Padres end trade deadline day by falling to Diamondbacks

Kevin Acee, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Aug 4, 2026

Published in Baseball

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

PHOENIX — The Padres’ big day concluded with a loss in the opener of their big series against the Diamondbacks.

A few hours removed from the excitement of Monday’s trade deadline, the Padres lost 5-1 to one of the teams they trailed by one game in the standings at the start of the day.

The Phillies won earlier Monday, so the Padres fell two games behind both teams in the race for one of the final two National League playoff spots.

The Padres arrived in the desert having won eight of nine, a streak that spurred the front office to acquire starting pitchers Robbie Ray and Casey Mize at the deadline.

“It’s exciting,” Jake Cronenworth said Monday afternoon. “We’ve played well these last few weeks and put ourselves in the position to go out and get those guys.”

The Padres went out and got six hits and, outside a few hard-hit balls, hardly threatened to make a game of it.

That happened in conjunction with the pitcher the Padres already had in place atop their rotation having a rough night and paying dearly for one of his 104 pitches.

Michael King slogged through five innings and walked the only batter he faced in the sixth. For all his struggles, he was undone by a leadoff walk, one-out single and a sinker on the inner portion of the plate that Tim Tawa pulled down the left-field line and into the seats for a three-run homer in the fourth inning.

Conversely, Diamondbacks starter Brandon Pfaadt continued his roll.

Pfaadt entered the game with a 4.00 ERA. But in six starts since returning in late June from a few weeks in the minor leagues, he had a 1.85 ERA and had not allowed more than two runs in any start. That run included his working five scoreless innings against the Padres on July 6 at Petco Park.

He allowed two singles, faced one more batter than the minimum and threw just 40 pitches over Monday’s first four innings. He had a 3-0 lead when he took the mound in the fifth.

Luis Campusano’s two-out double that inning gave the Padres their first runner in scoring position, but that was followed by Xander Bogaerts’ fly ball caught at the track by right fielder Corbin Carroll.

The Padres got close to a run again when Cronenworth hit a fly ball 362 feet that needed to go 362½ feet, as left fielder Max Kepler leaped and took away a home run at the top of the wall.

That out, on Pfaadt’s 69th pitch, ended the sixth inning.

Ty France walked with one out in the seventh to give the Padres their fourth baserunner, and he scored after Luis Rengifo’s two-out single and an infield single by Campusano that was accompanied by third baseman Nolan Arenado’s throwing error.

Juan Morillo replaced Pfaadt and struck out Bogaerts.

A single by Sung-Mun Song at the start of the eighth inning gave the Padres their final baserunner, and the Diamondbacks scored twice off Wandy Peralta in the eighth.

Three games remain in this series — and then 46 after that.

“Any time you’re facing a team that’s directly in front of you, it’s an important game,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said Monday afternoon. “But to say these four games are more important than the next (46) games probably — those (46) games are very important also. So any game that we play from here on out is extremely important.”

_____