The Arizona Diamondbacks and their nonexistent offense lost three straight games to the San Diego Padres over Father's Day weekend.
In Friday night's low-scoring affair, the Padres' Eric Stults (6-5, 3.28 ERA) dazzled Arizona hitters with his blazing 86 mile-per-hour fastball. He went the distance and pitched all nine innings, surrendering a run in only the first.
Diamondbacks pitcher Trevor Cahill (3-8, 3.96) bounced back from a miserable start against the San Francisco Giants last week and was able to compete with Stults, giving up only two runs in 5.2 innings. Yet his 10 strikeouts were not enough to lead Arizona to the victory and the D-backs lost 2-1.
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Saturday proved to be much of the same for the hapless Diamondbacks, except with worse pitching. Wade Miley (4-6, 4.64) was able to shutout San Diego for the first three innings, but then the fourth inning happened. After allowing two runs to score on a RBI single and a sac fly, Miley pitched Yasmani Grandall a meatball and the Padres batter smacked it 433 feet to left for a three-run homer. Miley would give up another homer to Kyle Blanks in the sixth inning before being yanked by manager Kirk Gibson.
And just like Friday's game, Arizona was unable to keep up with San Diego's offense, despite managing to get three hits off of Jason Marquis (9-2, 3.63). Ironically, Miguel Montero (who has been terrible so far this year) was the Diamondbacks' best hitter on Saturday. Montero finally produced at the plate and smashed a two-run homer in the first inning, but his team couldn't muster much more offense beyond that, and, despite some ninth inning fireworks, lost the game 6-4.
Sunday completed the hat trick of weak offense for the D-backs, as the Padres completed their sweep of Arizona with a 4-1 victory. The Diamondbacks managed just one run versus Clayton Richard (2-5, 7.01). Though the San Diego pitcher only recorded a single strikeout, he also only allowed one run in eight innings pitched. Arizona's offensive woes seemed to have infected everyone in the dugout, including Paul Goldschmidt, who didn't record a single hit over the weekend.
Ian Kennedy (3-4, 5.21) pitched like his former self again, throwing six solid innings of one-run baseball and provided the only offense of the game for the Diamondbacks, scoring Cliff Pennington on an RBI single in the third.
Kennedy's heroics could not salvage Arizona's weekend, though. And after he left in the seventh, reliever David Hernandez pissed away the game in the following inning. With the score tied 1-1 and two runners on base, Hernandez threw a hanging slider to Kyle Blanks, who crushed a three-run jack over the left field fence.
The Diamondbacks (37-32), who lead the NL West by only a half-game, will attempt to get their offense back on track as they return home to Chase Field to face the dreadful Florida Marlins (21-47) during a three-game that starts tonight at 6:40. Arizona will send undefeated Patrick Corbin (9-0, 2.28) to the mound against Jacob Turner (1-0, 1.80). TV: Fox Sports Arizona. Radio: KTAR 620 AM. More info: www.dbacks.com.
