Maybe it’s for the best that the Braves never see the Padres again this season.
Manny Machado and the San Diego Padres brought the thunder with their bats in this game, as their power hitting overwhelmed the Atlanta Braves as the home team was doomed to a 5-3 series loss against their opponents from out West.
The first couple of innings in this one served as an omen for the back-and-forth nature of this contest. The Padres were the first team to make the scoreboard light up, as a double from Manny Machado and a single from Jackson Merrill made it 1-0 San Diego in the first inning. While the Braves didn’t respond immediately, we didn’t have to wait long to see Atlanta get back into his one. Austin Riley led off the second inning with a single and then Ozzie Albies launched one that very nearly cleared the brick wall in right-center for a homer. Instead, the Braves had to settle for the game-tying double and that’s how the contest would stay for a few innings.
Alex Verdugo got the Braves going again in the fifth inning with a leadoff single and he was eventually joined in scoring position by Ozzie Albies. Ozzie’s second double may not have plated a run, itself, but it did eventually turn into a run after Nick Allen hit a sacrifice fly and then Dylan Cease uncorked a wild pitch. In the span of a couple of pitches, the Braves had gone from being tied with the Padres to leading and having a bit of breathing room to play with. Ronald Acuña Jr. hit a two-out double that had everybody thinking that the Braves were going to add on but Cease got Drake Baldwin to strike out and end the inning right there.
Unfortunately, Atlanta’s time in the sun didn’t last long as the Padres responded very quickly. Luis Arraez made it to first after Austin Riley bungled one to start the sixth inning and that ended up proving costly with two outs in the inning. Spencer Schwellenbach threw a slider that wasn’t a bad pitch at all but it didn’t matter because Gavin Sheets still got all of it and pulled it into the seats in right-center in order to tie the game up at three runs apiece.
Schwellenbach went back out there for the seventh inning and the Padres gave him a very rude welcome back to the mound in that frame. Jake Cronenworth battled until he got a pitch that he liked in the zone and promptly sent it flying into the Chop House for a go-ahead dinger for the Padres. Schwellenbach went on to finish the seventh inning and while the 11 strikeouts he delivered sure were nice, it was still a bit of a bummer to see him give up four runs (two earned) on seven hits and two homers on the day. It was just one of those days at the ballpark for Schwellenbach.
Meanwhile, Schwellenbach’s first reliever didn’t fare too much better than Schwellenbach did. Dylan Lee got one out into the eighth inning before Manny Machado found himself cleared for takeoff. Machado mashed one opposite field into the greenery that sits between the right field wall and the Chop House in order to give San Diego a valuable insurance run. Lee sat down the Padres in order from that point forward but the Braves were now in a slightly-deeper hole than before with outs dwindling.
The Braves got to see Robert Suarez for the second time in this series and it didn’t go particularly well for the middle of Atlanta’s order. Matt Olson, Austin Riley and Alex Verdugo each went down in order and that meant that the Braves were doomed to a series loss against the Padres.
So that was a dud! This was just a miserable season series for the Braves against the Padres and one of the only good things you can say about the seven games these two teams played against each other is that it’s in the past. Now, the Braves have no choice but to enjoy their off day and get back at it in Philadelphia against the Phillies on Tuesday.