Padres notes: Confidence in Melancon, a costly miscue on the bases

Ramon Laureano pulled a Mark Melancon cutter — down, but over the plate — down the third-base line for a double to win a 10-pitch at-bat to start the Padres closer’s first action in six days. Then there was a four-pitch walk to Sean Murphy with two outs, an infield single from Matt Chapman and pinch-hitter Yan Gomes’ single to center on a 1-2 cutter headed down and away yet on the corner of the strike zone.

Joe Musgrove mused later as he assessed how Oakland put up fight after fight to deny the Padres’ a two-game sweep: “I don’t know if he can make a better pitch in that situation. Maybe it was the wrong pitch, but I just thought Mark executed his pitch really well.”

The Padres’ 36-year-old All-Star has certainly made plenty of quality pitches in amassing 32 saves, six more than the next-busiest closer in the majors.

Nevertheless, it has not gone unnoticed that Melancon has suffered three of his five blown saves in 19 appearances since June 17, a stretch in which he’s allowed 10 earned runs in 17 2/3 innings to push his from 0.64 to 2.35.

But before allowing two runs on three hits and a walk in the ninth inning Wednesday, Melancon had struck out five over five scoreless appearances, all saves.

Wednesday’s hiccup arrived as the Padres’ bullpen, with leads the majors with a 2.91 ERA, was looking to extend its scoreless streak to 20 innings.

After six innings from Musgrove, Pierce Johnson and Drew Pomeranz had gotten through the seventh and eighth unscathed to hand a 3-1 lead to Melancon.

“I think the last couple he’s been really crispy,” Padres manager Jayce Tingler said. “ … He just wasn’t quite as sharp or have the finish to his pitches that he normally has. ... These things happen. He hadn’t had a save opportunity in five or six days, so maybe there was little rust on it here and there, but I can’t stress enough how good he’s been and how good he’s going to be going forward with us.”

A costly miscue

In a walk-off loss after a blown save, almost anything can be magnified and second-guessed and picked apart.

Manny Machado logged just the fourth four-strikeout game of his career before singling with two outs in his fifth at-bat in the 10^th, extending the inning after the Padres plated the ghost runner on a Tommy Pham grounder that Matt Chapman couldn’t field cleanly at shortstop.

That rally ended when Jake Cronenworth struck out to finish an 0-for-5 day that included grounding into an inning-ending double play in the eighth.

Jurickson Profar was also thrown out twice on the bases, once as part of a strikeout-throw-out double play to end the second and again as third base coach Bobby Dickerson sent him home on Trent Grisham’s fourth-inning double off the base of the wall in right-center

Eric Hosmer, on second with a one-out single that preceded Profar’s single, held up to make sure Starling Marte would not run down the ball and was still trotting down the third-base line as Dickerson appeared to wave home both runners.

One problem: Profar had also briefly retreated on a drive that off the bat looked like it would easily clear the bases and a one-hop relay throw was waiting for him at the plate.

The Padres salvaged some of that gaffe with Victor Caratini’s ensuing two-out single to push the Padres’ lead to 3-1, but a three-run lead would have looked a lot better when Melancon climbed the mound in the ninth.

“Profar got caught up a little bit at second base,” Tingler said of his view of the play. “When the ball hit the wall, Profar retreated back almost like Marte had maybe caught it. I think that kind of threw everything off … a little bit. The good thing is Victor comes up and gets the two-out knock and we were able to get Grisham in.”

Notable

RHP Taylor Williams (knee) struck out three but allowed two runs on one hit (a homer) and a walk in an inning of work on Tuesday to begin his rehab assignment with Triple-A El Paso.