With 20 games left in the season, the San Diego Padres appear to be a sure-fire candidate for the MLB postseason. They have a three-game lead over the National League’s top wild-card playoff spot. And they still have a chance to catch the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are five games back in the NL West.
However, if San Diego ends up missing out on a place in the playoffs by one game, Thursday’s 3-4 home loss to the Detroit Tigers could be remembered as the game that made the difference.
The Padres took a 3-0 lead 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 win seemed all but certain, even though the middle of the Detroit lineup was at bat in the ninth inning.
Suarez hit his first pitch into the middle of the strike zone, where Justyn-Henry Malloy singled. Pinch-hitter Jace Jung worked a six-pitch walk after taking the first pitch for a strike. Suarez then got Spencer Torkelson to pop up, giving him a chance to get out of the inning unscathed.
Unfortunately, Suarez then walked Colt Keith – again after six pitches and again after leading with a strike on the first pitch. Bases loaded, one out. Uh, oh. But Suarez followed up and struck out pinch-hitter Kerry Carpenter with a 101 mph fastball that was outside the strike zone. Two outs.
Suarez only had to take Parker Meadows out of the game to end the game. Even if he allowed a base hit and a run or two, the Padres could still have won. The third-year veteran trailed Meadows 3-1. Would he score a run? But Meadows dropped a ball for strike two. Two outs with two strikes.
Then, with his sixth pitch of the at-bat, Suarez blasted a fastball across the plate to Meadows. It was a 101 mph pitch, but the rookie outfielder smacked it to the opposite field and two rows behind the fence for a grand slam and a 4-3 lead.
The Padres had a chance to tie or win in the ninth inning when they faced Tigers relief pitcher Tyler Holton — not regular closer Jason Foley. But Detroit had the ninth inning the Padres wanted, throwing out the first two batters. San Diego put the tying run on base with a single by Xander Bogaerts, giving NL Rookie of the Year favorite Jackson Merrill a chance to bolster his candidacy for the award.
Holton’s slow sweeper had Merrill throwing deep and wide, causing the Padres center fielder to fly out to center to end the game and deal San Diego a setback that could be even worse at the end of the season. On its own, losing the third game of a series after winning the first two against a Tigers team with a .500 record may not look so bad in the grand scheme of the season. But in September, when a postseason berth is on the line, that’s not a game the Padres can afford to lose.
Overreaction? Maybe that’s what it will look like in three weeks, when the Padres are in the postseason and making a playoff run. But if San Diego is close, that ninth inning could be decisive. And painful.
