Padres get blown out 13-2 by the Giants

The San Francisco night was dark and full of terrors for the entire Padres team last night. Now we get to see how they bounce back.

Well, that sucked. The San Diego Padres now face their first real challenge of the season, trying to bounce back after losing 13-2 to the San Francisco Giants. The story of what happened last night pretty much starts and ends with the ace of the Padres staff.

Yu Darvish and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Darvish got through 1.2 innings, giving up 9 runs (all of them earned) on 8 hits, 2 walks and a home run. It looked as bad as it sounds.

Darvish was having a really hard time locating any of his pitches. When he would occasionally take something off of a pitch to get it in the strike zone, it usually collided with a Giants bat.

I have two theories on what happened, but neither of them are very satisfying:

1. It was cold and windy. I don’t know how much experience Yu has with pitching in that scenario. Baseball stadiums are, in general, either domed or in warm climates. It’s possible the cold was really throwing him off.

2. It was baseball. Baseball is weird. Sometimes, you just don’t have it. Sometimes, you don’t know why you don’t have it. Sometimes, there’s nothing to fix but your own ego. Stay humble, work hard, go try again in 5 days.

Anyone who is claiming that Darvish is done after one great start and one terrible start has never watched baseball for more than a single game. These things happen. This may have been the worst start of a great career for Darvish, but it’s hardly the only time he’s had a terrible start. He’ll be fine.

I did notice what Darvish did after his start, though. Something I’ve picked up from years of watching baseball and talking to baseball men made me pay attention. He easily could’ve gone back to the clubhouse, cracked a beer and sulked about his terrible outing. Instead, he threw on a jacket and picked up an iPad to try and figure out what was wrong. In the later innings, he was on the top step cheering his teammates on. He could’ve walked away from his shame and left his teammates to deal with it, but he stuck around instead.

Bullpen troubles

After Blake Snell’s missed start and a 5 inning outing from Nick Martinez on Monday, Bob Melvin was hoping he could get by using just two or three arms from the ‘pen last night.

Instead, the Padres used 4 relievers (not counting Wil Myers), but that’s not the whole story. Nabil Crismatt, called into service to throw 3 innings on Sunday, was the first guy out of the bullpen again to try and stop the bleeding when Darvish was pulled. He did his best but definitely looked tired.

Austin Adams came in and pitched a good inning, showing better than usual control, and it looked like things were turning around. Then he threw a pitch in his second inning, grabbed at his forearm, and walked circles around the mound at Oracle Park while yelling expletives and looking like he was trying not to cry.

I am not a doctor, but that looked like the type of thing that leads to Tommy John surgery. I’m pretty sure the already thin bullpen is about to get thinner, just when it looked like Adams might’ve found his control.

Before Robert Suarez came in and looked great for an inning (thank goodness), Dinelson Lamet came in and looked very mediocre. Bob Melvin did say, before the game, that he was hoping to get Lamet a day off on Tuesday after he had been asked to warm up a few times in the previous games. Maybe he actually does need a day off. But if he’s going to give up a WHIP of 2.000, Lamet won’t be worthy of much more than mop-up duty.

History

Congratulations to Alyssa Nakken and the San Francisco Giants. Last night, Alyssa became the first female on-field coach in a regular season game. (She was also the first female on-field coach in a spring training game.)

When the Giants’ first base coach Antoan Richardson was ejected early in the game, the side effect of chippiness between both teams throughout last night’s affair, Nakken got the call to replace him.

Eric Hosmer made it a point to shake her hand and congratulate her for the moment. One more barrier broken in sports for women is always something that should be celebrated. I look forward to seeing how far Alyssa can take her career, and how many trails she can blaze for the women that will come after her.