Padres right back where they started after 5-5 road trip

DETROIT -- What on earth to make of this Padres road trip?

It began last weekend in Philadelphia with three brutal losses in four games, pushing the season to the brink. The Padres rebounded with series victories in Toronto and Detroit -- yet they left both disappointed, having twice dropped the finale games of two series they could’ve swept.

When that trip finally came to an end on Sunday afternoon -- with a 3-1 loss to the Tigers at Comerica Park -- the Padres were right back where they’d started it all: four games below .500, clinging onto hopes of a Wild Card berth, unsure whether they ought to approach the Trade Deadline as buyers or sellers.

“The story continues with a lot of tough losses,” said shortstop Xander Bogaerts. “Going back to Philly, every game it seemed like we were in it. … This road trip could’ve gone much better than the way it played out. And, yeah, that sucks.”

The Padres had hoped to use their 10-game trip as a chance to make a statement as contenders -- as buyers ahead of the Aug. 1 Deadline. As such, their losses in Philadelphia were particularly painful in the Wild Card race. But a sweep in Toronto and/or Detroit would’ve gone a long way toward alleviating that pain.

Yet the Padres lost Thursday with Blake Snell on the mound, then lost Sunday behind Joe Musgrove. Snell and Musgrove have been perhaps the two best pitchers in the National League over the past two months. Both turned in underwhelming performances -- as Musgrove allowed three runs, including a pair of homers, across six innings on Sunday. But neither got any run support either.

Hours after they’d hung 14 on the Tigers on Saturday night, the Padres were limited to one hit over six innings by right-hander Alex Faedo, who had entered the game with a 6.98 ERA.

“It was a pretty disappointing effort, at least off the starter,” manager Bob Melvin said. “You’ve got to give him credit, he somehow got us out. Nothing against him, but we’ve got to have a better approach, and we’ve got to put more pressure.”

Added Bogaerts: “Six shutout innings, and I didn’t even think he was a Scherzer-type. It was a very comfortable six innings for him. … Maybe we just couldn’t execute the way we wanted to and lock down.”

The offense came to life a bit against the Detroit bullpen. Bogaerts doubled and scored on Gary Sánchez’s single in the seventh. He walked, and Jake Cronenworth reached on an error in the ninth, before a wild pitch put the tying runs in scoring position. But when Sánchez popped to center amid a sudden downpour, the roller-coaster trip was over.

The Padres ended it 5-5 -- not disastrous, considering where things stood a week ago when they departed Philadelphia.

“Obviously we wish we’d have been 7-3,” said Cronenworth, who notched the Padres’ only hit against Faedo. “But we think the way we bounced back from that Philly series was huge.”

Maybe in the end, the key takeaway from the road trip will be this: It began with Robert Suarez and Luis Campusano on the injured list. It ended with both healthy -- and both serving as key contributors.

Suarez, who missed 3 1/2 months with elbow inflammation, pitched a dominant eighth inning on Friday. Campusano, who missed three months due to thumb surgery, won all three games he caught and went 4-for-5 with a homer on Saturday. The Padres are a different team with both in the mix. A better team.

But not a complete team. Their roster, while laden with superstars, has some glaring holes. They’re running out of time to address those holes, with the Deadline looming nine days away. If the Padres are buying, they could surely use reinforcements at the bottom of their lineup and in their bullpen. If they’re selling, they have two of the market’s premier trade chips in Blake Snell and Josh Hader.

Perhaps they thought their three-city trip to open the second half might provide some clarity. It didn’t. And as that trip came to an end on a rainy early afternoon in Michigan, Melvin couldn’t bring himself to lament any missed opportunities other than the latest one.

“We’re way past [looking at] trips and series,” Melvin said. “It’s all about winning games. Today was a key game for us. We win this game, and the whole road trip, whenever it started, looks a lot better than it did.”