SAN DIEGO—They were one strike from clinching the wild card on Saturday, and three outs away on Monday night.
It’s a good thing winters are so mild in San Diego. That might help lessen the sting the Padres felt after failing in three straight chances to claim the last spot in the postseason.
Monday night’s shocking 13-inning loss to the Colorado Rockies in the wild-card tiebreaker—when career saves leader Trevor Hoffman blew his second save in three games—seemed to sum up the Padres’ season. At times they played well, but they just couldn’t close the deal.
So after winning the NL West the last two years, the Padres will watch younger division rivals Arizona and Colorado play into October.
“We fought, clawed and battled all year,” right fielder Brian Giles said. “We won games we shouldn’t have through the course of the season. We lost some we shouldn’t have. This team has nothing to be ashamed of.”
But there will be the pain of knowing how close they were to going to the playoffs for a franchise-record third straight season. The guy who’s going to feel it most is Hoffman. One strike from closing out Milwaukee on Saturday, Hoffman allowed a tying RBI triple to Tony Gwynn Jr., an ironic twist since his Hall of Fame father spent his entire 20-season career with the Padres. The Brewers went on to win 4-3 in 11 innings.
The Padres were blown out by the Brewers on Sunday, forcing them to play at Colorado on Monday night.
After Scott Hairston’s two-run homer put the Padres ahead 8-6 in the top of the 13th, Colorado came back with three runs against Hoffman in the bottom of the inning. The closer, who has 524 career saves, blew his seventh chance in 49 tries this year.
Hoffman called it the toughest loss of his career. That’s saying something, since he gave up Scott Brosius’ stunning three-run homer in Game 3 of the 1998 World Series, which the New York Yankees swept.
“It’s a burden I’m going to have to deal with,” Hoffman said. “It’s difficult to be on this end of it.”
The Padres stayed alive even after losing outfielders Milton Bradley and Mike Cameron in a bizarre chain of events on Sept. 23. Cameron was hurt when Bradley stepped on his right hand while they were chasing Garrett Atkins’ inside-the-park home run. A few innings later, Bradley tore a ligament in his right knee when manager Bud Black spun him to the ground to keep him from going after umpire Mike Winters during a blowup.
“We won one more game than last year and didn’t get into the playoffs this year,” general manager Kevin Towers said Tuesday. “We had kind of a rotating lineup throughout the year because we had some injuries, and the kids that came up from the minor leagues and the guys we acquired in trades all contributed in some way to help this ballclub win. It was a good group of guys. They battled hard. It was probably the best club we’ve had since we’ve been at Petco Park. I feel if we could have gotten into postseason play, we could have fared very well.”
But they didn’t. Arizona won the division, finishing one-half game ahead of the Rockies. San Diego was 1 1/2 games back in third.
Everyone knew the division had improved. Two years ago, the Padres staggered to the West title with only 82 victories. Last year they and the Dodgers tied with 88 wins, with the Padres earning the crown based on head-to-head record.
The Padres ceded the division lead to the Diamondbacks by going 3-6 on a trip through Arizona, Colorado and Los Angeles in September.
“They may have caught up but they didn’t blow us away,” Towers said.
“We had some opportunities,” he said. “The Rockies had to win 14 out of 15 games to catch us. We’re as good a ballclub as the Rockies and Diamondbacks. A couple of injuries late took some steam from us, not that that’s an excuse. But we have a group of prospects that are probably a year away, a lot like the players in Colorado and Arizona and Los Angeles.
“We’re only going to get better. Most of their young guys have arrived. We’ve got a large group that’s just about here. We’re going to be better next year, and even better the following year.”
Towers is interested in bringing back Bradley and Cameron, but both are eligible for free agency. He would like to add a starter or two to follow ace Jake Peavy, the front-runner for the Cy Young despite his rough outing Monday night, Chris Young and 41-year-old Greg Maddux, has a player option for next year and enjoyed pitching for the Padres.
Hoffman will be back under a $7.5 million option he triggered in late August by finishing his 90th game over two seasons.
