ANAHEIM, Calif. — Ryan Weathers took the mound at Angel Stadium early Saturday evening trying to find a way to spin a new tale.
“Just looking for something to get going,” he said Friday afternoon. “Tomorrow is a new day, a new game. It’s a chance to turn the page on this book and keep going.”
The 21-year-old left-hander is in the early chapters of whatever account will ultimately be told of his career. But the plot twist his season underwent at the end of last month was not altered against the Angels.
He was not alone in being complicit, as it seemed the Padres were also headed toward the same old story in a familiar fashion.
Weathers gave up three runs, on two homers, in his three innings of work and the Padres lost 10-2 to the Angels.
The bullpen let the game get away. And the Padres offense, which bounced back with three hits and two runs in the fourth inning to get to within 3-2, then returned to dormancy.
The Padres finished with seven hits and are batting .170 over their past 10 games.
As the Padres were batting in the first inning, the Miami Marlins were completing a 6-1 victory over the Cincinnati Reds. That assured that even with the loss, the Padres remained two games behind the Reds in the National League’s second wild-card race.
Weathers says all the right things — that this is a learning experience and that baseball is a funny and harsh endeavor. He grew up around the game, as his father, David, pitched in the major leagues for 19 seasons.
“A lot of that is how I was raised,” he acknowledged.
But he also allowed that being a major league pitcher is incredibly difficult, more so than all the wise counsel and even witnessing it up close could prepare him for.
“Every guy who steps in that box, they are really good hitters,” said Weathers, who played one full year of professional baseball, in low-A ball, before making his major league debut in the National League Division Series last October. “There is no drop-off. You go from a bigger strike zone to where you’re throwing to a spot no bigger than a coffee can, and you can’t make misses. At the same time, it’s a lot of fun knowing you have to make those pitches. And, you know, sometimes you’re just going to get your butt kicked.”
That is not exactly what happened to Weathers Saturday. But in his brief stay in the game, his string of poor outings got longer.
Jared Walsh’s home run put the Angels up 1-0 in the second inning, and Jack Mayfield followed a single by Brandon Marsh in the third inning with another home run.
Those were the 10th and 11th home runs Weathers has allowed in six games — and span of 20 2/3 innings.
In those games he has yielded a total of 31 runs, inflating his ERA from 2.73 on July 30 to the 5.40 it was at the end of three innings.
He departed after the Padres had pulled to within 3-2 in the top of the fourth.
The Padres did nothing for three innings against Angels lefty Jose Suarez, who had allowed at least one run in the first inning of his previous three starts and had not made it through two scoreless innings at the beginning of any of his previous five starts.
Tommy Pham began the fourth inning with a walk, went to second on a wild pitch and scored on Eric Hosmer’s single. Hosmer went to third on a single by Wil Myers. Austin Nola followed with a single to right field that sent Hosmer jogging home and Myers sprinting around second and trying for third, where he was thrown out on a no-hop laser throw by Angels right fielder Jo Adell.
After Jake Marisnick drew a two-out walk, Suarez was lifted for Andrew Wantz, whose first pitch to Tatis was lined to Marsh in center field.
With Joe Musgrove having thrown a complete game here Friday after Yu Darvish threw six innings Thursday and Blake Snell went 7 2/3 Wednesday — and with a day off Sunday — the hook came quickly for Weathers.
The night turned into a de facto bullpen game, as Pierce Johnson came in to start the fourth. And the Angels got back the two runs.
A walk to Adell and double by Walsh put the Angels up 4-2. Walsh went to third on a wild pitch and scored on a sacrifice fly by Kurt Suzuki.
The Angels added two runs against Austin Adams in the fifth, including one after he was replaced by Daniel Hudson with the bases loaded and one out. They scored three runs in the sixth, all charged to Tim Hill.
