Padres victimized by the long ball against Cubs, dragging out four game slump

CHICAGO – The Padres drop the second of the three game series to the Cubs 9-7 on Tuesday at Wrigley Field. 

The first at-bat of the game against left-hander Matthew Boyd is the 17th career lead-off home run for Fernando Tatis Jr. and his fourth of the season, launching over the seats out in left field. 

JP Sears gave up an unearned run during the bottom part of the first inning. Carson Kelly grounded into an RBI single to center that scored Seiya Suzuki, who grounded into a force out but advanced to second base on a throwing error by Tatis Jr. 

He entered the second inning with a 24 pitch count, but left the mound by adding 34 more to his total and four additional runs to his line. Dansby Swanson hit a solo home run to center off a four-seam fastball down the middle of the zone. Sears would give up a single and four pitch walk to the next two batters, which set up Alex Bregman to give the Cubs a 5-1 lead following a three-run homer off a cutter, up and in the middle of the plate. 

San Diego responded with a pair of runs in the next inning, leading off with a first pitch ground-rule double by Freddy Fermin and capped off with Manny Machado hitting his 16th home run of the season to cut the deficit to 5-3. 

Sears started to settle down following the second inning and retired seven consecutive hitters. His groove came to abrupt halt during the fifth after surrendering his third home run to Michael Busch, and his strenuous outing ended soon after a single by Ian Happ. 

Reliever Ron Marinaccio would face Swanson with an inherited runner on first. Five pitches later Swanson went yard for a second time, sending his 437 ft home run over the bleachers out in left center field that extended the gap to 8-3. 

The offense would start the sixth with two runners on base no outs but ended the inning with no runs after a 6-4-3 double play and a ground out. Over the four game losing streak, they have gone 7-for-35 (with runners in scoring position. 

Marinaccio returned in the bottom half of the frame and gave up a second home run to the third batter he faced against Pete Crow-Armstrong.  

Despite trailing by six runs, the Padres made it interesting with a four run eighth inning featuring a three-run homer by Gavin Sheets, who pinch hit for Jase Bowen in the sixth, and a second long ball by Tatis Jr. 

With his second home run, Tatis Jr. moved past Phil Nevin for fourth place on the Padres’ all-time HR list. For the two ball clubs, it also set a new all-time series high in home runs hit in a game. 

After an impressive return to the Brown and Gold last Wednesday, the looming thought of increased expectations for Sears has hit its floor. Sears went 4 2/3 innings and threw 95 pitches (52 counted for strikes), giving up seven runs (six earned), eight hits, three walks and struck out four.     

Tatis and Machado have the most home runs in Padres history when homering in the same game 29 games.

The Friars will look to start the month of July by avoiding a sweep to the Cubs. The series finale will have a 11:20 p.m. first pitch and will feature right-handers Walker Buehler (5-3, 3.81 ERA) and Colin Rea (5-5, 4.80 ERA). 

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