One might look at Monday night’s series opener between the visiting Cincinnati Reds and San Diego Padres as a matchup of the stoppable object against the movable force.
Cincinnati comes into town with eight losses in 10 games, including a 5-3 setback Sunday in St. Louis that marked the Reds’ fourth straight loss. After a 7-3 defeat Sunday to the New York Mets, San Diego has dropped 11 of its last 13.
A lack of offense has been the defining feature for the Padres most of the season. A slight dropoff by the team’s pitching and defense during this skid has exacerbated an inability to score runs.
Their seven hits Sunday were actually their most of the weekend. They managed just 15 hits in three games against the Mets after being swept in Philadelphia. Similar struggles of late have unsurprisingly led to similar postgame quotes after a number of recent losses from first-year Padres manager Craig Stammen.
“We’re waiting for a lot of guys to break out,” he said. ” … The good thing is we have very talented players we’re working with. They can make adjustments, they’re elite at adjustments. We’re just in search of that answer we’re looking for.”
Fernando Tatis Jr. has boosted his batting average to .273 but still has just one homer in 63 games. Manny Machado’s 11 homers aren’t bad but his .169 average is well below expectations. Jackson Merrill (.202) and Xander Bogaerts (.226) continue to flail to no avail.
“Thankfully, it’s still June and we’ve got a lot of season left,” Stammen said of the team’s stars’ struggles. ” … They expect more out of themselves than anybody else. They’re the ones trying their hardest. They’re hanging their heads right now. We’ve got to lift them up.”
San Diego will give the ball to right-hander Walker Buehler (3-3, 4.53 ERA) in the series opener. He didn’t record a decision Wednesday in a 3-2 loss at Philadelphia after allowing just one run on four hits and two walks in six innings, whiffing six.
In eight career starts against Cincinnati, Buehler has pitched well but has just a 2-4 record to go along with a 3.00 ERA and 53 strikeouts in 48 innings.
The Reds will turn to lefty Andrew Abbott (4-3, 4.06) in an attempt to turn around their fortunes. Abbott last worked on Tuesday, when he fired six innings during a no-decision in his team’s 4-3 win over Kansas City.
Abbott yielded five hits and three runs, walking four and striking out five. He’s dominated the Padres in four career starts, going 2-0 with a 0.98 ERA in 27 2/3 innings.
Cincinnati needs that version of Abbott to show up, given its problems offensively and out of the bullpen. The Reds are struggling to score with Elly De La Cruz on the 10-day injured list and can’t hold opponents back in the late innings.
Closer Emilio Pagan and two key setup men, Pierce Johnson and Graham Ashcraft, are also on the IL. The bullpen has regularly failed to put out fires over the last month-plus, including Sunday when Sam Moll gave up two eighth-inning runs — which proved to be the difference in the result — without recording an out.
Manager Terry Francona held a rare team meeting afterwards.
“When it’s the hardest to believe, you have to,” he said. “And when there’s doubt, you have to believe in each other and pick each other up. There’s a lot of things that aren’t going right. We can make it better. And we will.”
–Field Level Media
