Thompson struggles in debut as Phillies fall to Padres

By: Rebecca Serad, Sports Talk Philly Staff

Final: San Diego 9, Philadelphia Phillies 7 ❖ Attendance: 37,453

San Diego, CA — Coming into tonight's game against the San Diego Padres (48-62), the Philadelphia Phillies (51-61) were hoping that the Major League debut of one of the farm system's top pitchers would help propel them to victory. Righty Jake Thompson, acquired in the Cole Hamels trade last year, had been pitching excellently at Lehigh Valley before getting the call to take the rotation spot of the injured Aaron Nola. Thompson's debut wasn't great, as he went four and a third innings and let up six runs on seven hits. Allowing four runs to the Padres in the first inning ended up playing a role in both Thompson's outing and the game overall.

First baseman Ryan Howard had an excellent game at the plate, but the Phillies were only able to get a run here and there, not really making much of a dent in the Padres' lead. However, the pressure of the ninth inning brought some much needed fire to the Phils' bats. In a last minute attempt to pull out a victory or at least tie the game, the Phillies offense churned out three runs in their final at-bat. Unfortunately, it was a case of too little, too late. Tonight's loss snapped a four game winning streak against the Padres.

WP: Buddy Baumann (1-0, 1.69 ERA) ❖ LP: Jake Thompson (0-1, 12.46 ERA)

Hub: Game Summary ❖ Starting Pitchers ❖ At the Plate ❖ Bullpen ❖ What's Next

Game Summary

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
PHI	0	1	0	2	0	0	1	0	3	7	9	0
SD	4	0	0	0	2	2	0	1	X	9	14	3

The Padres immediately capitalized on Jake Thompson's obvious jitters about his first major league outing. Travis Jankowski singled to left to lead off the game and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Wil Myers followed with a walk to bring Yangervis Solarte to the plate. Solarte singled to center field to score Jankowski. From there, it looked like Thompson would get out of the inning. He got Alex Dickerson to line out to right and recorded his first big league strike-out against Jabari Blash. However, he walked Ryan Schimpf to load the bases. Christian Bethancourt smacked a bases-clearing double into the left-center field to give the Padres a four run lead. Thankfully, that's all that Thompson would allow in the inning, as he got Alexei Ramirez to ground out for the final out of the inning.

The Phils fought back in their next at-bat. With one out, Ryan Howard slammed a home-run into one of the deepest parts of the ballpark. It was all that the Phillies were able to muster in the top of the second, but the team was finally starting to hit the ball hard, which was a positive sign.

In the top of the fourth inning, the Phillies put serious pressure on the Padres. Maikel Franco led off the inning with a single and advanced to third on a double into the right field corner by Howard. Cameron Rupp hit a ball to the side of shortstop Ramirez, who then threw wildly to first. Rupp was safe at first and Franco scored on the play. Left fielder Cody Asche came to the plate and grounded into a force out to put runners on first and third with one out. A ground out by Freddy Galvis gave the Phils another run, as Padres second baseman Schimpf decided to get the out at first, instead of throwing home to get Howard. This brought Thompson to the plate. He recorded his first major league hit: an infield single, to put runners on first and third. However, the Phillies were unable to capitalize further, as Cesar Hernandez grounded out to first to end the inning.

The bottom of the fifth inning brought more offense for the Padres. Jankowski hit a lead off double to left field and scored on a double by Myers. Solarte was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second with no outs. Dickerson moved the runners up to second and third on a ground out to first base. At this point, Thompson's major league debut ended and reliever Luis Garcia entered the game. He proceeded to walk the first batter he faced to load the bases. Schimpf hit a ball to deep right field, but it luckily stayed in the park for right fielder Aaron Altherr to catch and only led to one run scoring, opposed to four. Garcia was able to get the final out to prevent any more damage.

Garcia remained in the game to pitch for the Phils in the bottom of the next inning. With one out, pinch-hitter Adam Rosales singled to center. Jankowski and Myers each followed with singles to load the bases for Solarte. He singled to right to score two runs and break the game open for the Padres. Garcia was able to strike out Dickerson and Blash to end the threat.

The Phillies started to chip at the Padres' lead against new pitcher Clayton Richard in the top of the seventh. Galvis led off with a ground-rule double. One out later, Hernandez hit a double that went off of the glove of Padres left fielder Dickerson to score Galvis. Odubel Herrera reached on the third error of the day by the Padres. This was the end of Richard's outing, as lefty Brad Hand entered the game to face Altherr. On the first pitch that Hand fired, Hernandez attempted to steal third. He was promptly thrown out for the second out of the inning. This was a really poor base-running decision, and Hernandez has had his fair share of those this season. Altherr struck out to end what was a great opportunity to further chip at the Padres' lead.

The bottom of the eighth inning, the Padres added to their lead. Jankowski got a lead off walk and one out later, stole second base. Solarte once again came up clutch for the home team and singled on a grounder to second. It appeared that Solarte had rounded the bag at first and Tommy Joseph was able to tag him for the second out. By the time the out was recorded and the fuss around first base ended, Jankowski's speed brought him around the bases to score the Padres' ninth run of the day. The Phils were able to get out of the inning without allowing any more runs.

Asche started a ninth inning rally for the Phils with a double. One out later, Jimmy Paredes came to the plate as a pinch hitter for pitcher David Hernandez. He pounded a home run to right center field to score two runs and inch closer to the Padres' lead. Phils second baseman Hernandez followed with a walk and advanced to second on defensive indifference one out later. Altherr came to the plate and doubled to left center field to score Hernandez and bring the tying run to the plate in the form of Franco. Unfortunately, Franco grounded out to first and the Phillies' ninth inning rally just wasn't enough to catch the Padres.

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