SAN DIEGO — Blake Snell’s roll was slowed before he climbed the mound Friday. Outside of Manny Machado, Snell’s teammates, for all of A.J. Preller’s machinations, can’t seem to keep anything rolling.
Machado hit a two-run, game-tying double in the fifth inning, but the San Diego Padres managed just four hits, Snell stumbled less than 24 hours after escaping a traffic accident without injury and Josh Hader’s woes continued in a 6-3 loss to a Washington Nationals team that had been spiraling toward the worst season in franchise history.
Maybe not anymore.
The 80-loss Nationals have won the first two games to start this series after limiting the Padres to one run Thursday, upending Snell’s scorching start to the second half on Friday and waiting out the Padres’ bullpen to mount the game-winning rally off the struggling Hader.
A day after giving up both of Yu Darvish’s ninth-inning runs, Hader walked the first batter he faced and then threw the ball up the first-base line on Lane Thomas’ tapper in front of the mound, allowing Victor Robles to score from first and Thomas to reach third as boos began to rain down at Petco Park.
The volume from a crowd of 39,474 only increased as Padres manager Bob Melvin pulled Hader after he allowed a Alex Call’s first big-league homer to give the Nationals a three-run lead.
Hader has allowed six runs — five earned — on four hits, five walks and two hit batters in five appearances since joining the Padres the day before they added Juan Soto, Josh Bell and Brandon Drury.
Yet somehow, the Padres are just 6-10 since then and have lost five times in eight games against the NL East’s fourth- and fifth-place teams, a downturn that corresponds with Fernando Tatis Jr.’s season-ending suspension.
For Snell, it had been an eventful 24 hours to say the least.
Just before 11 p.m. Thursday, Snell’s vehicle had been struck by a suspected drunken driver on the side of Interstate 5 after an officer had stopped the Padres’ left-hander for an alleged traffic violation, authorities said.
It was unclear why Snell was stopped, but Snell’s vehicle was sideswiped by a Toyota sedan that had veered off the freeway after Snell had pulled off on the right shoulder.
A passenger in Snell’s Mercedes-Benz sedan complained of pain but was evaluated and released at the scene, authorities said.
Snell was evaluated by the Padres’ medical team on Friday and cleared to make the 6:40 p.m. start against the Nationals.
Asked if Snell was shaken up by the incident, Padres manager Bob Melvin said: “I don’t think for the start. Last night a little bit, probably. You don’t expect those type of things. Physically, he’s fine. But that can shake you up a little bit. But our guys checked him out today and we’ve talked to him and he’s ready to pitch.
“So I think we probably got lucky.”
Especially the way Snell had been pitching since the All-Star break.
In five starts, he’d struck out 39 against five walks, held opposing hitters to a .503 OPS and posted an 0.94 ERA over 28 2/3 innings.
That run included striking out 10 over six shutout innings on Sunday in Washington against these same Nationals.
“Last time we faced him he had command of all his pitches,” Washington manager Dave Martinez said. “But he was attacking the strike zone with his fastball, a very live fastball. … We have to be ready to hit the fastball. Look for the fastball but get him in the zone. He can tend to get a little erratic with his breaking ball, so we have to get the fastball in the zone.”
They did on Friday — eventually.
After Nelson Cruz pushed a 3-2 curveball for a hit to right field to open the second, Snell succumbed to Keibert Ruiz with a 10-pitch walk. But he got Cesar Hernandez to fly out to right, punched out Ildemaro Vargas and popped up former teammate CJ Abrams to get out of a 26-pitch inning unscathed.
Snell found himself in an even hairier situation in the fourth after back-to-back singles and a double-steal in which catcher Jorge Alfaro appeared to double-clutch without attempting a throw to third. Abrams followed with a two-run single to left and Ruiz added a run-scoring single in the fifth to put the finishing touches on Snell’s line.
He struck out seven, but allowed three runs on seven hits and two walks and expended 98 pitches (63 strikes) in five innings.
Until Machado’s game-tying double in the fifth, extending his hitting streak to 11 games, the early 3-1 lead seemed even more daunting the way the Padres had swung the bats to start the series.
They went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position in Thursday’s 3-1 loss to the majors’ worst team and even their early rally on Friday was something of a letdown.
Drury led off with a hot shot to shortstop that ate up Abrams before Jake Cronenworth’s shift-beating bunt to the left side of the infield gave the bottom of the order two base runners to play with.
But Wil Myers struck out and after Trent Grisham’s run-scoring single through the right side of the infield, Ha-Seong Kim popped up and Alfaro struck out.
They did not have another hit after Machado’s fifth-inning double.
(Alex Riggins contributed to this report.)
