What a way to be eliminated from playoff contention

If I were to tell you before tonight’s game that the Padres would hold a lead three different times, Manny Machado would hit a grand slam, and Eric Hosmer would homer, you would’ve said the Padres won this game. Except they didn’t.

Instead, the Friars lost the lead three different times and simply didn’t play fundamentally good baseball, losing in ten innings by a score of 10-8. Now, they are officially eliminated from postseason contention, as the St. Louis Cardinals won their 15th straight game today.

The game started off well for San Diego. Adam Frazier and Hosmer hit solo home runs and even Vince Velasquez helped himself by driving in a run on a groundout to first base.

However, the Braves scored their first two runs of the game in the third inning before the Padres made their first error of the ballgame.

Ryan Weathers, with two outs, got an easy ground ball to shortstop but Fernando Tatis Jr. made a bad throw, which allowed Ozzie Albies to reach. Then, Weathers balked (I don’t think he did) to put Albies into scoring position. Then Austin Riley capitalized on the run-scoring opportunity by hitting an RBI single to left field.

Manny Machado looked like he put the game out of reach when he hit a grand slam in the bottom of the fifth but the Braves came right back and scored four of their own in the top of the sixth.

The Padres would get yet another lead when Victor Caratini drove in Trent Grisham with an RBI single to right field in the sixth. A few innings later with a runner on first, Victor Caratini allowed one Mark Melancon’s pitches to go to the backstop, allowing Austin Riley to get into scoring position. Guess what happened next...yep, Melancon blew the save, as Eddie Rosario blooped a single into right field.

The game went into extras and Daniel Hudson left a pitch right over the heart of the plate for Jorge Soler to pound down the left field line before Jayce Tingler decided to walk the bases loaded, which allowed for Orlando Arcia to score the tenth and final run of the ballgame on a deep sac fly to center field.

To recap again, the Padres had separate leads of 3-0, 7-3, and 8-7 but couldn’t hold any of them. While the Braves did show up offensively, this was one of those games where the Padres beat themselves more than the Braves beat the Padres.

The series finale Sunday afternoon at 1:10 pm PT. There’s nobody more fitting to start the last home game of the year than hometown hero Joe Musgrove.