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“PADRES = AUTOPSY
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Today doesn’t feel any better than Sunday, nor Saturday, nor Friday night.

The Padres should have been playing the New York Mets in Game 1-of the NLCS.

Instead they were like you and me, watching it on TV.

It was a great season that ended in great disappointment.
To use an old baseball term, ‘so close but yet so far’.
Invoking another thought, ‘good pitching beats good hitting’.

A summer of fun watching-covering-talking-writing Padres baseball.
All that ended because of a Wednesday night decision and Friday failure.

What an electric series, the Friars-vs-Dodgers Blue.
Tension filled-playoff hate
Home Run robbing over the fence catches
Bean Balls
Finger pointing
Temper Tantrums
F Bombs in the Dugout
Strikeouts
HR Moonshots
Trash Talking
Bullpen days
Managerial gambles
Fans throwing balls-debris and abuse at players
Triple Play

What an empty feeling on Sunday night, what a lost opportunity for a Padres team that was a complete roster of stars, role players and across the board quality pitching.

I could have never guessed the Dodgers, down 2-1 in the series, could win with a bullpen day.  Could get the kind of quality work out of Japanese rookie Yosh Yamamoto.  That a utilityman Keke Hernandez would be a difference maker.  That they could win when Shohei Ohtani would hit (.200) in the series.  That they could survive the ongoing injury issues with Freddie Freeman and Miguel Rojas.

And for the first time in a long time, Dave Roberts would hit the right ‘hot buttons’ on use of his relievers, using analytics to create the matchups that would get them the playoff series.

Equally stunning what happened to the Padres.  The MLB league leading team, that hit (.263) all year, would bat (.145) in the final two games, those (8-0), (2-0) shutouts.

That with RISP, San Diego would hit (.182).
That this lineup full of bats would go scoreless in 24-straight innings.

NL-hitting champ Luis Arraez finished with a (.182) average for the series.
The middle of the batting order (Profar-Machado-Merrill) finished (.179)

I don’t want to hear anything from Machado about the ‘back of my baseball card’ after his swing and miss (4-21) stretch when his team needed him the most

Gruesome to see the final game of the series with Dodgers pitchers retiring  19-Padres batters in a row, in what looked like Friars going to the plate with white flags rather than bats.

And I remain convinced that Mike Schildt was magnificent making decisions and changing the chemistry all year, but in the most important time of the year, a fatal choice, sending P-Dylan Cease out to the mound with 3-days rest, knowing he had never pitched in that structure in his career.  And the choice came days after he struggled thru an 82-pitch outing  and got knocked out by LA

End result a bad loss in game-four, forcing game-five in LA, and we know that end result, despite Yu Darvish’s heroics on the mound.  That Game 4-decision haunts you heading into the off season.

And sadly, the Friars now face tough economic decisions going to the off season.  Prices on Arraez-Cease-Merrill will rocket up.  Ha Seong-Kim’s price tag goes up as he opts out to go on the open market.  And with guarantees, the Padres payroll may jump from (169M) to (231M).  Asking- will ownership allow a bump up like that again?

A lost opportunity this past week.  Maybe a once in a lifetime chance for this group to get to the Fall Classic, for changes are likely coming, and a team is never the same one year to the next.

Damn, I have to hear all this talk this week, which is the best World Series matchup, Ohtani-vs-Judge..or a Subway Series (Mets-Yankees)?

Great season finishes as a Great disappointment to end to the season.

An autopsy I never expected to have to write.

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