SAN DIEGO — Juan Soto, Manny Machado and unlikely star Trent Grisham have been silent for the San Diego Padres while Petco Park has been cheering for San Diego’s first NL Championship Series appearance since 1998.
The Padres took just one hit against Zack Wheeler and the Philadelphia Phillies in a 2-0 defeat on Tuesday night, becoming the first team to keep a single hit to one in the same postseason.
Soto, Machado and Grisham went 9-0 with 4 strikeouts and 1 walk. Padres dropped all but the 1st, 5th and 9th in order.
Machado, Austin Nola and Grisham, who entered the NLCS, have had eight hits this postseason. Soto, Jurickson Profar and Jake Cronenworth had seven hits.
Grisham and Nola finished bottom of the lineup, batting .338 against the New York Mets in the NL Wildcard Series and the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL Division Series. The first six batters were only .201.
Against the hard-hitting Phillies, Padres’ only hit was a Wil Myers hit in the fifth inning.
A crowd of 44,826 people waving yellow towels encouraged the priest by shouting supportive slogans throughout. Rally Goose also appeared on the 8th extra-large video bulletin board. But the big bird laid the egg.
Padres adopted the goose as a lucky charm after arriving at the outfielder at Dodger Stadium while a real goose beat Los Angeles.
With the crowd buzzing in the ninth inning, Profar recorded a one-out walk. It brought Soto to the plate. He chose third base as the fielder’s choice, but Alec Bohm missed second base due to an error.
Machado appeared as a potential opener, but flew to the right. Josh Bell swung his cutter for a strikeout at the end of the game.
When the Padres didn’t strike out 11 times, they flew into the Philadelphia defense’s glove, bounced, or threw a lined ball.
San Diego had only two runners through the ninth. Soto took a one-out walk in the first inning, but Machado flew to the left and struck out Bell.
