Snell K's 10 in 4th straight start, tying Padres record

PITTSBURGH -- Blake Snell was outstanding again for the Padres on Wednesday night.

The left-hander ran his streak of allowing three hits or less to six straight starts. He also recorded double-digit strikeouts for the fourth consecutive outing, tied with Jake Peavy for the Padres record.

Yet it wasn’t enough to put the Padres on top, as they fell, 7-1, to the Pirates at PNC Park. The Padres have lost four games in a row and nine of their last 13.

A year after making a run to the NLCS with the third-highest payroll in the Majors, the Padres are 37-43 with a game to go before the halfway point of the season.

Snell wound up allowing two runs via a first-inning home run by Carlos Santana and three hits in six innings while striking out 10 and walking two.

Manager Bob Melvin, who was ejected during the Pirates' five-run seventh, was asked if it was “frustrating” not to capitalize on another strong start by Snell.

“That’s a word that’s used a lot with us for a while now,” Melvin said. “[Snell] does everything he’s supposed to do to keep us in the game and doesn’t get support. All he can do is control what he can control, and we have to do better across the board.”

Snell has surrendered just four runs in 42 innings over his past seven starts for a dazzling 0.86 ERA. Yet he has just a 3-1 record in that span, and the Padres have lost three times.

Snell is unbothered by the lack of wins on his personal ledger.

“I think I look at it in such a different way because I know I can’t control it,” Snell said. “I’m not going to get upset about it.”

Instead, Snell lamented the home run to Santana that came on a first-pitch fastball. Santana had been hitless in 10 career at-bats against Snell.

“The things I can control, like an ambushed fastball, bother me,” Snell said. “I need to understand that hitter, especially as a veteran guy. I’ve seen him a lot, and I should know that he would not want me to get ahead of him [in the count]. So, there’s things I’ve got to do better to not allow runs in that situation. I just always point the finger at myself.”

Snell left with the Padres trailing 2-1. The Pirates then had their five-run seventh against Nick Martinez and Luis Garcia.

Melvin was tossed by home-plate umpire Chad Fairchild when he argued that Jared Triolo was hit by a pitch when he squared to bunt. Melvin believed Triolo bunted through the pitch and a strike should have been called.

That loaded the bases with no outs, and the Pirates then broke the game open.

“That’s kind of the way it’s been here,” Melvin said. “When one thing goes wrong, it tends to snowball a little bit. Whether it’s breaks or not, we still got beat 7-1.”

The Padres got their lone run in the sixth on Xander Bogaerts’ RBI single off Mitch Keller.

The Padres fell 10 1/2 games behind the division-leading D-backs in the NL West standings and are 7 1/2 games back for the third wild card.

“It’s excruciating for everybody here,” Melvin said. “At a time when we should be playing better and thought we would be playing better, we’re going the other way. We’re not playing good baseball across the board.”

Snell is not giving up hope, though, one year after the Padres fell three wins short of reaching the World Series for the first time since 1998.

“If anyone can turn it around, it’s us,” Snell said. “We start putting everything together as a team, and we’ll be where we want to be. We’re going to find a way to do it. I know I trust a lot of guys in [the clubhouse], and we have a lot of trust in each other. It’s time for us to get it going.”