WASHINGTON — The runs came in bunches and hardly ever stopped.
All through Friday’s game and then the game that started Saturday and resumed Sunday and through two comebacks in Sunday’s finale.
Before and after the mayhem that interrupted their visit to the nation’s capital, the Padres scored and scored and scored. Their 41 runs, in fact, were more than any Padres team ever scored in a three-game series.
A 10-4 victory over the Nationals early Sunday afternoon, which was the resumption of the game suspended Saturday due to a shooting incident that occurred outside Nationals Park, assured they would win their first series of the season’s second half.
But in walking away Sunday evening after an 8-7 loss, decided on Alcides Escobar’s walk-off single against Mark Melancon that caromed off center fielder Trent Grisham’s glove, the Padres are left with a question that continues to nag at their ultimate aspirations.
How will this team make it to, much less advance in, the postseason with such undependable starting pitching?
Sure, there is a trade deadline and 66 games to navigate. Just as assuredly, it can’t continue in this manner in October. Or even August.
All three Padres starters allowed four runs in this series, two going five innings and one going four, running the team’s streak without a starting pitcher going six innings to 11 games.
The Padres have for more than a month maintained the major leagues’ most productive offense, leading MLB in virtually every category since June 16.
In that same time period, the team’s starting pitchers have yielded a 5.93 ERA, fourth worst in the majors.
In the finale, the Nationals scored four runs off Joe Musgrove in the third inning, as command of his breaking balls continued to betray him. The right-hander, who had a 2.22 ERA through 15 games (14 starts), has allowed 16 runs (15 earned) in 18 1/3 innings over his past four starts.
The Padres came back from that 4-0 deficit with Eric Hosmer’s three-run homer off Max Scherzer in the fourth inning and Jurickson Profar’s solo homer off Scherzer leading off the seventh. Manny Machado’s two-run homer in the eighth against Daniel Hudson had put the Padres up 6-4.
The Nationals scored three runs in the eighth, when in a span of three batters Emilio Pagán yielded a home run to Alcides Escobar, a double to Trea Turner and a homer to Juan Soto. Before Soto lined a full-count fastball 362 feet to left field, he appeared to get not one but two breaks from home plate umpire Chris Segal, including on a ball clearly in the zone Segal judged to be the third ball on the pitch preceding the homer.
Down to their last strike, the Padres tied the game 7-7 in the top of the ninth.
Victor Caratini walked and was replaced at first base by Jorge Mateo, who stole second on pinch-hitter Ha-seong Kim’s strikeout and then stole third before Grisham sent a 1-2 sinker the other way into left field for an RBI single.
After Melancon struck out Gerardo Parra to start the bottom of the ninth, Tres Barrera singled and Melancon hit Victor Robles. Then Escobar sent a 1-2 cutter to deep center field. Grisham, playing extremely shallow to guard against a single in front of him scoring Barrera, had to run back a long ways. He appeared to have a bead on the ball as he approached the warning track before failing to haul in the game-winning hit.
Earlier, in the game played over two days, the Padres hardly stopped scoring and backed up a record rout with another lesser one.
In the resumption of the contest halted in the middle of the sixth inning Saturday night, the Padres held on and added on.
That win followed Friday’s 24-8 victory, a game in which the Padres scored more runs than they ever had. It marked the first time the Padres scored in double digits in successive nine-inning games since Aug. 5 and 7, 2018, against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Starting pitcher Blake Snell continued having trouble throwing strikes Saturday, as he did well to just make it through four innings having allowed four runs on six hits and four walks.
After entering the game having not allowed a run in nine innings over his previous two starts, he gave up a run in the first on two walks and a single and three runs in the third on a single, a walk and Ryan Zimmerman’s three-run homer that cut the Nationals’ deficit to 5-4.
With the Padres clinging to that one-run lead, Tingler kept Snell in to pitch the fourth inning against the top of the Nationals order. The left-hander promptly yielded a bunt single by Alcides Escobar before getting Trea Turner on a double play grounder and striking out Juan Soto.
Craig Stammen pitched a scoreless fifth inning. Pierce Johnson, who was running in from the bullpen when the shots echoed through the ballpark Saturday, started the sixth Sunday and did not allow a run. Tim Hill, Austin Adams and Miguel Díaz closed out the game with an inning apiece.
After scoring in eight of nine innings Friday night, the Padres scored in the first three innings Saturday and then four more in the half-inning immediately preceding the game’s suspension. They scored two more in their first inning after the game resumed to extend their lead to 10-4.
Tommy Pham was 3-for-3 with two walks. Fernando Tatis Jr. went 4-for-5 and drove in two runs. Manny Machado was 3-for-4 with two RBIs. Jake Cronenworth was 2-for-4 with two RBIs.
