Lacking pop, Padres fall to Toronto in finale
TORONTO -- Less than 24 hours after the Padres launched seven home runs in a rout of the Blue Jays, they found themselves on the other end of the long-ball barrage.
The Padres were forced to call a late audible on Sunday morning, scratching right-handed phenom Chris Paddack from his scheduled start with a stiff neck. Lefty reliever Robbie Erlin got the start in his place and gave the Padres two innings out of the gate, but they were forced to fight an uphill battle all afternoon in the 10-1 loss at Rogers Centre.
Erlin limited the damage to just one run over his two frames and was followed out of the bullpen by Matt Wisler, who allowed a pair of runs over two innings of his own. Those both came on solo home runs, and that hard contact kept coming when Sunday’s callup, Luis Perdomo, took over in the fifth.
Erlin has started in the past but, given the short notice Sunday morning, he decided to treat the first inning just like he was entering in the sixth or seventh.
“I just warmed up like a normal bullpen situation because that’s what I’ve been doing all year and I’m used to it,” Erlin said.
The Blue Jays went deep four times, with all four being 400-plus foot shots with exit velocities north of 100 mph. San Diego scraped together 10 hits of its own, but without the power they showed on Saturday, the Padres weren’t able to string it together to produce runs.
Perdomo was tasked with eating some innings and saving his teammates in the bullpen through the middle of the game. The right-hander has spent the majority of his career as a starter, but made the transition to being a full-time reliever this season for the Padres. Perdomo allowed four runs on seven hits -- his three innings and 57 pitches both were season highs for the 26-year-old.
“I just don’t think it was a good day,” said manager Andy Green after the loss. “I think those guys are plenty capable of going out there and throwing up zeros, they just didn’t do it today. We’ve seen all of those guys better than they were this day. It happens from time to time.”
San Diego had a chance to chip away at the Blue Jays' lead in the top of the seventh inning, but a hard-luck double play quickly stole the Padres' momentum. With Austin Allen and Ty France on second and third with no outs, Manuel Margot sent a soft liner back up the middle but second baseman Cavan Biggio was positioned to make the catch and step on the bag quickly to turn two. Greg Garcia then struck out swinging to end the inning without a run crossing.
“We had some hits, but didn’t really string enough together to do any damage outside of Wil’s home run,” Green said. “After that, I thought we had decent at-bats. We kind of dug ourselves a hole we couldn’t dig out of today.”
Myers finds his power stroke in Toronto
Wil Myers might be circling his next trip to Rogers Centre on the calendar after his bat jumped to life in the final two games of the series in Toronto.
After homering twice in Saturday’s big 19-4 win, Myers went deep again on Sunday off of Marcus Stroman. Measuring in at 414 feet with an exit velocity of 105 mph, Myers got all of it against one of the league’s better pitchers.
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“We need Wil,” Green said. “It’s fun to see him swing the bat well. It’s been a good couple of days for him here. Carry some momentum into New York and try to win another series.”
In the 10 games leading up to these two over the weekend, Myers had gone 2-for-24 (.083) with 13 strikeouts.