Braves shutout in opener against Padres
SAN DIEGO — A rough night at the office for the Braves offense resulted in a 1-0 loss to the Padres on Monday at Petco Park, the sixth shutout loss of the season for the Braves.
The Braves offense could do next to nothing against Padres starter Michael King. King, who in his previous five starts had gone 1-4 with a 6.41 ERA, allowed just six hits — all singles — over seven scoreless innings and struck out five.
Against King, the Braves hit 12 balls at least 97 mph off the bat, but had nada to show for it.
“It felt like it felt like the gaps were like 100 feet bigger tonight with how hard some of those balls were, and (Padres center fielder Jackson) Merrill was just tracking them down like it was nothing,” said a despondent Braves catcher Drake Baldwin, who is now 2-for-26 since coming off the injured list June 16. Baldwin struck out four times Monday. “You’re gonna have games like that, and that’s why you play 162.”
Adrian Morejon worked a 1-2-3 eighth for the Padres before closer Mason Miller earned his 21st save of the season by stranding pinch-runner Eli White at second and Dominic Smith at first with a strikeout of Mike Yastrzemski. The Braves (48-29) fell to 3-8 in their last 11 games.
In what was shaping up to be a pitcher’s duel early on between Braves starter Grant Holmes and King, Manny Machado broke a scoreless tie to start the fourth by hitting a Holmes slider 418 feet over the wall in left-center. Holmes walked two hitters after the Machado homer but got out of the inning without suffering any further damage.
“I feel like I only made on mistake — and it wasn’t all that bad of a pitch especially to him (Machado),” Holmes said. “He just put a good swing on it. That’s baseball. He’s a future hall of famer.”
Holmes got two quick outs in the fifth before walking Merrill and Machado, respectively. Braves manager Walt Weiss had seen enough and lifted Holmes for Didier Fuentes, who turned 21 on Thursday, and that proved to be the right decision as Fuentes fanned Padres designated hitter Gavin Sheets on four pitches.
Holmes threw 91 pitches, 53 for strikes, a pitch count total driven up by five walks. It was only the third outing this season in which Holmes did not allow at least two earned runs.
“I feel like my stuff was good enough tonight, much better than it has been the past few outings,” Holmes said. “It’s nice to nice to see that, and to go forward with that. Obviously, I had the walks, but they swung the bat and fouled some pitches off and made some good swings. I just walked too many guys and lucky to get out of the with one run.”
James Karinchak contributed 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief and Dylan Dodd struck out Merrill for the final out of the seventh. Dodd also worked around a lead-off double and two-out walk in the eighth.