With 20 games remaining in their season, the San Diego Padres appear to be a sure bet to make the MLB postseason. They have a three-game lead for the first NL wild-card playoff spot. And they still have a chance to catch the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are five games behind in the NL West.
However, if San Diego ends up missing the postseason by one game, Thursday’s home loss to the Detroit Tigers could be the game that goes down as the one that allowed it to escape.
The Padres took a 3-0 lead heading into the ninth inning. Closer Robert Suarez, with his 1.93 ERA, 51 strikeouts in 56 innings and 31 saves, took the mound. A series sweep seemed assured, even though the middle of Detroit’s lineup was batting in the ninth.
Suarez hit his first pitch up the middle of the strike zone, which Justyn-Henry Malloy connected on for a single. Pinch-hitter Jace Jung walked after taking the first pitch for a strike. Suarez then got Spencer Torkelson to pop out, giving him a chance to get out of the inning unscathed.
Unfortunately, Suarez then walked Colt Keith, again on six pitches, and again after taking the lead on a first-pitch strike. Bases loaded, one out. Uh, oh. Suarez followed up, though, by striking out pinch-hitter Kerry Carpenter on a 101 mph fastball that was just outside the strike zone. Two outs.
All Suarez had to do was get Parker Meadows out to end the game. Even if he allowed a hit and one or two runs, the Padres could still win. The third-year veteran fell behind Meadows on a 3-1 count. Could he get a run? However, Meadows hit a foul ball for strike two. Two outs on two strikes.
Then, with his sixth pitch of the at-bat, Suarez left a fastball over the plate toward Meadows. It was a 101 mph pitch, but the rookie outfielder hit it to the opposite field and two rows behind the fence for a grand slam and a 4-3 lead.
The Padres still had a chance to tie or win in the bottom of the ninth, facing Tigers reliever Tyler Holton, not regular closer Jason Foley. But Detroit had the ninth inning the Padres would have preferred, getting the first two batters out. San Diego put the tying run on base on Xander Bogaerts’ single, giving NL Rookie of the Year favorite Jackson Merrill a chance to boost his award bid.
Holton threw to Merrill low and far, and the slow sweeper got the Padres center fielder to pop out to center to end the game and score San Diego in what could end up being more painful at the end of the season. On its own, losing the third game of a series after winning the first two against a .500 Tigers team might not look so bad in the grand scheme of a season. But in September, with a postseason berth on the line, that’s not a game the Padres can afford to lose.
Overreaction? Maybe it will feel that way in three weeks if the Padres are in the postseason and make the playoffs. But if San Diego narrowly misses out, that ninth inning could feel crucial. And painfully so.
