Darvish roughed up by Yanks as Padres' home woes continue

SAN DIEGO -- Was this really the same Yu Darvish?

The same Yu Darvish who hadn’t allowed a run in 25 straight innings entering play Friday night? The same Yu Darvish who had surrendered two home runs all season -- and none since April 14? The same Yu Darvish who had, at the very least, kept the Padres in every game he’d started this year?

Hard to believe, really. In the Padres’ 8-0 loss to the Yankees on Friday night, Darvish was roughed up for the first time all season. He surrendered seven runs, including four homers -- the first of which was hit by former teammate Juan Soto in his return to Petco Park.

“They’re a pretty good lineup, and I made some mistakes over the plate,” Darvish said.

Simple as that. Darvish’s scoreless streak, the sixth longest in Padres history, came to an end in the first inning. Anthony Volpe led off the game with a triple into the left-field corner, and Aaron Judge plated him two batters later with a sacrifice fly.

But Darvish was mostly solid for the first two frames. Things unraveled in the third. With a runner aboard, he left a belt-high fastball over the middle of the plate that Soto launched into the right-field seats. Judge followed with a long home run of his own. After Alex Verdugo’s booming single off the left-field wall, Giancarlo Stanton mashed a two-run shot into the second level of the Western Metal Supply Co. Building.

It was jarring, if only because Darvish had been so solid all season. The Padres had won each of his last six starts. Since his return from a short IL stint, he hadn’t allowed a run. And then … this?

“Shoot, this guy’s thrown the ball as good as anybody in the league the last month,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “... But good lineup, and clearly they had a good idea of what they were looking for.”

Gleyber Torres tacked on a solo shot in the fourth, before Darvish settled down to pitch into the sixth. Out of hand, he dismissed the notion that he might’ve been tipping his pitches. The Yankees mashed against him in the third inning, he said, because those pitches weren’t good enough. Indeed, they caught an awful lot more plate than is typical of Darvish offerings.

“My pitches weren’t as sharp as I would like them to be,” said Darvish, who also allowed seven runs to the Yankees last May in New York.

Added Shildt: “That’s a tough lineup, clearly. They got some mistakes over the plate and put some swings on it. It was pretty simple. He felt good. Ball was coming out good. Spin was good. He just made some mistakes and didn’t get them back.”

Offensively, the Padres never mounted much of a threat, continuing their somewhat perplexing struggles against left-handed pitching. Despite a roster full of righty-hitting stars, San Diego entered play Friday ranked 23rd in the Majors with an 85 wRC+ against lefties. And that was before Carlos Rodón pitched six-plus scoreless frames, allowing just three hits.

The Padres have now been shut out five times in the past two weeks. All five of those games were started by left-handed pitchers.

It all amounted to a letdown for the Padres after an impressive 5-2 road trip through Atlanta and Cincinnati. It was also more of the same at Petco Park. The Padres have been solid away from home this season, sporting the second-best road record in the National League at 17-10.

At home, those numbers are reversed -- a 10-17 mark that represents the second-worst home record in the NL. In the meantime, Friday’s game was played before another sellout crowd, the Padres’ 14th of the season. Their struggles at Petco Park -- particularly in surrendering the long ball -- have baffled just about everyone.

“You can’t ignore it,” Shildt said. “This is the part I can’t explain: We give up homers at home. I just can’t explain it at this ballpark. That’s almost as simple as the equation is. When we’re down three runs, four runs, five runs early, it’s just not a recipe for success. Honestly, I think it’s as simple as that.”