For the second time in as many starts, the pitcher who had been the most consistent this season was pummeled by an opposing lineup. Walker Buehler was hit early and often, and the result was an embarrassing 8-0 loss for the San Diego Padres against the Arizona Diamondbacks to open their four-game series at Petco Park.
The thought heading into the game was the Padres might carry some momentum from their win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday into Monday night. That was not the case in any area of the game as the pitching was bad, the defense was ugly early and the offense reverted back to being dominated by a subpar pitcher.
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Buehler last five innings in the loss, but that was more out of necessity because manager Craig Stammen did not want to burn his bullpen in the midst of their current 17 games in 17 days schedule leading into the All-Star break. The right-hander was tagged for seven runs on seven hits with one walk and four strikeouts. He also allowed two home runs. Alek Jacob pitched three innings in relief and allowed a run on two hits, which came on a solo home run before giving way to Ron Marinaccio who pitched a scorless ninth inning.
As bad as Buehler was allowing two runs in the first, four in the third and one in the fourth, the San Diego lineup was equally ineffective. The Padres managed eight hits with Jake Cronenworth and Jackson Merrill providing half of those with two hits apiece, but the team managed to put just one runner in scoring position all game. Diamondbacks pitcher Brandon Pfaadt like Buehler lasted five innings, but he did not allow a run and surrendered just four hits with no walks and six strikeouts. Ryan Thompson was just as good and he allowed just two hits over two innings of work with four strikeouts before Drey Jameson came on for the final two innings, allowing two hits with a strikeout.
San Diego returned to two games below .500 and will try to keep from adding to that total today against the Diamondbacks at 6:40 p.m.
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