PHOENIX — A lot happened for the Padres in a short span Wednesday night.
Between 6 and 8 p.m., they gained a catcher, lost a right fielder, lost a pitcher, got their right fielder back and scored six runs on seven consecutive hits at the start of the fifth inning.
By night’s end, they had scored more runs than they had in any game this season in a 12-3 rout of the Diamondbacks at Chase Field, which seemed like an afterthought given the circumstances of their bullpen again having to pitch the bulk of a game another starting pitcher departed early.
Two pitches into the bottom of the first inning, Padres manager Jayce Tingler jogged to the mound with an athletic trainer right behind him.
Ryan Weathers looked confounded as to the reason for the visit. After a long minute and a flurry of talking, the young left-hander stayed in the game.
Weathers would finish the inning, walking Diamondbacks lead-off batter Carson Kelly before getting a double play grounder and fly ball out to left field.
It was clear the decision had been made by the time Weathers returned to the dugout. There was a brief conference. Weathers appeared to plead his case, and then he walked to the clubhouse.
Weathers, who entered the game with a 0.59 ERA in 15 1/3 innings, did not throw a single fastball Wednesday as hard as his slowest one (93.7 mph) in the first inning of his start April 22 against the Dodgers.
Wednesday was two years to the day after Weathers left a start at low-A Fort Wayne with what was at the time called “dead arm.” He did not pitch for 3 1/2 weeks after that.
Around the time the Padres were stringing together six straight singles and then Manny Machado’s bases-loaded triple to take a 6-2 lead with no outs in the fifth inning, the Padres announced Weathers had departed with left arm soreness.
That was also when they announced the reason for right fielder Wil Myers being scratched from the lineup and replaced with Jorge Mateo shortly before the game. Myers had been flagged for precautionary reasons due to Major League Baseball’s COVID contact tracing process. He was cleared and returned to the dugout and was available to play Wednesday.
Myers pinch-hit in the eighth and drove in a run with a single.
Austin Nola, who was activated about a half-hour before first pitch after a season-long stay on the injured list while he rehabilitated a fractured middle finger on his left (catching) hand, pinch-hit in the ninth and flied out to deep right field before playing second base.
But pitcher Joe Musgrove did enter the game to pinch run for pinch-hitter Tommy Pham, whose single was the fourth of the Padres’ hits in the fifth inning.
The first three — by Jurickson Profar, Victor Caratini and Ha-seong Kim, which, coupled with an error by Arizona right fielder Josh Rojas, scored two runs — tied the game 2-2 and drove Riley Smith from the game.
Singles by Pham, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Trent Grisham added another run and loaded the bases before Machado lined a ball to left field that David Peralta dove for and missed as the bases cleared and Machado went to third standing up.
It was the first time in almost two years any major league team had begun an inning with seven straight hits and the first time a Padres team had done it since April 29, 2010, against Milwaukee.
Jake Cronenworth’s pinch-hit home run in the sixth inning made it 7-2.
Kim added another RBI with a double in the eighth. After Myers’ single made it 9-3, Tatis launched a ball to the right field wall that Rojas jumped up to grab, robbing Tatis of his eighth home run and turning the drive into a sacrifice fly that made it 10-3. After Eric Hosmer reached on an error, Mateo’s first career homer completed the scoring.
Weathers’ departure began yet another procession of Padres relievers, who have collectively pitched more innings than any bullpen in baseball.
Nick Ramirez replaced Weathers and allowed a run on two doubles in the second before pitching a perfect third. Aaron Northcraft surrendered Wyatt Mathisen’s 429-foot home run to right field in the fourth but was credited with his first career victory. The Diamondbacks had two on with one out after Tatis’ major league-leading 10th error and Austin Adams’ major league-leading fifth hit batter (in just 7 1/3 innings), but Adams got a double play grounder from Pavin Smith.
The Diamondbacks got to 7-3 with a double, walk and single off Emilio Pagán in the sixth inning. Tim Hill replaced Pagán with two outs and retired four straight batters.
Drew Pomeranz pitched a scoreless eighth and Mark Melancon a scoreless ninth.
It was the sixth time in 18 days the bullpen had to cover at least seven innings in a game — beginning with the game Adrian Morejón left with an elbow injury and including Blake Snell’s poor start, two extra-inning games and Dinelson Lamet’s departure from his April 21 start due to forearm tightness.
The Padres are now 3-3 in those games. But the rate at which they are piling up innings is considered unsustainable.
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