LOS ANGELES — The Padres are in peril of finishing this season as a losing team in large part because they did not fare well against losing teams.
They were 40-39 against opponents that have a losing record. (For context, the Dodgers are 70-29 and the Giants are 69-26.)
But it has certainly not all been easy going.
The Padres’ offensive inconsistency was most keenly illustrated in their struggles against the likes of Tyler Gilbert, Packy Naughton and Braxton Garrett, but they faced their share of the National League’s top pitchers. More than their share.
The Padres are the only team to have faced every one of the pitchers ranked in the top 11 in ERA in the league as of Wednesday. They faced NL ERA leader Max Scherzer for the fifth time Wednesday — after facing No.3 Walker Buehler for the fifth time on Tuesday.
While the Dodgers’ four home runs in the eighth inning — three off Emilio Pagán, one against Nabil Crismatt — gave them an 11-9 victory on Wednesday, the Padres had the kind of night against Scherzer they needed more of against starting pitchers of any ilk.
Wil Myers’ RBI triple gave the Padres a 6-5 lead and drove Scherzer from the game with one out in the sixth inning. The Padres also got home runs from Victor Caratini and Manny Machado and capitalized on two Dodgers errors to score two runs (one earned) in the fourth inning to tie the game 5-5. They took a 9-5 lead off relievers Brusdar Graterol and Phil Bickford.
Scherzer, whose ERA swelled to 2.46, now second in the NL behind Milwaukee’s Corbin Burnes (2.29), has allowed four runs or more in just six of his 30 starts this season. The Padres have accounted for three of those. Scherzer also threw eight shutout innings and 7 2/3 shutout innings against them this season.
That kind of mixed success is a rarity for the Padres against the better pitchers.
The loss was the Padres’ 23rd in 29 games against those 11 pitchers.
The 29 games are more than any other team had against the league’s top starters.
The Giants had 24 such games and finished 12-12. The Dodgers, who have three pitchers ranked among the top 11 in ERA in the NL, are 6-7 in 13 games against those pitchers. The Brewers, who won the NL Central, had 13 such games (4-9). The Braves, who lead the NL East, had 22 (8-14). The Cardinals, the NL’s second wild-card team, went 10-9 in their 19 games against those pitchers.
The two teams atop the NL West also missed the Mets’ Jacob deGrom, who led the major leagues with a 1.08 ERA before being shut down with an arm ailment in early July — shortly after the Padres faced him twice in June.
The Padres talked early on about how facing the top pitchers would prepare them for the postseason and show how they measured up. In the end, facing those pitchers accomplished only the latter.
Those 12 pitchers (deGrom included) have posted a 2.79 ERA and 1.04 WHIP and allowed a .202 batting average in their 31 starts against the Padres this season entering Wednesday. The dastardly dozen had posted a 2.91 ERA and 1.01 WHIP and allowed a .207 average in their starts against other opponents entering Wednesday.
The Padres batted .248 against all other pitchers this season.
The Padres’ top two hitters fared better than most against the top pitchers. Fernando Tatis Jr., who did not start Wednesday, has hit .250 (18-for-72) against them. Manny Machado has hit .266 (17-for-64).
The Padres facing opponents’ best starters was largely coincidental based on the schedule. Their nine “semi-repeaters” (facing the same team twice in a span of three series) were tied for most in the majors this season. So when they played the Mets seven times in 10 games, the Padres were bound to see deGrom and Marcus Stroman multiple times.
But some of the frequency was a product of teams respecting the Padres lineup, especially early in the season.
It speaks to the difference between what the Padres faced this season versus last, when they essentially surprised the league.
“We thought we had a target on our backs instead of maybe putting a target on everyone else’s back,” Myers said. “There might be something to that. … I do know this was the first year of real expectations.”
Asked if his team perhaps needs to learn how to handle being the hunted rather than the hunter, manager Jayce Tingler said, “Yeah, I think just handling all those things. I think you go through the year and you learn a lot of things and the one thing we know (is) we’ve got quite a few areas that we’ve got to get better at.”
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