Padres News: Friars Continue to Struggle in Extra Inning Games, Fail to Reach .500 Again

A huge blown opportunity!

The MLB is starting to get very interesting right now and Monday gave us one of the most must-watch games this season yet! It was huge to be able to see how the Padres would follow up after a critical series win over the Tampa Bay Rays and see if they could shut down one of the hottest clubhouses in the MLB right now in the San Fransisco Giants.

It definitely wasn't the prettiest match for the Gaslamp Guys but the first five innings gave fans reasons to believes that they would indeed be able to kick off the series hot. Juan Soto cashed in yet another multi-homer outing and he was also able to continue hitting to the opposite side of the field. Michael Wacha also took care of business in his six innings on the mound as he allowed only four hits with six runs.

However, team manager Bob Melvin was then faced with one of his biggest challenges yet as he needed to look towards some options within the bullpen to finish out the game despite them being run-down over the past couple of weeks.

He opted to bet on Luis Garcia, who entered the game with a 5.23 ERA, to continue on the positive momentum but we all know how that played out. A wild pitch and some quick changes led to the Friars allowing a slew of runs and they eventually dropped the match 7-4 in the tenth inning.

And The San Diego-Union Tribune's Kevin Acee made some great points pertaining to San Diego's inability this year to close out extra-inning games.

"While there was always the potential closing out Monday’s game would be a challenge with the available arms, the Padres were three outs from having a 36-36 record, which would have been their first time at .500 since they were 19-19 on May 11.The Giants’ eighth consecutive victory and the Padres’ sixth loss in six extra-inning games this season means they will spend some more time with a losing record."

(Via The San Diego-Union Tribune)

Let's see how they bounce back the rest of the series!