DETROITDETROIT — The Padres stumbled into Comerica Park on Monday afternoon. Fewer than 12 hours had ed since they had stumbled into their hotel rooms.
So it is plausible that having to play a game Sunday night in New York led to the next night’s horrific loss to a horrible team — a 12-4 defeat by the Tigers that was made even worse when rookie left-hander MacKenzie Gore departed with what was later termed “elbow soreness.” (Box score.)
Gore will be evaluated Thursday in San Diego.
“Hopefully, it’s nothing crazy,” he said. “But we’ll just kind of have to wait and see.”
The team will hope for the best, both for the long-term future of their prized 23-year-old pitcher and for the short-term of his potential involvement in the trade the organization is trying to make for All-Star outfielder Juan Soto.
In the two days before Gore is seen by team doctors, the rest of the Padres will attempt to quickly fix what ails them.
“It’s terrible,” Manny Machado said. “I mean, overall, just play better baseball. … You gotta find a way to blame something, but we just gotta play better, not let teams like this whip our ass.”
To blame the Padres’ poor showing on logisitics would be generous. And they were not doing so.
“Zero,” manager Bob Melvin said when asked how much the travel had to do with one of his team’s worst games in a season that is piling up with contenders for that distinction.
“That’s just an excuse,” Machado said.
Monday simply continued what is now more than a month of more-than-sporadic sloppiness. And it was not the first time Sean Manaea had allowed a bunch of hits.
Heck, maybe Padres teams just don’t like Motown. Monday was the franchise’s seventh loss in seven games here all-time, including the final three games of the 1984 World Series.
But the Padres, whose flight from JFK Airport arrived at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport around 3:30 a.m., certainly played like they hadn’t slept much.
And yet … it … it … it was the Tigers.
That is, the team with the fourth-worst record and least-productive, least-powerful offense in the major leagues.
And the Padres (54-44) were demolished by that team.
The Tigers (39-58) entered the game with 54 home runs, 20 fewer than any other team, and hit a season-high four. They were averaging an MLB-low 3.2 runs a game, and the 12 runs they scored in a four-inning span were more than they had scored in all but two games this season.
The Padres actually got back in the contest briefly because the Tigers made a couple defensive miscues in the fifth inning.
By then, Manaea (5-5, 4.33) was gone and Gore was about to be.
Manaea’s 3 1/3 innings tied his season low, and his eight hits allowed tied his season high. Of his season-high nine runs allowed, just four were earned.
After the Padres took a 1-0 lead on Jurickson Profar’s solo home run in the top of the second inning, a fielding error by Eric Hosmer opening the bottom of the third gave way to a cavalcade of runs.
“It’s a play that’s got to be made,” Hosmer said. “Especially after scoring the run there, getting some momentum. Sean looked great the first inning and then just sets a bad tone and kind of makes him work a little bit harder.”
Manaea, who did not fly ahead to Detroit as many starting pitchers do when their teams is playing a night game on getaway day, had some misfortune but also had some balls hit hard against him.
Just one of the Tigers’ first three batters in the third inning got the ball out of the infield, but the bases were loaded with no outs when the fourth batter walked to the plate.
Javy Bàez’s fly ball to center field tied the game, and Robbie Grossman popped out. But Manaea walked Miguel Cabrera to re-load the bases and then sent a 1-0 sinker to the outer third of the plate that Eric Haase hit the other way and just over the wall in right field. The ball bounced off the railing above the wall and back into play, and it was initially ruled in play. The Tigers challenged the call, and a replay confirmed Manaea had yielded the first grand slam of his career.
Jeimer Candelario led off the fourth with a home run, and two singles followed before Manaea got an out. Bàez’s double drove in another run and ended Manaea’s night.
“Just let it snowball,” he said. “The game really just kind of sped up there, and I did not do a good job of slowing things down and just one thing led to another. … Just lack of focus. Was taking things too casually.”
Gore relieved Manaea with one out and two on and allowed one of the runners to score before finishing the fourth inning. He said he felt fine in that frame.
The Padres scored three times in the top of the fifth and not again.
They could have had more in the fifth if not for a mental gaffe on the bases. Of course, it also could have been less if not for the Tigers being sort of hapless.
Hosmer began the fifth with a grounder that was fielded by second baseman Jonathan Schoop, who shoveled the ball (ostensibly) toward first base but well up the line. Hosmer was safe and was awarded a single by the official scorer. Jorge Alfaro followed with a line drive single to center field, and Trent Grisham then skied a fly ball to right field that appeared it would be the first out, only to fall to the grass when Willi Castro lost it in the twilight. Grisham’s double scored Hosmer and gave the Padres runners at second and third with no outs.
Ha-Seong Kim hit a single to left field that scored both runners. But when the throw home bounced up, off and over Haase, the catcher, Kim rounded first hard and headed for second. The ball did not bounce away from Haase, however, and he fired to second well ahead of Kim, who retreated and was thrown out sliding back into first.
“Aggressive, yes,” Melvin said. “We’re down in the game at that time. We can’t make base running mistakes. But, you know, there was a point in time when it looked like he could potentially get second base.”
Profar and Jake Cronenworth followed with walks before Machado struck out and Nomar Mazara flied out.
The Tigers added two runs in the sixth on Candelario’s second homer of the game and one in the seventh on Cabrera’s 506th career homer.
Cabrera’s homer was off Steven Wilson, who replaced Gore with two outs in the sixth. Gore, whose fastball was consistently slower than it had been all season, said he felt something off in his elbow throughout his final inning. After throwing a fastball that put him behind 3-0 to Riley Greene, he proceeded to stretch out his fingers repeatedly as Melvin and athletic trainer Ricky Huerta approached the mound.
Melvin immediately took the ball, and Gore walked off the field accompanied by Huerta.
That was just injury on top of an insult.
“Again we didn’t play clean, didn’t play very well,” Melvin said. “In those games we end up losing every time.”
