Padres Offense Goes Silent in 5-1 Desert Dud

So much for that Michael King pitching advantage. The Padres limped into Chase Field riding a three-game win streak and carrying DarkHorse's confidence in their ace's ERA edge, only to get thoroughly outclassed in a 5-1 Arizona beatdown. Our Padres ML pick at -102 never had a pulse.

King's supposed 0.62 ERA cushion over Brandon Pfaadt? Didn't matter. Pfaadt carved through San Diego's lineup like it owed him money, while the Padres managed just one measly run against a pitcher we'd pegged as the inferior arm. Arizona's bats did the rest, plating five and making this one feel over by the middle innings.

The 8-2 last-ten record looked great on paper. The back-to-back scheduling disadvantage for Arizona sounded promising in the writeup. None of it showed up when the umpire yelled play ball. Baseball's a cruel mistress that way—you can have every logical angle covered and still watch your squad sleepwalk through nine innings.

Credit where it's due: the Diamondbacks came out hungry after yesterday's loss and the Padres forgot their bats in the hotel. Sometimes the better story wins. This wasn't one of those times, but the better team sure did. Tough miss, moving on.