Padres' ninth-inning rally falls short, Marlins even series

Kevin Acee, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Jul 22, 2025

Published in Baseball

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MIAMI — Stephen Kolek fared better Tuesday than he had in his previous start against the Miami Marlins. But he also did not fare as well.

Edward Cabrera allowed a run Tuesday, something he had not done in his first two career starts against the San Diego Padres. But he also got the win, something he had not done in either of those starts.

Baseball can be weird.

And it can be cruel.

It certainly tends to be for Padres pitchers when they are something short of almost perfect.

Kolek on Tuesday allowed three runs in 5 2/3 innings, and he was saddled with the loss because the Padres’ offense could only stage a too-little, too-late rally in the ninth inning.

Their 4-3 defeat came at the hands of a good starting pitcher and a bullpen that has been even better than the Padres’ league-leading relief corps since the middle of June.

But there have been far too many low-scoring, low-margin games for that explanation to seem like anything more than an excuse.

Even their comeback stalling in the ninth inning showed all their flaws.

The Padres scored two runs and had Jackson Merrill at second base before making their first out.

Then Jake Cronenworth popped out, Jose Iglesias struck out and pinch-hitter Trenton Brooks popped out to end the game.

Cabrera, who had held the Padres scoreless over 11 innings in his previous two starts against them, allowed a run in the third inning when Martín Maldonado led off with a double, advanced to third base on a wild pitch and scored on Luis Arraez’s single.

Arraez also doubled at the start of the sixth inning but was thrown out trying to score on Xander Bogaerts’ dribbled grounder in front of the plate.

Manny Machado had followed Arraez by grounding out before Gavin Sheets’ infield single moved Arraez to third and Bogaerts beat a ball into the ground. Merrill’s groundout to first base ended the threat of the Padres tying the game.

That is when what was going to be a fairly magnificent night for Kolek fell apart.

The Marlins had struck for two runs in the first inning on a pair of two-out singles, an error by Machado and a double by Kyle Stowers.

That was far better than what the Marlins did to Kolek on May 27 at Petco Park.

The right-hander surrendered six runs in the first inning that night before allowing just two more baserunners while getting one out into the sixth inning and earning the win in an 8-6 Padres victory.

He recovered strongly Tuesday, as well, allowing three singles between the second and fifth innings.

But after he retired his 10th consecutive batter for the second out in the bottom of the sixth, the Marlins scored again on a double by Augustín Ramírez and an RBI single by Heriberto Hernandez.

After Kolek hit a batter to load the bases, manager Mike Shildt went to Wandy Peralta, who got out of the inning.

David Morgan took over for Peralta with two outs in the seventh and allowed a run in the eighth.

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