NLCS: Mike Clevinger and Padres Are Overwhelmed in Philadelphia
The San Diego Padres were up 3-0 in the first inning and down 0-2 in the bottom of the fourth inning on Tuesday night when a pitch from Philadelphia Phillies right-hander Mike Adams left the team’s best-of-five National League Wild Card Game series tied 1-1. Three members of the Padres’ 2012 championship team were not in the batting order that night: first baseman Eric Hosmer and catcher Yasmani Grandal, who were both on the injured list with hamstring strains, and second baseman Brandon McCarthy, who was working as a reliever.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Padres finally found a second baseman to lead off the game and the offense to score for the first time since the top of the ninth inning of Tuesday’s game against the Phillies — who swept the Padres in the first round of the playoffs, sweeping them in Game 1 and winning the series 4-1.
“I wasn’t expecting that,” Padres manager Bud Black said. “I didn’t expect that our offense to start hitting so well. I thought it would be a good idea for us to stick with him and not try to mix things up.”
Hosmer’s injury, an oblique strain, was not considered serious as the 26-year-old was hitting.323 with a.543 on-base percentage when the team’s team physician diagnosed an illness and then took an ill-timed leave from the club’s game Thursday, sending the team into a 5 p.m. start, and possibly making him unavailable for the playoff series. But the three-game series is essentially an elimination game to decide the NL Division Series, and with only four regular-season victories, the Padres will have to play at home in Game 5 — if they even come close to that point.
“We’ve had a lot of close games here,” Black said. “There have been