HOUSTON — Blake Snell has repeatedly said he is close, but he seems to keep getting further away.
The Padres say they are not concerned about the left-hander even though he keeps giving them reason to be.
Snell tied a career high Sunday by allowing seven runs in three innings. He took 81 pitches in another abbreviated outing. It was the sixth time in 10 starts he failed to get through five innings and the second start in a row he didn’t get through four.
That essentially doomed the Padres in a 7-4 loss to the Houston Astros despite three home runs making the final score seem as if a competitive game had been played.
Webster Rivas’ first career hit, a fifth-inning homer, was the only run allowed by Astros starter Zack Greinke in his eight innings. Wil Myers hit a solo homer and Ha-seong Kim popped a two-run shot off the left-field foul pole in the ninth inning off Andre Scrubb in the ninth inning.
That the Padres were unable to complete their fourth sweep in their past five series was of little consequence compared to the regression of Snell.
The former Cy Young winner they acquired in December to help make them more formidable come October has a 5.55 ERA at the end of May.
His wildly moving pitches allow for others to marvel how good his stuff is. But he can’t find the strike zone often enough. And when he does, there is damage done too often.
He allowed his eighth home run of the season Sunday, a three-run shot by Kyle Tucker in the first inning. He has allowed 44 hits in his 47 innings and has a 1.64 WHIP — 0.40 higher than his career mark heading into this season.
Snell’s three walks Sunday gave him 31 for the season. That is one every seven batters. He issued one walk every 11.3 batters last season and came into this year issuing one walk every 9.8 batters in his career.
Having played extra innings the previous four games and requiring 15 innings from their relievers in the previous two days, the Padres were perilously short on arms and sorely needed a longer outing from Snell.
However, they hedged against both a short bullpen and what has become a typically short Snell outing by deciding late Saturday night to pitch Joe Musgrove after Snell.
Musgrove, who had been the presumptive starter for Monday’s game against the Cubs at Wrigley Field, entered Sunday’s game to start the fourth inning and retired the first six batters he faced before hitting Aledmys Díaz to start the bottom of the sixth. That was the only baserunner he allowed in five innings, as he prevented the Padres from having to use any of their relievers.
The Padres had gone with six starters this past week, which meant Musgrove had four days off before Sunday and will presumably take his next turn in the rotation Friday or Saturday against the Mets at Petco Park.
Chris Paddack is expected to start Monday with Ryan Weathers and Dinelson Lamet in line to follow. Instead of the starters getting an extra day of rest, as was the plan during this stretch of 20 games in 20 days and 33 games in 34 days, it appears they will go every fifth day this week.
The Padres considered that a better alternative than dipping further into their stable of minor league arms. They had already called up and sent down two relievers this weekend. Doing so Sunday would have required a 40-man roster move (or two). Also, it would have required them to almost certainly use at least one reliever.
With the goal of also getting some position players rest in the coming days, they called up infielder/outfielder Tucupita Marcano on Sunday. They had gone with a two-player bench while playing in an American League ballpark and able to use the designated hitter.
Marcano replaced pitcher Aaron Northcraft and started at second base Sunday while Kim played third base. Second baseman Jake Cronenworth and third baseman Manny Machado rested.
Whether it was more than simple rest for Machado was called into question on the final at-bat of the game, as he did not pinch-hit for Jorge Mateo after Webster Rivas singled with two outs. Mateo struck out, and the Padres had lost for the first time in nine interleague games this season.
