CHICAGO _ The Padres, a young, aggressive bunch, can mash with the best of them. That much has been established.
They entered Saturday's matchup against the Chicago White Sox with 47 home runs, tied for the fifth-most in the majors. They were on pace to break their single-season record, set just months ago, of 177 homers.
Their mid-range game has been largely absent, evidenced yet again in a 5-4, walk-off loss at Guaranteed Rate Field. The Padres homered three more times and scored on a long sacrifice fly. They also struck out in 17 at-bats, tying a season high and whiffing on a multitude of opportunities to buoy starting pitcher Trevor Cahill.
The White Sox won with a single, Yolmer Sanchez delivering in the bottom of the ninth.
The visitors, who came from ahead to lose for the third time in four games, started the night by doing what they do best. Manuel Margot wasted no time launching a ball over the right-field fence. The first-pitch leadoff home run was San Diego's second in as many games, joining Matt Szczur's game-opening swat from Friday.
The last team to hit first-pitch leadoff homers in consecutive games was the 2007 Chicago Cubs. Margot's shot marked just the second time the Padres have ever led off with a home run in consecutive games. In 2005, Damian Jackson achieved the feat on his own.
It was a neat bit of history. What followed was less memorable.
University of San Diego product Dylan Covey struck out each of the next three batters, then two more in the top of the second. After another strikeout to begin the third, Allen Cordoba _ like Covey, a Rule 5 draftee _ bookended the Padres' first trip through the order with his third major league home run.
Margot, up for the second time, singled and stole second. He remained at the bag during a strikeout and a groundout.
Covey had gone into the weekend with an 8.28 ERA. In his brief time as a big-leaguer, he had never recorded more than four strikeouts in a start. He had never struck out more than eight batters in a minor league game.
He finished with nine strikeouts, a career high, over just 41/3 innings. He exited just before Wil Myers' bases-loaded sacrifice fly gave the Padres a 3-2 lead.
"With the 6 o'clock start time, there's some tough shadows, tough visuals for a lot of guys," manager Andy Green said. " ... You don't want to just chalk the whole game up to that, because you can only punch out six times in the first two innings, and after that you can see the ball pretty well.
"(Covey) had better stuff than I've seen him (have) in his last few outings. I think he threw the ball relatively well, but we had him out by the fifth inning, and we had the opportunity, with the bases loaded there and Wil up, to break the game open. He had a good swing on the sac fly, but too many empty at-bats as far as strikeouts go."
Cahill induced more than a few swings and misses himself, but his command wavered on more than one occasion.
In the second, he surrendered a game-tying home run to Avisail Garcia.
In the bottom of the fourth, Jose Abreu reached after Myers received a low throw from Ryan Schimpf and, as Myers attempted a tag, Abreu's left leg knocked the ball loose. The Padres challenged the call, but the ruling was upheld.
"I talked to the umpire," Myers said. "I knew my foot was still on the bag when I caught it, but evidently I didn't remain in control of the ball. And that's a rule I didn't really know, especially if a runner knocks it out. But it is what it is. It's just one of those rules I didn't know about. I thought we got him, but replay said otherwise."
The White Sox proceeded to benefit from a bout of imprecision. Cahill uncorked three wild pitches in the inning, allowing Abreu to move from first to second, second to third, and, finally, third to home with another tying run.
"I was just trying to do too much, just trying to strike everybody out instead of getting the ball on the ground," Cahill said.
"I was throwing some breaking balls, and they were swinging at it. Then you get ahead, and you try to throw it again. I think I was trying to expand even off that, which you don't have to do anything more. Just throw the same pitch."
In the fifth, the White Sox went ahead, 4-3, with four hits.
Cahill left the game after six innings. He had allowed four runs. One was unearned but, on account of his wildness, largely self-inflicted. He'd walked a batter and struck out seven.
"Lot of balls in dirt," Green said. "Made it hard on (catcher Austin Hedges). We basically walked a guy around the bases with wild pitches. Outside of that, I thought Trevor was great. Battled all day. He had his off-speed pitches. Really probably didn't have his fastball command as he has throughout this season. ... But I thought he threw the ball well enough to get a win if we could've just pushed more runs across for him.
In the top of the eighth, Myers went to the ground to avoid a 97-mph fastball that got away from Tommy Kahnle. After returning to his feet, Myers unloaded on the next pitch, a 98-mph heater. According to Statcast technology, the resulting drive traveled 453 feet to left. But the solo shot, the Padres' third of the game, merely knotted the score.
Tyler Saladino led off the bottom of the ninth with a walk, moved to second on a sacrifice and scored on Sanchez's single.
The margin of defeat was thin _ Saladino had narrowly avoided a tag attempt by Hedges _ but the box score contained other indicators. The Padres' trio of homers and four walks had been counteracted by 17 strikeouts.
"We don't try to just hit home runs," Myers said. "We want to go out there and work good at-bats. Obviously, all our runs are coming from home runs, but ... the more we play, the more we face guys, the more these young guys see pitchers, the more we're going to get patient at the plate and get better at that."
