Phillies fall 4-2 against Padres after letting Jason Adam out of a pinch
On the flip side, Kyle Schwarber became the second Phillie to record 30 homers before the All-Star break, joining Mike Schmidt in the exclusive club.
SAN DIEGO — With one out in the eighth inning, the bases loaded, and the Phillies’ most dangerous baserunner representing the tying run on third, Padres reliever Jason Adam was in trouble.
At least, he should have been. But after Nick Castellanos worked a full count with an eight-pitch at-bat, he chased a slider down and away and sent a dribbler right to Adams. The Padres righty fielded it perfectly, flipping the ball to catcher Elias Diaz in time to catch Trea Turner sliding into home.
Then, Adams got Max Kepler to pop out to strand all three runners: trouble avoided. Plagued by missed opportunities, the Phillies went on to lose, 4-2, in Friday’s opener in San Diego.
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The Padres have one of the top bullpens in baseball, as their relievers lead the National League in ERA (3.24) and saves (33). The Phillies failed to do any damage against them.
Their only runs came from a pair of solo homers from Castellanos and Kyle Schwarber off starter Ryan Bergert.
“You know it’s coming, but you gotta have runners on base to do some things,” said manager Rob Thomson. “We hit a couple of balls out of the ballpark which was good, we put some pitches on the starter, which was good.”
Phillies starter Ranger Suárez walked three and gave up six hits over 6⅔ innings, but he held the Padres to three runs.
All three came in the second inning, though only one run was officially earned after Suárez was charged with an error. Suárez made an errant throw to first after fielding a sacrifice bunt from Jackson Merrill. The Padres capitalized on that and three hits to take the lead.
“Even the second inning, it was infield hit, sac bunt; it was a really good bunt,” Thomson said. “[Jose] Iglesias inside-outs a ball down the right field line. So I thought he was good all night, threw strikes again, kept people off balance, had a lot of soft contact. He gave us exactly what we needed.”
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Suárez felt he was able to locate his pitches better as the game went on. He was more efficient through the middle innings, needing just nine pitches to get through the fourth, 10 in the fifth, and nine in the sixth.
“I felt that I was rushing a little bit on my pitches, and I felt that I had to adjust that a little bit to slow it down so I could control the game and my pitches as well,” he said through a team interpreter.
Suárez allowed a walk and a single in the seventh inning, and was lifted for Tanner Banks. The lefty induced a groundout to Luis Arráez to end the inning without any damage.
Castellanos homered in the second inning to get the Phillies on the board. Schwarber’s 30th homer of the season was a no-doubter to right field an inning later. He became the second Phillie to record 30 homers before the All-Star break, joining Mike Schmidt in the exclusive club.
“It’s great company,” Schwarber said. “Schmitty is one of the best to ever do it. ... I just know that I want to keep helping as much as I can, and I know everyone else in this room, we want to win as many games as we can. We want to be the last team standing there at the end of the year, and that’s our focus.”
The Phillies also had the bases loaded in the fifth, after a J.T. Realmuto single and a pair of walks. But Bryce Harper stranded all three runners with a groundout.
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In the eighth, Turner worked a walk to lead off, before consecutive singles from Harper and Alec Bohm loaded the bases for Castellanos. Though Turner has the third-best sprint speed in baseball according to StatCast data, he was held up at third on the Bohm single to left fielder Fernando Tatis Jr.
“It was right. He’s got to see the ball through,” Thomson said. “The ball was hit on a line, and there’s no way he scores on it, not with the way Tatis can throw.”
Manny Machado added an insurance run for the Padres in the bottom of the frame with a solo homer off Max Lazar.
The Phillies went down in order against Padres closer Robert Suárez to end the game.