Snell's rebound outing a positive for depleted Padres

SAN DIEGO -- It’s mid-June, and the Padres have yet to play a game with Fernando Tatis Jr. in their starting lineup. Three months ago, they would have absolutely signed up for a start like this one. They’re 37-24, tied for the best 61-game start in franchise history, and half a game behind the Dodgers in the National League West.

Still, their Sunday evening flight to Chicago would’ve been a lot happier had they been traveling as “the first-place Padres.”

They had their chances, too. On Saturday afternoon, San Diego crept within half a game of the division lead by walking off Game 1 of a doubleheader against the Rockies. From there, the Dodgers dropped two games against the Giants in San Francisco, giving the Padres two chances to take over first place.

That’s when things went haywire. Manager Bob Melvin and bench coach Ryan Christenson joined pitchers Mike Clevinger and Adrian Morejon in COVID-19 protocols following Game 1 on Saturday. Then, the team lost two straight to the struggling Rockies, including a disheartening 4-2 loss in Sunday afternoon’s series finale at Petco Park.

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“We just couldn’t find a way,” said Padres slugger Luke Voit. “Give the guys credit, we stayed in the game the whole time. The ball just didn’t go our way. … Obviously you want [the homestand] to end better than how it did. But we’ll move on, get ready for the Cubs.”

Melvin did not travel with the team to Chicago, as he’s yet to clear COVID protocols. The same was true about Christenson, Clevinger and Morejon. After the game, acting manager Ryan Flaherty had no clarity regarding when that group might receive clearance.

As for Sunday’s game, credit Blake Snell as the biggest reason the Padres hung around. The left-hander was mostly sharp across six innings of two-run ball, as he bounced back from a poor outing against the Mets on Monday. Snell ran into some rough batted-ball luck in the fourth inning, as the Rockies used three seeing-eye singles and a sacrifice fly to plate two runs.

“Jam shot, jam shot, jam shot, jam shot -- really frustrating,” Snell said. “I need to handle my emotions a little bit better, control that. But outside of that, I made really good pitches, and they just got hits. I liked every pitch I made there.”

Asked if Sunday’s outing was the best Snell has felt all season, he was quick to lament the outcome instead, saying, “Yeah, but I want the result to be a lot better -- I want to start going out there and getting dubs for the team.”

In the bigger picture, however, Snell’s outing was a positive step. The Padres already have one of the sport’s deepest rotations. Now, imagine if they could get Snell, a former Cy Young Award winner, pitching like that consistently.

It’s a scary thought. Joe Musgrove looks like an early NL Cy Young favorite. MacKenzie Gore might be the Rookie of the Year. Yu Darvish and Sean Manaea have been dominant at times (as has the now-sidelined Clevinger). And Nick Martinez has pitched admirably as the team’s swing-man.

Thus far, however, it’s been a grind for Snell. He missed the first month and a half of the season while dealing with a groin injury. Since his return, he’s mostly struggled, posting a 5.04 ERA.

“I want to be a part of it, of course, because those guys -- every one of them -- are balling out, going six innings or more every game,” Snell said. “I’m also aware that it’s all about how you finish. … It’s all about continuing to build, get better and better.”

After falling behind, the Padres rallied to tie the game at 2. Voit launched a monstrous 438-foot blast onto the top level of the Western Metal Supply Co. Building in the fifth, his sixth homer of the season. Eric Hosmer plated Manny Machado with a sac fly in the seventh.

But the Rockies took the lead in the eighth when Ryan McMahon snuck a two-run double down the right-field line off Luis García. San Diego didn’t mount a threat after that. A homestand that had begun with the Padres scoring 34 runs in four games, ended with them scoring two runs apiece in the last three.

“It’s coming,” Voit said. “Obviously we’ve got Tati coming back soon, too, which will be a huge help. … I know our offense, statistically, isn’t clicking. But it feels like over the last couple weeks it’s going in a better direction.”