Sánchez, Wacha bright spots in SD's season

MILWAUKEE -- Michael Wacha and Gary Sánchez were two of the Padres’ more unheralded additions to the 2023 roster, but they have had huge impacts.

They displayed their value again Sunday afternoon against the Brewers, even in a 10-6 defeat at American Family Field.

• This HR's landing spot might be the 1st of its kind

Sánchez hit a two-run homer, and Wacha worked around early trouble and departed with the Padres leading, 4-2. But things slipped away in the sixth inning, when Milwaukee scored seven times.

The Brewers went on to complete a three-game sweep.

“We had them where we wanted them and had the lead there going into the sixth,” Wacha said. “This team is a hot team right now, and they're riding it and winning a lot of games. You give them any breath, and they’re going to take it.”

Wacha, who signed a one-year deal with the Padres in February, has been a steady force in the rotation. He has a 2.84 ERA despite yielding four runs in 5 1/3 innings on Sunday.

It was an uncharacteristic outing for the right-hander. It was the first time Wacha allowed more than three runs since April 20, snapping a streak of 13 starts.

Wacha walked five batters, tying his season high, including four in a row in the third inning to force in a run. An 11-year veteran, Wacha had never walked four straight hitters in his career.

“That was definitely pretty embarrassing,” Wacha said. “I think it was just little mechanical adjustments I needed to make moving forward from there. Just maybe being a little too fine to the corners whenever we need to get ahead and make pitches in the zone.

“But, yeah, it was very uncharacteristic and not very good.”

Wacha and the Padres got out of the third allowing just that one run, in part with the help of an interference call against Sal Frelick. The Brewers scored a run on a 6-4-3 double play, but Frelick was ruled to have interfered sliding into second, wiping the run off of the board.

The Padres turned to the bullpen in the sixth, after Wacha allowed a one-out single and a walk. Milwaukee sent 12 hitters to the plate that inning and took a 9-4 lead.

“They just kept rolling from there,” Wacha said. “Couldn't get them to hit it to somebody.”

Manager Bob Melvin gave Wacha credit for keeping the Padres in position to win.

“With the walks [in the third], four guys in a row, to be able to do what he did and escape, I thought he pitched pretty well,” Melvin said. “... We’ve got to be able to come in and shut it down. We didn't do that.”

Sánchez, meanwhile, hit a two-run homer off Brewers starter Adrian Houser in the second inning, on a sinker on the inner half of the plate. That gave the Padres a 3-1 lead.

Sánchez bounced between the Mets and Giants organizations this year before landing with the Padres in May. He has 18 home runs in 65 games since making his team debut in late May.

“Shoot, what’s he hit for us since he's been here?” Melvin said. “Quite a few, and a lot of them have been big. That one gets us a little bit of distance and makes us feel good about where we are at the time. Gary's done a nice job since he's gotten here for us.”

As the Padres head to St. Louis for a three-game series, they’re 61-70, a season-high nine games under .500.

“They keep adding up. It might be the worst at this point,” Melvin said of the losses. “We felt good about where we were. It’s the middle innings, again, where we get a starter on the ropes. We just didn't do much in the middle innings to put a ton of pressure on.

“There were a lot of things that are kind of a microcosm of what's been going on this year. The runners in scoring position, not being able to hold a lead. Just a lot of things that added up today that we've seen a little bit before.”