Familiar face, familiar woes sink Padres

Jeff Sanders, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Jul 6, 2025

Published in Baseball

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SAN DIEGO — For some reason, Stephen Kolek can’t get comfortable at home. But what ails the San Diego Padres’ offense has been obvious for quite a bit:

Their stars aren’t producing like stars.

At least not simultaneously.

Kolek’s curious Petco Park woes continued, the Padres fell quiet for too long after Jake Cronenworth’s second-inning home run and Kyle Higashioka tormented his former team in the Texas Rangers’ 7-4 win in front of a sellout crowd of 43,297 at Petco Park.

Higashioka drove in five runs by himself, the first two on a three-run homer in the third for just his second of the season to put the onus on a team that hasn’t hit much for nearly two months.

In fact, the Padres’ .645 OPS since May 11 — the day after their 21-0 win at Coors Field — is better than only the Cleveland Guardians and they are six games under .500 over that stretch.

Cronenworth’s home run, a two-run shot for a brief 2-1 lead, was his fourth in his last 18 games but help has been a little light over that stretch.

Manny Machado went 1-for-4 with a sacrifice fly and is two hits away from 2,000. He’s starting in the All-Star game later this month, but he also entered Saturday with a .642 OPS over his last 21 games.

Fernando Tatis Jr. went 0-for-4 with a walk and entered Saturday with a .677 OPS over his last 55 games, while Jackson Merrill went 1-for-4 with a sacrifice fly after entering the game with a .570 OPS in his first 11 games off the concussion list.

Machado’s and Merrill’s sacrifice flies were consolation prizes after the Padres loaded the bases with no outs to begin the seventh inning in a 6-2 hole.

Higashioka’s fifth RBI in the eighth, a run-scoring single off Bryan Hoeing, got one of those runs back immediately.

The Padres brought the go-ahead run to the plate in the ninth, but Tatis struck out after Martín Maldonado’s leadoff walk and Machado fanned after Merrill’s one-out single. Luis Arraez loaded the bases with his fourth hit of the game, but Xander Bogaerts grounded weakly to third base to end the game.

Bogaerts had been better over his last six games (.391/.440/.652), but he’s been haunted by exiting two different games with cramping in the last week: His left quad on June 29 in Cincinnati and his right hamstring on Friday.

As was the case last week, Bogaerts was back in Saturday’s lineup only to go 0-for-5 with two strikeouts, the second ending that seventh-inning rally with runners on first and second.

“Similar to Cincinnati — different place, different leg — but similar feeling,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “Cramped up, knotted up. You know, he’s doing everything he can from a hydration standpoint. We’ve have had some tough travel days and some scheduling and maybe just caught up with him. But he was very, as the medical group was last night, optimistic (at) being able to release that cramp and making sure it wasn’t anything muscular. …

“We went back and forth this morning and everybody agreed he was good to go, all things considered.”

Kolek carried a 9.20 ERA in three Petco Park starts into Saturday’s game and found himself in a hole from the jump, allowing a first-pitch homer to Josh Smith.

The blast marked the second time that Kolek has been ambushed by a first-pitch homer this season, a club record.

Texas was just getting started.

Higashioka hit a two-run homer off his former batterymate after a leadoff walk to start the third and capped a two-run fourth with a run-scoring single.

Kolek turned in a scoreless fifth inning, but he allowed singles to two of the three batters he faced in the sixth and one scored on Higashioka’s sacrifice fly to right off Yuki Matsui.

All told, Kolek’s six runs allowed in 51/3 innings tied a season high. Kolek struck out two, walked one and allowed nine hits, also a season high.