PHILADELPHIA — The San Diego Padres took advantage of what the Philadelphia Phillies handed them but managed nothing else in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series.
A 4-2 loss Friday night left them down two games to one with two more to play at Citizens Bank Park. They need at least one win in the next two days to get the series back to San Diego for a Game 6 on Monday.
The Padres had the tying run on first base in the sixth and at the plate in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings, but they went hitless in seven at-bats with runners in scoring position.
Joe Musgrove was unable to complete six innings for the first time in three postseason starts and allowed one more run than he had in the previous six starts combined.
The Padres appeared to be waiting for Ranger Suarez to be wild, as he had been in walking five batters in his first postseason start Oct. 11 in Atlanta. He wasn’t. He didn’t walk any Padres and surrendered just two singles in his five innings.
It was Musgrove who struggled with command at the start.
It manifested first in the form of a full-count cutter to leadoff batter Kyle Schwarber in the heart of the strike zone, which was hit a projected 405 feet and over the 101/2-foot wall in right-center field.
Musgrove also went to a full count against the next two batters and walked both. The entire infield joined him on the mound after the walk to Rhys Hoskins, and Musgrove got a visit from Ruben Niebla after a walk to J.T. Realmuto.
Five pitches later, the inning was over.
Cleanup hitter Bryce Harper grounded into a double play, and Nick Castellanos grounded out to shortstop Ha-Seong Kim.
Of Musgrove’s 24 pitches in the first inning, half were strikes.
He was back in command in the second, as he threw 14 strikes among his 16 pitches.
Suarez retired the Padres in order in the first on 13 pitches. After a 21-pitch second inning, in which Jake Cronenworth got an infield single that spun wildly away from third baseman Alec Bohm in the second and Wil Myers and Jurickson Profar went down on full-count fly balls, Suarez breezed through the third on six pitches.
The Padres tied the game on a hit batter, a soft hit and a break in the fourth inning.
After a changeup hit Juan Soto in the back and Manny Machado lined out to center field, Brandon Drury poked a changeup the other way through a hole created by the shift. That put men on the corners with one out.
Jake Cronenworth grounded a ball to shortstop Bryson Stott that would have created a close play at first base to complete a double play had second baseman Jean Segura not flubbed the underhand toss from Stott. It was initially ruled by second base umpire Doug Eddings that Drury was out, but a replay review showed Segura never had the ball.
With the game tied 1-1, Myers flied out and Profar grounded out.
The Phillies answered by scoring twice with two outs in the bottom of the inning.
Bohm grounded a ball up the middle and went to third on Stott’s double to right field. Both scored when Segura reached down and outside to punch a slider over Cronenworth into right-center for a single.
Musgrove picked off Segura at first before throwing a pitch to the next batter, and the Padres took advantage of another Phillies blunder at the start of the fifth inning.
Trent Grisham grounded a ball just fair past first base, where Rhys Hoskins had it bounce off his glove and toward the wall in foul territory as Grisham ran to second base.
He moved to third and then home on successive groundouts by Austin Nola and Kim.
After Musgrove struck out the side in order in the bottom of the fifth, the Padres threatened to at least tie the game against reliever Zach Eflin by getting runners at the corners with one-out singles by Drury and Cronenworth.
Padres manager Bob Melvin chose to replace Myers with switch-hitter Josh Bell to bat from the left side against the right-handed Eflin, against whom he was 2-for-5 with a home run.
On a 2-0 curveball, Bell grounded into his second career double play against Eflin, ending the inning.
Musgrove retired Realmuto and Harper before back-to-back doubles by Castellanos and Bohm pushed the Phillies’ lead to 4-2.
That was the end of his night. Tim Hill got the final out of the sixth inning and got the first two outs of the seventh. Pierce Johnson retired all four batters he faced.
Musgrove had started both series-clinching games for the Padres, shutting out the Mets for seven innings in Game 3 of the wild-card series and allowing the Dodgers two runs in six innings in Saturdays Game 4 victory over the Dodgers in the NL Division Series.
The Padres got leadoff singles in each of the final three innings.
Profar was left on first base when Grisham and Nola struck out and Segura made a diving stop and threw out Kim for the third out of the seventh.
Soto singled to start the eighth and made it to second base but was stranded there when Machado struck out, Drury grounded out and Cronenworth hit a soft liner that was caught by Segura.
Bell began the ninth with a single up the middle. Profar was then called out on a swing he was so sure he checked that he was ejected for theatrically letting third base umpire Todd Tichenor know he disagreed. Grisham popped out to Stott at shortstop and Nola struck out.
