On the first day of September, the Padres lost to a bad team and suffered a bad loss.
The latter could haunt them into October.
A 4-3 defeat by the Orioles kept the Padres reeling and continued to magnify some shortcomings. But it was the loss of reliever Jason Adam for the season with a ruptured quad tendon that loomed over a somber clubhouse Monday evening.
“When that happens, you focus on the big picture, his health, what it means to the team,” Gavin Sheets said. “It definitely puts a dark cloud over the day for all of us.”
In the seventh inning, Adam crumpled to the ground after planting his left foot when he made a move to field a ball hit back up the middle and grabbed his left leg in obvious pain. He remained on the ground holding his leg and quickly motioned to the dugout that he needed attention.
Jason Adam had to be carted off with an apparent knee injury after taking an awkward fall on the mound.
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“I felt the pop right away,” he said after the game, standing in front of his locker while leaning on crutches. “Felt like the quad kind of rolled up. So I kind of knew it wasn’t good.”
Adam, an All-Star and among the league leaders in most pertinent categories, was eventually carted off the field. Should an MRI scheduled for Tuesday confirm his injury, he will undergo surgery with the hope he can return near the start of next season.
Clearly working to keep his emotions checked, Adam professed faith the Padres would go on just fine without him.
“This bullpen is so deep,” he said. “Of all the bullpens in the league to not need me, it’s this one. So I’m excited to cheer those guys on.”
Still, Monday’s loss felt like it might carry more significance than would normally be appropriate for such a setback by a team that FanGraphs still judges to have a 98.7% chance of making the postseason.
All-Star right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr., who had clutched at his right hamstring after chasing a fly ball Sunday was scratched shortly before Monday’s game with what was described by the team as “lower half tightness.” The move was said to be made in abundance of caution but he was not available to pinch-hit in the ninth inning Monday.
And with shortstop Xander Bogaerts on the injured list at least another couple weeks with a fracture in his left foot, Monday was a vivid reminder of the fragility of a team with big aspirations.
The Padres hold the second of two wild-card playoff spots and sit 2½ behind the Dodgers in the National League West.
But the fact they have lost six of their past eight games seems like a minor concern in the face of injuries and the state of their starting pitching.
Adam had allowed a one-out single by Jeremiah Jackson before the fateful grounder that ended his day and went for an infield single by Gunnar Henderson.
That left runners at first and second with one out for Robert Suarez.
The Padres’ closer struck out Colton Cowser before Dylan Beavers grounded a single through the right side to drive in Jackson and give the Orioles a 4-3 lead.
It was their third time leading and the third Padres pitcher they scored against.
The Orioles, who arrived in San Diego having lost six of their previous seven games and with the American League’s second worst record, took a 2-0 lead in the second inning against Dylan Cease on an infield single, a walk, a wild pitch and Samuel Basallo’s double, all with one out.
Cease was done after four innings, having thrown 91 pitches.
Monday was the fourth consecutive game Cease allowed multiple runs within the first five innings and the third one of those in which he did not complete five innings.
Unfortunately for the Padres, Cease has not been the only one not pulling his weight lately.
Padres starting pitchers have combined to throw 24 innings over their past six games, not including the bullpen game the Padres put together Sunday in Minneapolis.
In five of those games, they have allowed at least four runs.
It is putting the Padres offense behind and putting their bullpen in a bind.
The high-leverage relievers that have people around the league talking about the Padres as having the potential to make a deep playoff run are supposed to be pitching when the Padres are ahead.
But there was Adrian Morejón starting the fifth inning in a 2-2 game and Adam coming on in the sixth inning in a 3-3 game.
Morejón allowed his first home run, a 426-foot blast to center field by Jackson that gave the Orioles a 3-2 lead.
The Padres, who came back in the second inning with two runs on a pair of walks and successive two-out singles by Freddy Fermin and Luis Arraez, answered immediately again.
Fermin began the bottom of the fifth by laying down a bunt and reaching base on pitcher Dietrich Enns’ throwing error. Fermin advanced to second on Arraez’s sacrifice bunt, to third on Manny Machado’s fly ball out to right field and scored on a two-out single by Ramón Laureano.
After Morejón got the first two outs, Adam finished the top of the sixth and came back out for the seventh. Suarez worked through the eighth before Kyle Hart kept the deficit at one run in the ninth.
But after Bryce Johnson’s one-out single in the ninth inning, pinch-hitter Will Wagner grounded into a fielder’s choice and Arraez struck out to end the game.
In the clubhouse after the game, players first checked on Adam. And it was his loss they were most focused on even as they knew the rest of the season awaited.
“Tough day, for sure,” relief pitcher Mason Miller said. “The beauty of baseball is that we get to come back tomorrow and try again. So I think we’re going to take some time to process this and come back tomorrow, hopefully with a clear mind, and go win a game.”
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