PHOENIX, Ariz. — The San Diego Padres played a delayed opening-day game on a pleasant evening inside the massive airplane hangar known as Chase Field, and Yu Darvish got them started by chasing history.
In the end, they couldn’t even win.
The Diamondbacks walked them off in the ninth inning, winning 4-2 on Seth Beer’s home run against Craig Stammen, spoiling Bob Melvin’s first game as Padres manager.
Robert Suarez, making his major league debut, began the ninth inning with the Padres up 2-0. He walked two batters and hit a third without getting an out. Stammen’s first pitch bounced to the backstop, allowing a run to score. His third pitch was launched over the wall in right field.
Darvish did not allow a hit through six innings, departing after throwing 92 pitches and having carried the Padres two-thirds of the way to what would have been the second opening-day no-hitter ever.
The attempt at matching Hall of Famer Bob Feller’s feat — accomplished in 1940 — ended quickly, as Pavin Smith led off the seventh with a single off Tim Hill.
The Padres walked four times in the third inning for their first run and got another run with three singles in the fourth. They did not get another hit.
Ha-seong Kim drew a nine-pitch walk leading off the third, stole second and moved to third on a groundout. After Trent Grisham flied out to left, Madison Bumgarner walked Manny Machado to bring up Jake Cronenworth, who went from 1-2 to a nine-pitch walk to load the bases for Luke Voit.
Voit swung through two pitches and then took four straight balls.
It was just the second time in Bumgarner’s career, in its 14th year and now encompassing 2,037 innings, that he walked four batters in an inning.
Grisham, batting ninth, came to bat with two outs and a runner on first base in the fourth inning. On the ninth pitch of his at-bat, Grisham lined a single to right field to move Kim, who had reached on a fielder’s choice, to third. Austin Nola followed with an RBI single.
