Ha-Sung Kim (28, San Diego Padres) hit two game-tying RBI singles and his teammates kept the pressure on down the stretch, but the San Diego Padres fell short of a fourth straight victory.
The Padres lost their 2023 Major League Baseball (MLB) home opener against the Philadelphia Phillies 7-9 on Friday (May 5) at Petco Park in San Diego, California, USA.
The loss drops the Padres to 65-74 (.488 winning percentage) on the season and out of fourth place in the National League West. It also snaps a three-game winning streak that began with a 6-1 victory over San Francisco on April 2.
San Diego set the tone early in the game. Starter Rich Hill was tagged for six runs on seven hits (two homers) in 1 1/3 innings, including a three-run double by Alec Bomb in the first inning. Matt Waldron followed with a three-run homer, and the Padres were down 1-8 after three innings.
Not to be outdone, San Diego rallied in the bottom of the fourth inning with Trent Grisham leading off with a single, followed by Ha-Sung Kim, batting first and second, who crushed an outside sinker from starter Taijuan Walker up the middle. Both runners came home and San Diego cut the deficit to 4-8, 4 runs.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Padres put runners on first and third with back-to-back singles by Batten and Grisham, and Kim technically took a slider outside the strike zone. The ball sailed through the Philadelphia infield, which was skewed slightly to the left, allowing the runners to score from third and Kim to complete his multi-hit game. It was a moment to make up for the one run they gave up in the top of the fifth.
After chipping away at the deficit with Kim’s two hits and three RBIs, San Diego rallied to make it 7-9 in the bottom of the seventh on a Cooper sacrifice fly and a Sanchez RBI double that sent shivers down Philadelphia’s spine. But the Padres were unable to capitalize on golden opportunities – runners on first and second and third in the eighth and first and second with nobody out in the ninth.
The loss ended San Diego’s quest for a four-game winning streak. After starting the season with two straight losses, San Diego went on two three-game winning streaks in early April and added another from April 30 to May 2. The team followed that up with two more three-game winning streaks in June and three in July. Counting the current streak, that’s eight.
However, in those eight attempts, San Diego has never won more than four games in a row. Twice, on June 12 and last month on July 1, the Padres suffered walk-off losses against Colorado when they had a chance to win four in a row. After a three-game winning streak was snapped in the second game of the second half (Game 1 of a doubleheader in Philadelphia on July 16), the Ducks lost three straight.
According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Padres are the only one of the 30 teams in the big leagues that hasn’t won four or more games in a row this year. San Diego’s last four-game winning streak was on Sept. 22 of last year (five).
The flip side of this is that even the teams fighting for last place have won more than four games in a row this season. In fact, the Oakland Athletics (0.304, 42-96), the worst winning percentage team in the majors through five days, went on a seven-game winning streak in early June, and the Kansas City Royals (0.309, 43-96), who are one game out of last place, also went on a seven-game winning streak from June 29 to July 4.
The Colorado Rockies (.365, 50 wins, 87 losses), who are last in the National League in winning percentage, haven’t had a long winning streak, but they have at least had a four-game winning streak (May 1-5). San Diego hasn’t had a long winning streak this season 메이저사이트.
San Diego is a team with a lot of expectations this year. They reached the League Championship Series for the first time in 24 years last year and added All-Star shortstop Xander Bogaerts heading into this season. They’ve also had some unexpected breakout performances this year, such as Kim Ha-seong, who is in the running for league MVP.
But right now, San Diego’s situation is far from stellar. According to baseball stats site Baseball Reference, the Padres have just a 0.3% chance of making it to fall ball as of Friday. In other words, it’s going to be a cold fall in San Diego.