Mariners 5, Padres 0: Yangervis Solarte spoils Mike Montgomery's no-hit bid

The Padres have been shut out a lot this season. Twelve times to be exact.  But perhaps none more disheartening than tonight's loss against the Mariners.

For the second straight time, Seattle Rookie Mike Montgomery shut out his opponent.  His last time out he did it against the Royals while keeping them to only five hits. This time Yangervis Solarte notched the only hit against the southpaw all night with a one-out double in the 7th inning. San Diego did spoil any hopes of a perfect game prior to Solarte's hit. They had three walks and a hit batsman going into the 7th. Only twice all game did they have a player get to second base. Montgomery extended his scoreless streak to 18 innings and lowered his ERA through his first six games to just 1.62.

And the Mariners seemed to have no trouble getting to Ian Kennedy.  The veteran righty allowed his 16th and 17th home runs of the season to Mike Zunino and Brad Miller, respectively.  Altogether he gave up four runs in five innings of work - a 70-pitch effort - with five strikeouts to his credit.

Shawn Kelly, however, pitched two shutout innings out of the 'pen for San Diego, allowing only one hit and striking out three. As someone who really struggled out the gate at the beginning of the season, it's great to see him pitch well and not let the hole get any bigger. Frank Garces added on another scoreless (also, hitless) frame. But Marcus Mateo couldn't keep it going, giving up a run on two hits in the 9th inning to make it a 5-run deficit.

Justin Upton tried to keep hope alive with a two-out walk in the bottom of the 9th, but Solarte flied out in the next at-bat to dash those hopes swiftly and seal the deal on Montgomery's feat.

What definitely was not lost on Padres fans (on Twitter, at least) was the disappointing return of Jedd Gyorko to the majors. The second baseman went 0-for-3 with a strikeout in his first game back after being recalled from Triple-A. He also committed a fielding error that allowed Kyle Seager to reach base to lead off the 4th. Clint Barmes also committed an error, of the throwing variety, in the 9th inning.

It's hard to win when you don't get your baserunners home, even harder when your pitcher can't keep the ball in the yard, and yet harder still when you can't count on your defense can't back up your pitcher. And that is how the Padres lost tonight. They played poorly on all sides of the ball. They have a quick turnaround with tomorrow's 12:40 pm PT start time, so soon we'll be gearing up for another shot at the Mariners with James Shields leading the way. Hopefully the outcome will be different.