By admin 
The Padres played into a cliché on Monday.
They had an excellent starting pitcher on the ropes and let him stay upright and punch his way through six innings.
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Worse, that helped turn Griffin Canning into a loser.
Canning was masterful for almost all of seven innings, allowing two hits to Kyle Schwarber and one to Brandon Marsh.
Unlike what the Padres did, the Phillies made those hits count.
Schwarber’s home run in the first inning and Marsh’s two-run homer in the seventh were all the Phillies needed in a 3-0 victory over the suddenly un-clutch Padres.
The Padres, who loaded the bases against Jesus Luzardo before an out was made in the first inning and failed to score not just in that inning but in all six that Luzardo pitched, were 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position.
When Tuesday’s game begins, they will be looking for their first hit with a runner in scoring position since the eighth inning of Friday’s game against the Athletics, a span of 25 at-bats in that circumstance.
Before Marsh sent a too-high 2-0 slider to the seats in right field with two outs in the seventh, Canning had not allowed a hit and had almost thrown a perfect game against every Phillies batter except Schwarber.
Between the two home runs, Canning allowed a single (to Schwarber leading off the second) and walked two batters (Schwarber in the fourth and Bryce Harper in the seventh).
With Schwarber and Harper on base, Canning got his second double-play grounder of the day before Marsh went deep. Canning then walked Bryson Stott and was replaced by Jeremiah Estrada.
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Yuki Matsui worked two scoreless innings at the end to give the Padres a chance for another comeback.
But they did not put up much of a fight after the fifth inning.
What happened to that was practically enough to assure their defeat.
One of the oldest clichés in baseball holds that your best chance to get to a good starting pitcher is early. And Luzardo is among the best in the major leagues this season. He entered the game with a 4.85 ERA. But he had the 10th-lowest FIP (2.85) and 18th-lowest expected ERA (3.21) in the major leagues, metrics that suggest he has been unlucky.
They had the leadoff man on in the first three innings. They had the first three batters reach base in the first innings and their first two batters reach base in the third. They had runners at first and second with one out in the fifth.
The loaded bases in the first inning came on an infield single by Fernando Tatis Jr.,Miguel Andujar’s single to center field grounder and a groundball by Xander Bogaerts that Phillies shortstop Trea Turner muffed.
The failure to score came on strikeouts by Manny Machado and Jackson Merrill and a fly ball by Nick Castellanos.
After Tatis singled and Andujar walked to start the third inning, Bogaerts grounded out and Machado grounded into a double play.
Rodolfo Durán was hit by a pitch and Tatis walked with one out in the fifth before Andujar popped out and Bogaerts flied out to the gap in left field.
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This story was originally published May 25, 2026 at 6:13 PM.