue lately with the Padres’ starting pitching — aside from Yu Darvish’s continued absence as he works back from an elbow issue and Michael King being sidelined the past three weeks by a nerve impingement in his shoulder — has been an inability to go deep in games.
Stephen Kolek, who did come with one out of completing six scoreless innings in each of his previous two starts, made it just 4⅓ innings while allowing five runs Friday.
Padres starting pitchers have gone six innings just three times in the past 16 games while going fewer than five innings seven times in that span.
Kolek would have had to be a lot better for it to have been relevant.
The Padres put a runner into scoring position with less than two outs in each of the first three innings.
They scored once and required help doing so.
Their unearned run came in the first inning when Tatis lined the first pitch of the game for a double down the right field line, ran to third on a fly ball by Luis Arraez and ran home when center fielder Alek Thomas’ throw bounced wide of third baseman Eugenio Suarez and rolled to the side wall.
It briefly appeared the Padres got another unearned run in the second inning, but umpire interference negated that because it almost certainly had caused it to happen.
Singles by Gavin Sheets and Jake Cronenworth gave the Padres runners at the corners with one out. On the pitch that struck out Elias Díaz, Jake Cronenworth took off for second base and stopped short as Sheets broke from third base. Catcher Gabriel Moreno’s throw bounced on its way to second base and then skipped into center field as Sheets jogged home.
But Moreno’s arm had hit umpire Jansen Visconti’s mask as he threw, and both runners were sent back to where they had started.
Tyler Wade flied out to center field to end the inning.
The game was tied one pitch later, when Josh Naylor, who played for the Padres in 2019 and ‘20, sent the first pitch in the bottom of the second inning over the right field wall.
It was the first home run Kolek had allowed in five starts, and it ended his scoreless streak at 16⅔ innings. That run of no runs was built over parts of four starts, including the back-to-back games against the Giants and Brewers in which he went 5⅔ innings.
Kolek followed Naylor’s blast by retiring five consecutive batters.
He took just three pitches to get the first two outs in the third inning and then struck out Corbin Carroll.
But Kolek’s last pitch to Carroll, a changeup that faded down and in on the left-handed batter, bounced off Díaz’s glove and rolled far enough that the speedy Carroll easily beat Diaz’s throw to first base.
Kolek followed that by walking Ketel Marte, and Geraldo Perdomo made it matter when he bounced a single up the middle that brought in Carroll.
It was Carroll who scored (and drove in) the Diamondbacks’ next run. His homer began a three-run fifth inning that Kolek did not survive.
A single by Marte and double by Perdomo was followed by Naylors’ sacrifice fly, which made it 4-1. Kolek then hit Suarez with a pitch before Lourdes Gurriel Jr.’s single drove in Perdomo and drove Kolek from the game.
“Good early,” Shildt said. “Thought he threw the ball really well. … The two quick outs and the (ed) ball on that strike three. That that was a tack-on run. And then, the fifth, just too many missed locations in the middle of the plate that they made him pay for.”
