Yu Darvish got Bronx bombarded, and the Padres returned home with what is becoming a predictable thud.
In their first game back at Petco Park after an exhausting but exhilarating road trip, they and their previously streaking starter were routed 8-0 by the Yankees on Friday night.
The loss was the Padres’ fourth straight at home and dropped their record in their downtown ballpark to 10-16 this season. They are 17-11 away from San Diego following their just-completed 5-2 trek to Atlanta and Cincinnati.
Darvish’s career-high 25-inning scoreless streak ended right away when Anthony Volpe led off the game with a triple and scored on Aaron Judge’s one-out sacrifice fly.
That was a blip.
The blasts came two innings later.
That is when the Yankees trio that entered the game with 40 homers — more than the Tigers and White Sox and as many as the Royals — bashed 1,249 feet worth of home runs.
A lead-off single by Austin Wells was followed by two outs before Juan Soto, greeted all night by a mixture of boos (from Padres fans) and cheers (from Yankees fans), hit a ball 423 feet, past both the home run deck and first section of seats beyond right field. Two pitches later, Judge hit his 10th home run in a span of 58 at-bats, this one a projected 409 feet and over the ribbon scoreboard fronting the second deck of seats beyond left field.
Alex Verdugo followed with a fly ball that bounced off the base of the wall in left field before Giancarlo Stanton yanked a curveball to the second balcony of the Western Metal Supply Co. building, a projected 417 feet.
“That’s a pretty good lineup,” Darvish said. “And I made some mistakes over the plate.”
Darvish, who last season in New York allowed the Yankees seven runs in 2⅔ innings, had not allowed a run in four starts since returning from a 15-day stay on the injured list with neck tightness. He had allowed just two hits over seven innings in each of his previous two starts.
He was able to pitch into the sixth on Friday, but not before Gleyber Torres sent the first pitch of the fourth inning 411 feet to center field to put the Yankees up 7-0. They added a run in the ninth inning off Jhony Brito.
While the Padres have come back from an eight-run deficit — and did it at Petco Park — another disappointing night at Petco Park was pretty much sealed by that point. The Padres have actually fared pretty well during the day at home, going 7-3. Friday’s loss was their 13th in 16 night games at home.
The Padres entered Friday batting 58 points worse at home versus the road and scoring a full run less per game at Petco than away from it.
This really isn’t all that much different than most seasons, especially early when the air is cold and heavy on the bay.
What is different in 2024 is that the pitching staff entered Friday night with a 4.64 ERA at Petco Park, which was nearly 1½ points higher than on the road and would be their highest-ever ERA at home.
That is due in part to the unusually high number of home runs being hit at the ballpark — 2.69 per game, highest in the major leagues. Of the 70 homers hit there, 39 have been hit by the visiting team.
But a Padres starting pitcher surrendering a lot of runs early is not an anomaly this season.
The rotation has had stretches of excellence and stretches of awfulness. And none of the starters has been immune.
Friday was the 12th time this season a Padres starter has allowed five or more runs in a game. It was the eighth time the Padres have been down by four or more runs in the first three innings.
They had won three of the first seven times it happened but didn’t mount much of a fight on Friday against left-hander Carlos Rodón (six innings, three hits) and did not get a hit against the two relievers who followed him. They had three at-bats with runners in scoring position, the final two in the seventh inning.
“Their guy is pretty good,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said of Rodón, who is now 6-2 with a 2.95 ERA. “... He just had us on our heels. We were down early and just couldn’t dig out.”
