PHOENIX — There was a time that only seems long ago when Yu Darvish being on the mound here Wednesday meant the outcome was all but assured.
The Padres would win. They would complete a sweep. They would be back in sole possession of the National League’s final wild-card playoff spot.
Happy flight home. Happy off day.
That is all a fairy tale now.
Actually, coming as it is in the middle of a playoff chase, what the Padres have is a possible horror story on their hands.
Darvish struggled again against the team with the major leagues’ worst record and its fifth-lowest OPS, leaving during a six-run third inning as the Diamondbacks jumped to a big lead on their way to an 8-3 victory at Chase Field. (Box score.)
The Padres scored one run in six innings off Luke Weaver, on a Trent Grisham home run in the sixth, and added two more when Wil Myers followed Fernando Tatis Jr.’s double with a home run against Noe Ramirez in the seventh.
The Diamondbacks added two runs in the eighth inning, both charged to reliever Austin Adams, who allowed a single and hit two batters to load the bases before walking in a run without getting an out.
So the Padres did not finish off what would have been their first sweep in two months.
Briefly a half-game up on the Cincinnati Reds in the National League wild-card race early Wednesday when the Reds lost the first game of a doubleheader to the St. Louis Cardinals, the Padres will either be a half-game behind or a half-game up on the Reds depending on the nightcap in Cincinnati.
The flight home from Phoenix is short, and a day off is always good.
But the Houston Astros, who lead the American League West and have one of the majors’ most potent offenses, arrive at Petco Park for a three-game series beginning Friday.
The Padres opted to push Joe Musgrove, coming off his shutout of the Angels and having thrown at least six innings in six of his past seven starts, back a day and will instead start Jake Arrieta on Friday. That leaves Musgrove for Saturday and Chris Paddack, who made a successful return from the injured list Monday, for Sunday’s series finale. They also have Blake Snell, who threw seven hitless innings here Tuesday to conclude an August in which he posted a 1.72 ERA.
But the man who finished second in NL Cy Young voting in 2020 and was acquired in a December trade and placed atop their rotation is no longer the sure thing he was earlier in the season.
The Padres won 13 of Darvish’s first 16 starts but are 2-7 since.
Darvish was selected to the All-Star team after beginning the season with a sub-3.00 ERA through his first 17 starts. His ERA is 7.82 in his eight starts since.
He had 10 quality starts through his first 16 starts. He has one in his past nine.
It was embraced as such promising news when Darvish came off the IL last Thursday and pitched six innings against the Dodgers. He allowed four runs, three of them in the third inning. He said his back, which is what sidelined him for two weeks, tightened up during that inning. But he got stretched out and retired nine of the final 10 batters he faced that night.
There was no word during Wednesday’s game whether his back was an issue in the third inning. He did not appear to be in discomfort, and he was left in until the fifth run of the inning had scored. He threw 40 pitches, got two outs and faced nine of the 11 batters who came to the plate in the third.
At least he won’t have to face the Diamondbacks in Arizona again.
His two shortest starts of the season came in the last three weeks at Chase Field. It was here Aug. 12 that he departed with back tightness, also after 2 2/3 innings with the Diamondbacks having scored five runs in the third.
