Some quick takeaways from the series

• First game Dylan Cease looked dominant this season, hopefully it is an elbow cramp like he says and you tip your cap to Cody Bellinger for the home run he hit on the 0-2 high fastball.
• Jason Adam has been struggling a little bit lately (has given up runs in three out of his last seven outings) but all relief pitchers have their ruts. The leadoff walk was killer (isn’t it usually?) and him going changeup to Grisham again right after Grisham hammered his previous pitch that was a changeup just foul down the line was a little surprising. You figure he would mix it up because that’s what Grisham is sitting on.
• The 10th inning played out the way teams should attack the Padres in this situation. With the ghost runner on second and Fernando Tatis Jr. leading off, getting him to strike out and not move the runner (granted Brandon Lockridge would just steal third when Luis Arraez was up next so it ended up being the same thing as a sacrifice) you can then pitch around Arraez to bring up Manny Machado.
  • Manny is prone to hitting into double plays or striking out which in this case he struck out for the second out.
  • You then have Jackson Merrill up so you don’t give him anything good to hit and the Yankees pitched him inside and ended up hitting him.
  • Which then leads to Xander Bogaerts being up to bat, who also has a propensity for hitting ground balls or striking out and he did strike out.
• Then in the bottom of the 10th, the Yankees sacrificed the runner to third and the next guy hit a sacrifice fly to win the game.
• It’s unfortunate but it would seem so simple to score in that case with a ghost runner on and the top of your lineup but the Padres showed why they can have scoring issues with how their lineup is and guys like Manny and Xander who tend to strike out or ground out a lot killing many scoring opportunities. Of course, Xander is getting paid to produce but at some point you have to really look at other options (I would have already moved him down) for hitting cleanup or fifth regardless of how much he’s getting paid.

The day after the great comeback, the Padres had a game unravel in the 7th inning with Adrian Morejon and Wandy Peralta combining to give up 10 runs after the Padres had taken a 3-2 lead in the top of the 7th with a 2-out double by Fernando Tatis Jr.

I get why Morejon was the option here after Estrada had pitched the past two games so you’re hoping he gets through the inning to turn it over to Jason Adam and Robert Suarez since Adam didn’t pitch yesterday and Suarez could go again.

But when Morejon got in trouble by giving up a double, single and single to the first three batters to tie the game up, I don’t get why you’re not already trying to stall and pull him already. He obviously didn’t have it today so leaving him in there to get one out (which only happened because of a bunt pop up) and then walking Goldschimdt isn’t giving the next pitcher a great situation to come into with bases loaded, one out and a tied game.

And then on top of that, bringing in Wandy Peralta in such a high-leverage situation. I get it, it’s early in the season so you don’t want to keep doing the multi-inning approach with Adam or Suarez (like April 20th against the Astros when Adam went 1 2/3 innings and I was thinking that he and Suarez might each do four outs) but do we have to keep forcing the situational matchups and go lefty on lefty with Trent Grisham do up next?

Why not go to other relievers who have shown to be more reliable such as Alek Jacob who was rested and hadn’t pitched in three days? The bad thing about Mike Shildt having his players’ backs is he seems to stick with them too long even when everyone else knows it’s not a recipe for success such as using Peralta in a high-leverage situation. I’m hoping these things will start to become clearer sooner rather than later so we don’t have situations like this that seem obvious happen again.