SAN DIEGO — Juan Soto, Manny Machado and unlikely star Trent Grisham went silent for the San Diego Padres, giving the Petco Park faithful little to cheer in the city’s first NL Championship Series appearance since 1998.
The Padres eked out just one hit against Zack Wheeler and the Philadelphia Phillies in an opening 2-0 loss on Tuesday night, becoming the first team to pitch a one-hitter get held to one hit in the same postseason.
Soto, Machado and Grisham combined to go 0 for 9 with four strikeouts and one walk. The Padres went down in order in all but the first, fifth and ninth innings.
Entering the NLCS, Machado, Austin Nola and Grisham had eight hits this postseason. Soto, Jurickson Profar and Jake Cronenworth had seven hits.
Grisham and Nola had helped power the bottom of the lineup, which hit .338 against the New York Mets in the NL wild card series and Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL Division Series. The first six hitters were just .201.
Against the hot-hitting Phillies, the Padres’ lone hit was a single by Wil Myers in the fifth.
The yellow towel-waving crowd of 44,826 did its part, exhorting the Padres with supportive chants throughout. The Rally Goose showed up, too, appearing on the giant video board in the eighth. But the big bird laid an egg.
The Padres adopted the goose as a good-luck charm after a real one landed in the Dodger Stadium outfield during their upset of Los Angeles.
With the shrieking crowd on its feet in the ninth, Profar drew a one-out walk. That brought Soto to the plate. He grounded into a fielder’s choice to third, but Alec Bohm botched the throw to second for an error.
Machado came up as the potential go-ahead run but flied out to right. Josh Bell swung over a cutter for a game-ending strikeout.
When the Padres weren’t striking out 11 times, they flied out or popped up or lined balls into the gloves of Philadelphia’s defense.
San Diego had just two baserunners until the ninth. Soto drew a one-out walk in the first, but Machado flied out to left and Bell struck out.
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