Diamondbacks Series recap with the Padres

The Diamondbacks take 1/3 from the San Diego Padres in the final series against SD

The Diamondbacks will no longer see Fernando Tatis Jr. and the Padres this year. Their next matchup will occur in Spring Training of 2022. These past three games were the final games between these two. The series didn’t go the way that the Dbacks were hoping it would.

The Dbacks dropped the first two games of the series, including being nearly no-hit, before rebounding with a win in the series finale. Let’s do a quick recap of the series this week before we look at the full-season series.

August 30th, Diamondbacks: 5 Padres: 7

The San Diego Padres defeated the Dbacks on Monday by a score of 7-5. Tyler Gilbert started the game and did not have his best stuff. He pitched 5 innings but allowed 3 ERs, 5 runs total due to Rojas error, and labored through those 5 innings. Tatis hit a homer off of him as well. He did only walk one batter and struck out four. His ERA still sits at a nice 2.93 and he’s 1-2 on the season.

Meanwhile, Chris Paddack made his return from the IL and pitched better than he has all season. He didn’t qualify for the win due to only pitching 4.2 innings. However, he gave up only one run and struck out five with no walks.

The Diamondbacks struggled to get runs against the Padres until Ketel Marte’s Grand Slam in the 7th inning off of former Dbacks player Daniel Hudson. Matt Peacock pitched two innings of relief for the Dbacks giving up only 1 run. Daulton Varsho and Nick Ahmed had two hits apiece including a double each. Meanwhile, Fernando Tatis Jr went 3/5 with a home run.

August 31st, Diamondbacks: 0 Padres: 3

This game was played in Blake Snell’s world. He pitched 7-no hit innings with 2 walks and 10 strikeouts. He completely dominated the Dbacks hitters. They almost no chance. It was a vintage Blake Snell performance, something the Padres have been waiting for.

The Dbacks finally broke into the hit column when David Peralta pinch-hit and got a hit off of reliever Pierce Johnson in the 8th inning. The veteran closer Mark Melancon got his 36th save of the season by allowing two hits and striking out 3 batters.

On the other hand, Zac Gallen pitched rather well for the team. He gave six solid innings of 5 hits, 3 runs, 4 walks, and 4 strikeouts. He struggled with his command at times but continued to show that’s he getting back to that 2019 form. Caleb Smith, still waiting for an arbitration decision regarding his suspension, gave two innings of zeroes while allowing 3 walks and striking out three.

The Dbacks hitters struck out 14 times on the evening. On the other hand, the Padres walked 7 times. Manny Machado had two hits, including an HR, on the night. I’m totally unsure of how the Dbacks keep avoiding being on the wrong end of a No-Hitter.

September 1st, Diamondbacks: 8 Padres: 3

Happy September 1st everyone! It’s a new month and the Dbacks started it off right! The Dbacks crushed Yu Darvish in his 2nd game back from the IL. In the 3rd inning, the Dbacks exploded for 6 runs! 5 of those runs were “earned runs” that went to Yu Darvish. Yu Darvish had a relatively easy first two innings with 2 hits allowed and 3 K’s. Then the 3rd inning happened.

Josh Rojas had a quick out to begin the bottom of the 3rd. However, Ketel Marte singled and then got driven in off a double by Pavin Smith. David Peralta followed that up with a single that got runners on the corners. Yu Darvish unleashes a wild pitch that allowed Pavin to easily score. With Peralta on 2nd, Josh VanMeter unloads on a pitch sending it into the right-field bleachers.

Varsho pops out with no one on base. The new rook Jake McCarthy gets a walk. After a quick mound visit that doesn’t help, Nick Ahmed singles and drives in Jake for the 5th run of the inning. Yu thinks that he has gotten Luke Weaver out until Manny Machado throws wide of First Base and allows Luke to reach safely. This causes the Padres to remove Yu Darvish from the game. Nabil Crismatt replaces him and allows a single off of Josh Rojas’ bat. That scores Ahmed. Ketel Marte grounds out to end the inning.

With that, Yu Darvish was unable to escape the 3rd inning and essentially made this a bullpen game. The Padres kept the Dbacks to 6 runs until the bottom of the 8th when Austin Adams forgot how to pitch. Over a span of 4 batters and 8 pitches, Adams threw 1 strike. That was the first pitch he threw to Ketel Marte who hit it for a single. Adams then hit Pavin Smith and David Peralta to load the bases. After that, Josh VanMeter walked on 4 consecutive nowhere-near-the-zone pitches to drive in Ketel Marte. The Padres manager was fuming and immediately relieved Adams. Daulton Varsho hit into a double-play to drive in Pavin Smith home off of Tim Hill. Next, Tim Hill HITS Jake McCarthy! In a span of 5 batters, 3 Dbacks hitters got hit by pitches.  It was quite bewildering.

Pitching for the Diamondbacks today was Luke Weaver. He was making his start since May 16th and he did not disappoint. He gave 6 solid innings of 1-run ball with no walks and 3 K’s. He was sharp, efficient, and didn’t fall behind in counts. It was awesome to see Luke pitch well and be healthy again. Let’s hope he can finish the season strong. Noe Ramirez gave up a 2-run blast to Wil Meyers. Tyler Clippard closed the door in the 9th inning.

Welcome back, Luke Weaver!

Some fun facts about this series

Boy, I guess the Dbacks have good eyes at the plate when it matters most! Also, I had no clue the Dbacks weren’t stealing bases at all. Who knew we would miss Tim Locastro just that bad.

Overall Diamondbacks record against the San Diego Padres this year

In the 2021 season, the Diamondbacks finished 8-11 against the Padres. That’s rather not bad at all! In fact, doing that against a division rival who has been considered a contender for the World Series is rather impressive in my eyes. Since August 1st, the Dbacks have gone 5-5 against the Padres.

The Dbacks scored 86 runs against San Diego, good for 4.5 runs scored average per game. They gave up 89 runs, which equates to 4.7 runs scored against average per game.

As always,

May the Force be with You…