Good morning from Cleveland,

A ball off the bat of Jake Cronenworth that hit the ground seven feet in front of the plate and sailed 100 feet before it hit the ground again is what kept the Padres from being no-hit yesterday.

You can read in my game story (here) about how former minor leaguer Joey Cantillo allowed just that one hit (and the run that hit helped produce) in his six innings and how the Padres did virtually nothing against three relievers in a rare offensive clunker.

Last night’s 6-1 loss to the Guardians was the fifth time in their past 52 games the Padres had fewer than five hits. That happened 15 times in their first 72 games.

Last night was the 11th time in 52 games they were held to fewer than three runs. It happened 27 times in their first 72 games.

So, basically, the offense gets shut down about half as often as it did the season’s first three months.

Not much more to say about last night, other than that the Diamondbacks, Phillies, Marlins and Cardinals all won yesterday.

that

TBD struggles

Maybe the Padres do need Joe Musgrove back for his next start.

Not that it mattered in this particular game, but the “TBD” spot in the rotation did not have a good night.

Wandy Peralta became the first Padres opener to allow a run in the first inning this season, and Kyle Hart allowed another in the second.

Vásquez followed with two scoreless innings before giving up two runs on two hits and a sacrifice fly in the fifth and two runs on three hits and two errors (though both runs were earned) in the seventh.

“I think Wandy pitched just OK, Kyle pitched just OK, and Randy pitched solid, just okay,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said. “And the defense, we didn’t really help them out on defense either at the end. So we’ve got a few things to clean up. For the most part, those guys have been throwing the ball really well lately and all year. Them limiting the damage to one run early kept us in the game. Even Randy limiting the damage to two runs in (the fifth) inning, we’re still in the game, 4-1. But those last two runs kind of put it to bed.”

It is true that Hart and Vásquez have been reliable lately.

Hart entered last night’s game with a scoreless streak of 14⅓ innings over his previous eight outings. Vásquez had allowed two runs over 15⅔ innings in his previous three games.

“He’s throwing the ball really good right now,” Stammen said of Vásquez. “This is the best he’s thrown it maybe since the very beginning of the year.”

As I forecast in yesterday’s newsletter (though I guessed wrong on which left-handed reliever would start) the Padres went with an opener because of the structure of the Guardians lineup, with their abundance of left-handed hitters and switch-hitters.

“We had people ready that could match up, we thought, well,” Stammen said. “And the way the bullpen was shaping up, we thought that was kind of our best route.”

I know enough to know I don’t know nearly enough to be making decisions for the Padres. The information at Stammen’s fingertips is beyond what any of us on the outside can possibly compile or fully understand.

That said, we can question why Peralta was the opener when he should not be allowed anywhere near the top of a lineup in a close game.

He had been perfect in four turns as an opener, allowing two hits and walking one in four scoreless innings. But the last time he had done it was July 4.

He has been something of a liability since the start of July.

Peralta had a 1.62 ERA over 44⅓ innings through June 30, the best 37-game stretch of his career. The run he allowed last night raised his ERA since then to 8.31, the third-worst 22-game stretch of his 11-year career.

But it didn’t really matter, now did it?

“Our goal was to keep the game really close, score some runs early, and then let (Vásquez) finish the game,” Stammen said. “And we just didn’t score.”

The Padres say they have not decided whether to have Musgrove make one more rehab start or make his season debut in the coming week.

He threw 70 pitches in 4⅔ innings for Triple-A El Paso on Friday. That he gave up five runs on nine hits in a Pacific Coast League game tells us nothing. That he was consistently in the mid-90s with his fastball and walked one batter says something.

Two catchers

The Padres had one of their catchers serve as designated hitter yesterday for the first time this season in a game in which they had just two catchers on the roster.

Freddy Fermin caught, and Luis Campusano was the DH. (It was Campusano’s second time as DH, but Rodolfo Durán was on the roster for the first one.)

The potential reward of Campusano driving in runs outweighed the potential risk of him having to move to catcher and the Padres having to let a pitcher hit or use a pinch-hitter to hit in Fermin’s spot.

By rule, a team loses the DH if the player who started the game as DH moves to a position in the field.

“The risk is really just the health,” Stammen said yesterday afternoon. “If Freddy has something that happens to him early in the game, then you’ve got to manage the game the old National League, old-school (way), where you’ve got the pitcher in the spot and trying to pitch-hit and double switch and all that kind of stuff.”

Campusano entered the game batting .410 with four doubles and a home run over his previous 11 games. He was 0-for-2 with a walk last night.

“It won’t be an everyday thing,” Stammen said before the game. “But every once in a while maybe.”

Tidbits

Jackson Merrill’s career-high 13-game on-base streak ended yesterday.
Croneneworth’s five-game run is now the longest active hitting streak on the team.
Ty France, who was hit by a pitch last night, has reached base in seven consecutive games. That is the longest active on-base streak by a Padres player.
Gavin Sheets struck out as a pinch-hitter last night and is in a career-worst 31-game skid in which he is batting .120 (9-for-75).
Manny Machado’s peculiar slump continued with his 0-for-4 night. In the 18 games since his last home run, he is batting .229 (16-for-70) with a .574 OPS. But 11 of those hits, including one double, came in four games. In the other 14 games in that span, he is batting .088 (5-for-57) with a .264 OPS. He is also 4-for-16 with runners in scoring position in that span, and three of those hits came in one game.
Fermin turned a ball call into strike three with a successful ABS challenge in last night’s second inning. It was his fifth consecutive successful challenge, all of which have ended a strikeout. He lost a challenge later in the game.
Merrill challenged a strike call for just the fourth time this season. He was correct for the third time.
Reliever Jason Adam threw weighted plyo balls against the outfield wall yesterday afternoon. He appears to still be on track to begin playing catch next week. The Padres are hopeful Adam, who has been out since July 2 with a shoulder strain, can be pitching for them by mid-September.
I left out a few words at the end of a sentence in yesterday’s newsletter that made it terribly misleading. As of yesterday morning, the Padres led MLB in average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage since the All-Star break. Those four words at the end are important, since they actually ranked 22nd, 19th and 24th, respectively, in those categories since the start of the season. I really am an idiot. Picture me doing this when I discover these mistakes.
Also, I want to share with you something that left me paralyzed with joy when I saw it last night. I was honestly mesmerized, unable to move. So I could not pick up my phone to record this portion of the postgame fireworks show. Fortunately, someone else had done so.

Austin Hedges karaoke singer. What can’t he do. pic.twitter.com/e7ITXHAAQM

— Locked On Guardians (@LockedGuardians) August 15, 2026

All right, that’s it for me. Early game today (10:40 a.m. PT) and then a flight to New York. Maybe, on both counts. Rain is in the forecast all afternoon.

Talk to you tomorrow.