The final road trip of the regular season has proven to be a difficult one for the San Diego Padres. That fact was made more evident with a series-opening 4-3 loss to the Chicago White Sox at Rate Field, Friday. The loss drops the Padres to 1-3 on the trip with two games remaining.
San Diego starting pitcher Dylan Cease continued a frustrating trend among his position group, allowing a two-run home run to Miguel Vargas in the bottom of the first inning, which put Chicago ahead, 2-0. The home run by
Vargas was the 11th longball allowed by the Padres over the last four games.
Perhaps even more frustrating than yet another opposing batter slugging a home run off the San Diego rotation is the fact that Cease immediately surrendered the lead in the in the bottom of the fourth inning after the Padres scratched out a run in the top of the third and the top of the fourth to tie the game, 2-2.
Cease allowed a one-out walk to Vargas and then hit Mike Tauchman and Edgar Quero. The only thing that prevented the White Sox from loading the bases was a poor baserunning decision by Vargas. He tried to advance from second to third on a pitch in the dirt, but Padres catcher Freddy Fermin was able to retrieve the ball and throw to Manny Machado at third base in plenty of time to tag Vargas for the second out of the inning.
Chicago had the two hit batsmen at first and second with two outs. Cease needed one more out to escape the inning without any damage, but he was unable to get the out before allowing back-to-back RBI-singles to Curtis Mead and Will Robertson, which put the White Sox in front, 4-2.
San Diego was able to add a run in the top of the sixth on an RBI-groundout from Gavin Sheets, which allowed Ramon Laureno to score to cut the deficit to 4-3. The Padres only managed one hit over the final three innings, a single by Fermin, and lost their second game in a row.
San Diego plays Chicago, Saturday at 4:10 p.m.
