The San Diego Padres should probably be thankful that the New York Mets exist because being baseball’s second-most disappointing team is slightly easier to live with. That being said, the Padres are an absolute mess.
Despite heading into the season with baseball’s third-highest payroll and stars throughout the lineup, the Padres are falling rapidly in the National League West standings. And Thursday’s loss against the Pirates won’t make for an enjoyable trip to the weekend series in Cincinnati.
The Padres threw away a win. Almost literally.
With San Diego up by two runs and runners on second and third in the seventh inning, the Pirates managed to tie the game on a soft grounder that didn’t even make it to first base. That’s because pitcher Tim Hill made a complete mess of the play.
Oh no Padres pic.twitter.com/lNTMCkB8Kk
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) June 29, 2023
Instead of picking up the ball and conceding the run (limiting the damage to a single), Hill made a barehanded, spinning effort without even checking if first base was covered. His erratic throw went by everybody around first base and into right field. Just like that, the Pirates tied the game.
A couple batters later, Henry Davis knocked in the go-ahead run on a single, and the Padres took their fifth straight loss.
There was no telling how the game would have played out had Hill made the smart decision with the grounder, but you can’t really blame MLB fans for piling on the Padres after that embarrassing play.
There’s no excuse for such a talented team to be *that* bad.