The Padres keep professing faith in their bullpen.
“Why wouldn’t I have the confidence?” manager Mike Shildt said Tuesday afternoon. “… I mean, track record gives you confidence.”
A few hours later, another Padres reliever continued the bullpen’s ride off the rails.
But the Padres also kept fighting, running the bases astutely, making crucial plays in the field and capitalizing on mistakes and, ultimately, getting a big blast.
Their second comeback of the night was completed by Fernando Tatis Jr.’s two-run walk-off home run, which gave the Padres a 6-4 victory over the Angels.
“Today was a movie,” said Jeremiah Estrada, the reliever who gave up a lead in the seventh inning last night. “You have something going in the beginning of the movie. In the middle something bad, something stupid happens. At the end, it was a happy ending.”
Whew!
For the first 34 games of this season — the track record Shildt and others are clinging to — the Padres bullpen did not allow a lead to be lost. And it was tops in the major leagues in ERA and batting average allowed.
Now, after it happened for a second straight night, Padres relievers have squandered a lead in the seventh inning or later in four of the past five games they have been given one to protect.
“They have held us for more than a month,” Tatis said of the bullpen. “They have been lights out. It’s baseball. It’s a human game. It’s one of the toughest game out there. And, man, they have been awesome, and we have their back no matter what. Good teams are gonna find a way to make it happen.”
Estrada entered Tuesday’s game in relief of starter Dylan Cease with one on and two outs in the seventh inning and surrendered an RBI double to Jo Adell and two-run homer to Matthew Lugo on two pitches.
“I don’t think I’ve ever thrown two pitches and then the balls both get his 100-plus,” Estrada said. “… At the end of the day, there are 162 games and games like this are going to happen. I can’t be perfect all the time.”
That turned a 2-1 lead into a 4-2 deficit.
But the Padres keep fighting.
They got to 4-4 in the eighth on walks by Tatis and Manny Machado, a bloop single with two outs by Gavin Sheets and a wild pitch that allowed Machado to score.
After Yuki Matsui worked a scoreless eighth, Jason Adam followed with a perfect top of the ninth.
Elias Díaz began the bottom of the ninth with a walk against Angels closer Kenley Jansen, and Tatis followed with a 430-foot blast to left-center field for his third career walk-off hit and first walk-off homer.
“Just energy,” Tatis said of his thoughts as he watched his home run fly into the Padres’ bullpen. “… This is a great group. We’re going go to find a way to bounce back. It doesn’t matter how.”
Estrada’s outing followed by a little less than 24 hours the first blown save in 16 chances this season by Padres closer Robert Suarez, who walked four straight batters and was charged with five runs in a 9-5 loss.
The bullpen has now allowed 31 runs in 17⅔ innings over the past six games in which it has worked.
Only once before in franchise history had the bullpen allowed 31 runs over a six-game stretch. That was in 2001, and it took that version of the Padres bullpen 28⅓ innings to accomplish.
Tuesday was the second straight night a Padres comeback was thwarted by an Angels comeback. It was also the second straight night that some good baseball was sullied by the bullpen.
An excellent defensive play prevented a run in the fourth inning, smartly aggressive baserunning helped the Padres to two runs in the fifth, and Cease set the bullpen up with 6⅔ fine innings.
It was far better than fine, actually.
Cease struck out 10 and allowed just four singles after the unfortunate fastball he left in the heart of the zone on the game’s second pitch that Zach Neto hit about two feet beyond the left field wall.
And, crucially, Cease is fine.
Cease was pulled from his previous start six days prior with two outs in the seventh inning after experiencing cramping in his right forearm while throwing a slider. It was just two batters earlier that he allowed his first hit of the game.
After Neto’s home run, the Angels hardly touched Cease for three innings.
He set down nine batters — six by strikeout — before Nolan Schanuel led off the fourth inning with a single.
Schanuel would finish that inning on third base after advancing on a wild pitch and Jorge Soler’s two-out single. Schanuel would have scored easily had second baseman Jake Cronenworth not made a diving stop and come up ready to throw home, forcing Schanuel to stop abruptly after rounding third hard. Cease retired the next batter on a grounder to keep it a 1-1 game.
Padres hitters weren’t doing much against José Soriano either.
Machado, who singled in the first and Tatis, who walked with two outs in the third, were the Padres’ only baserunners through four innings.
Then their first two batters reached in the fifth, and the Padres took a 2-1 lead thanks to a couple heads-up baserunning plays, a pair of errors and a perfect bunt.
Xander Bogaerts began the bottom of the fifth with a walk and went to third when right fielder Jo Adell bobbled, ever-so-slightly, a single by Jake Cronenworth.
With Jason Heyward up, Soriano spiked a pitch that got away from catcher Taylor Ward and bounced to his left. Cronenworth took off for second, and Ward threw wide and into center field on a misguided attempt to get him. That allowed Bogaerts to score and Cronenworth to scamper to third.
After Heyward struck out, Martín Maldonado laid down a bunt to the left side that was as perfect as it had to be with the infield playing in. With Cronenworth taking off on , all third baseman Yoán Moncada could do was throw to first to get Maldonado.
The Angels got two one-out singles in the sixth before Cease ended the inning with a double play grounder. He began the seventh with a pop fly out and groundout before issuing his first walk of the game.
That brought Shildt out to make the change that, as it has too often of late, would change the game.
But for the first time in the four games in which the bullpen has lost a lead, the offense came back.
“That’s the beauty of baseball and what I love about this team,” Adam said. “… We’re all on the same team. We know we’re doing everything we can to have success. Huge by the offense tonight.”
