WASHINGTON — Now back to worrying about winning baseball games.
The shock hasn’t necessarily worn off, but baseball comes at its participants fast.
So a day after being rocked by news of Fernando Tatis Jr.’s PED suspension, the Padres continued with the business of their intended march to the postseason.
Saturday’s 4-3 loss to the Nationals, coupled with a Brewers victory over the Cardinals, left the Padres just one game up in the race for the final National League wild-card spot with 46 games remaining.
There can’t be all that many more losses like Saturday’s, especially against a team like the Nationals, who sit a major league-worst 39 games below .500.
After three consecutive victories in which they piled runs on the Giants and Nationals, the Padres on Saturday blew a plethora of chances, twice coming up empty after having the bases loaded with one out and finishing 2 for 12 with runners in scoring position.
The Nationals tied the game 3-3 against Yu Darvish in the sixth. They took the lead in the seventh on a play that initially ended with an out call on a throw from Juan Soto to catcher Austin Nola to get Cesar Hernandez trying to score on a single by Victor Robles. The Nationals challenged both the out call and that Nola did not provide a lane for Robles to slide into home plate
While very few people seem to understand the application of the rule, it did appear that Nola was blocking the plate when Robles began his slide but moved his foot back as Robles got closer to the plate. The instant the home plate umpire Paul Emmel announced the call had been overturned on the basis of Nola having blocked the plate, Padres manager Bob Melvin sprinted from the visitors’ dugout.
Almost as quickly, he was ejected. Melvin continued to make his point with Emmel for a good two minutes, at one point showing the umpire the space Nola provided at the front of the plate.
That was but a moment in a loss arguably determined at several other points. And the loss was but a moment in a season in which the Padres long ago determined nothing will come easy.
They didn’t make it easy on themselves Saturday.
The Padres threatened in the first two innings but went 1 for 5 with runners in scoring position.
Manny Machado got them on the board without the need for any of that, hitting the first pitch of the third inning over the wall in left field.
Trent Grisham’s one-out home run in the fourth inning, his fifth home run in a span of 33 at-bats, made it 2-0. Nola followed with a single, went to second on a wild pitch and scored on Soto’s single. Soto has reached base in all 10 games he has played with the Padres, gotten at least one hit in nine of them and scored and/or driven in a run in seven.
Darvish, the Padres’ steadiest pitcher, had allowed three hits when the sixth inning began and retired the first two batters before yielding three runs that tied the game.
Nelson Cruz hit a soft liner to left field for the 1,999th hit of his career before Darvish’s next two pitches were smacked to the seats beyond left field by Yadiel Hernandez and Joey Meneses.
Darvish completed six innings for the 15th straight start and 20th time in 22 starts this season. He was at 98 pitches when the seventh inning began.
Hernandez dribbled a ball the other way to Machado at third base and might have beat a throw even had the Padres third baseman been able to get the ball out of his glove.
That brought Melvin from the dugout and right-hander Luis Garcia from the bullpen. He struck out the first two batters before Robles grounded the decisive single to Soto.
