Hader, Padres Repeat Act In Blowing Tied Game That Costs Potential Win

You might as well take the series opener and copy and paste that game into this one here. Yet again, the Padres played down to their opponent in the struggling Nationals and lost due to late miscues.

Snell and Espino met again in a duel match in San Diego this time around. Both pitchers did average in this match however, Snell did have himself some hiccups that had him not as Cy Young dominant like his previous start in Nationals Park.

Snell lasted five innings and surrendered three runs with also getting seven strikeouts. Espino, went just 4.1 innings with allowing three runs and four walks with four punch outs as well.

Things were looking solid early for the Padres as Grisham had himself an RBI single in the second inning that brought in Drury and giving the team a 1-0 lead. But, former Padre earlier this month in C.J. Abrams repeated the act for his new squad tying the game in the fourth. Highly-touted prospect Keibert Ruiz soon gave the Nats a 3-1 lead.

With Espino pulled early, the Padres yet again see a glimpse of Victor Arano who has pitched a lot this past week. Machado being Machado tied the game with a screaming double that brought in two. That felt like the spark to get the wheels turning for the Friars. It wasn't. Instead, the team failed to make a Nationals bullpen pay for their mistakes.

Manager Bob Melvin for some reason thought it was a good idea to bring in Josh Hader again in a tied game. Hader pitched yesterday after not pitching for nine days. Yesterday, Hader blew a 1-1 tied game that brought the Nationals to the 40 win mark in the middle of August. Unfortunately, the Nationals repeated the act in this game too. After Hader was doing well ahead of Robles, he gave up a lead-off walk. A batter later, Lane Thomas reached on a hideous throw from Hader that had a ugly ricochet for Soto to get to. That gave the Nats a 4-3 lead. Next thing you know, a first career home run for Alex Call makes it 6-3. Unbelievable. The words that want to come out of my mouth in this article are only so imaginable.

Nick Martinez, who has been a dark horse as the most valuable player besides Manny for this team, only had 19 pitches thrown and was doing well. Why in the world did Melvin not keep him in? I respect Melvin but this is ridiculous. He needs to make better decisions in the pen and understand Hader needs some time to reevaluate himself. Hader will figure it out as I do believe pitching coach Ruben Niebla will make the proper adjustments. But in this desperately needed win, c'mon why put him in again?

What makes this more frustrating? The Phillies and Brewers lost as well in the same day. The Padres need to take advantage of winning those games to take lead but it is not happening. If this keeps up, kiss the season goodbye.