Padres flood bases but fall to Astros in series opener

Kevin Acee, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Apr 18, 2025

Published in Baseball

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HOUSTON — The Padres followed the formula that has lifted them to far more wins than losses this season.

They flooded the bases, giving themselves plenty of chances. They fought back.

It didn’t work out this time.

Two home runs Cam Smith sent high and far to left field against Kyle Hart helped the Astros to four of their runs in a 6-4 victory Friday night at Daikin Park.

In their 20th game, the Padres suffered their fifth loss.

They lost a 1-0 lead early and got within one run on Luis Arraez’s two-run homer in the seventh inning but could not complete what would have been a seventh comeback victory.

The Padres still have the best record in the major leagues. They have the second-best record any Padres team has ever had through the first 20 games of a season.

Their .277 batting average is also the major leagues’ highest — by seven points.

That leads to a lot of traffic and a fair amount of runs. But on the days they do not drive in those runners, it is glaring.

The Padres got 12 hits Friday night, their 12th game with double-digit hits.

But they were 2 for 10 with runners in scoring position, scoring one run after loading the bases with one out in the second inning and failing to score after their first two batters reached base in the fifth inning.

The Astros, stocked with hitters who have historically hit well, entered the game with the major leagues’ fourth-lowest batting average (.216) and OPS (.617). They were even worse against left-handers (.129 and .423, 29th in both).

They got 10 hits of their 12 hits and scored five of their runs off lefty Kyle Hart, who departed with a man on first and no outs in the sixth inning.

Alek Jacob worked two scoreless innings, and Yuki Matsui allowed a run in the eighth.

The damage against Hart came in three straight innings, 80% of it off the bat of the rookie Smith.

And the Padres were just ineffective enough against the Astros’ rookie pitcher.

Ryan Gusto, a 26-year-old right-hander making his second big league start, got in and out of trouble a few times in his five innings.

Gusto needed just seven pitches to set down the Padres in the first inning and got Xander Bogaerts on a fly ball to start the second before Gavin Sheets, Oscar Gonzalez and Jose Iglesias stopped that out streak with successive singles to load the bases.

The Padres got one run when Tyler Wade beat out a would-be double play grounder before the inning ended when Oscar Gonzalez was caught in a rundown on a failed double steal attempt.

Hart found a little too much of the strike zone in the second inning.

Hart, too, worked a quick first, throwing just 10 pitches despite Jose Altuve leading off with a bunt single, and had two outs with a runner on first in the second.

Then he left a slider a little too fat on the inner third that Jake Meyers pulled down the left field line to put runners at second and third. Two pitches later, a fastball in the heart of the zone that No.9 batter Cam Smith hit to the back wall beyond left field to put the Astros up 3-0.

The Astros scored another two-out run in the third inning on Christian Walker’s double grounded down the left-field line and a single flared into left-center by Yainer Diaz. Both hits came on pitches at the bottom of the zone, a slider to Walker and change-up to Diaz.

A lead-off double by Bogaerts and one-out single by Gonzalez got the Padres to 4-2 in the top of the fourth.

But Smith’s second home run — on a sweeper that swept over the middle of the plate and thigh high — made it 5-2 in the bottom of the inning.

The batters at the top of the Padres’ order, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Arraez, began the fifth inning with singles. But the rally was extinguished two pitches later, on a double play grounder by Manny Machado and soft groundout by Bogaerts.

Arraez’s home run came after a walk by Tatis against reliever Bryan King.