ATLANTA — The Padres did just enough in Friday’s game to earn a victory and give themselves hope their fortunes had turned.
Then Michael King slept awkwardly, and the Padres determined he should not make his scheduled start due to what was termed shoulder stiffness.
That made for a tough task on Saturday.
Having already required a lot of their relief pitchers over the previous four days — enough that they were essentially without the services of four of them — the Padres had to try to fill a game’s worth of innings.
“If you schedule a bullpen game, you wouldn’t schedule it like that,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said.
The dam eventually broke on the relievers asked to fill in, and the Padres’ seventh loss in their past eight games was a 7-1 rout at the hands of the Braves.
It was not difficult to envision how the unanticipated bullpen game could have turned out differently. But then, with the Padres largely unable to muster a timely base hit for more than a week, how they pitch has been rendered largely inconsequential.
The Padres, who won the series opener 2-1 here on the strength of two solo home runs, were hitless in 10 at-bats with runners in scoring position Saturday and are 3-for-53 in such at-bats over the past eight games.
“This one is — I don’t want to say over the limit, but definitely over the expected limit,” Xander Bogaerts said of the Padres’ failures with runners in scoring position. “… This is just a long one.”
With the loss, the Padres (28-22) fell into a virtual tie with the Cardinals (29-23) for the National League’s final wild-card spot. While it might be too early to talk about playoff positioning, it was just two weeks ago that the Padres’ 25-13 record was the best in Major League Baseball.
If there was good news to be had for a team that has scored two or fewer runs seven times in the past eight games, it was that King’s setback is expected to be limited.
“It’s hard to say where he’s exactly at,” Shildt said. “We want to stay ahead of it. We could have pushed today for him to go out, take the ball, but that would have been of push. … We’ll see as time unfolds. We’ve been down the road where we say, ‘This is going to be day-to-day’ and (recovery takes) longer. But we do believe it’s not anything overly serious.”
Shildt said King woke up “and just felt like he slept on it wrong.” King was said to have had strength in the shoulder but to not be able to get rid of the soreness after throwing weighted balls against a wall and getting treatment.
“We made what I think was a really smart decision to be certain about this and not push him,” Shildt said.
The long-term thinking came with a short-term sacrifice.
Robert Suarez was unavailable after throwing 35 pitches over the previous two days. Adrián Morejón, who pitched 1⅔ innings on Friday, was available in a “triple emergency,” according to Shildt. Jason Adam and Jeremiah Estrada have also worked a lot and were last resorts.
“Bullpen games have their place if you have a rested bullpen,” Shildt said. “But we’re in the middle of nine games in a row and extra innings two days ago, and so wasn’t the most ideal time for it.”
The game was likely going to have to go almost perfectly for the Padres to navigate it successfully.
Instead, almost everything went against them.
Sean Reynolds, notified he might start about 2½ hours before the game and that he would start an hour before, allowed two runs before leaving and was charged with a third after he departed.
Alex Verdugo scored the Braves first run after a Reynolds’ fastball hit his shirt at the start of the second inning. He moved to second on a soft groundout and to third on another soft groundout before scoring on a soft grounder that rolled up the line and hit third base.
Braves starter Grant Holmes returned the favor of a hit batter in the third inning, as a fastball sailed inside on Brandon Lockridge as tried to pull back a bunt offering.
Lockridge stole second on the pitch that struck out Fernando Tatis Jr. and, after Luis Arraez flied out, scored on Manny Machado’s single to center field.
Given his limited options, Shildt had to stick with Reynods as long as he could.
Reynolds, who had not thrown more than 42 pitches in any of his five appearances with the Padres or four games in Triple-A, began the bottom of the third inning having already thrown 44 pitches.
Reynolds got two quick outs on seven pitches before Matt Olson sent a slider at the knees but in the middle of the plate to the seats beyond left field.
Austin Riley followed by lining a double off the wall, ending Reynolds’ day.
Wandy Peralta allowed the runner he inherited from Reynolds in the third inning to score, on an infield single that didn’t get off the grass, before getting two outs deep in the fifth without any more damage.
Alek Jacob closed out the fifth inning on one pitch before yielding Ronald Acuña Jr.’s second home run in two days in the sixth and being charged with four runs while getting just one out in the seventh.
One of those runs scored on a single allowed by Yuki Matsui, who then finished off the inning and worked a scoreless eighth.
“Being able to get through it with the four guys — and it was a competitive game until a little bit at the end — it sets us up more for tomorrow with (Dylan) Cease going and those guys getting back available,” Shildt said. “… Hats off to Sean and Wandy and Alek and and Yuki. They did their part.”
