Padres News: Bob Melvin 'Doesn't Feel Great' About Leaving Seth Lugo in to Face Mookie Betts

A nice bounce-back effort quickly ended in disaster.

After heading into Monday's game against the Dodgers with a chance to break even for their most recent series, the Padres fell to their NL West rival by a score of 13-7. 

San Diego skipper Bob Melvin had many thoughts on a critical point in the game with the hindsight of some unlucky results. 

“(Seth Lugo) was pitching great leading up to that. We just scored five and got some hits. You’ve got to give him a little rope. Obviously, it was going to be his last hitter as far as Betts goes, then it’s a grand slam. Next thing you know, it’s an eight-run inning. Look, obviously (I) don’t feel great about it. But up until then, he was pitching great. Then there were some balls up in the zone and all of a sudden they were getting good swings on them.”

via Bryce Miller, San Diego Tribune

Padres starter Seth Lugo was well on his way to salvaging a series split for San Diego after blanking the Dodgers in his first three innings of work. 

More encouraging for the Padres was the offense picking their starter up after a lackluster offensive series up to that point, plating five in the bottom half of the third against Dodger starter Tony Gonsolin. 

Things quickly snowballed for Lugo in the next half inning, however, as the Dodgers strung together a massive rally of their own. 

Lugo's afternoon quickly turned ugly after multiple extra-base hits from LA cut the Padres lead from five unanswered in the bottom of the third to just one with Mookie Betts at the plate. 

With one swing and the bases loaded, the MVP candidate for LA unloaded on a 3-0 fastball down the middle and trotted around the bases to punctuate the rally. 

LA eventually scored 13 unanswered runs after the Padres' huge inning to seal a series win and put the Padres in a precarious position for their postseason push. 

While Melvin and Lugo can't take either decision back, San Diego will have to string together wins quickly if they want any shot at October baseball at Petco this year.