Diamondbacks rough up JP Sears in his first Padres start

Kevin Acee, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Aug 5, 2025

Published in Baseball

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PHOENIX — The last time the Padres played at Chase Field, in mid-June, the Diamondbacks took two of three games and appeared to be among a group of teams that would make the National League wild-card race a thrill ride.

On Monday, four days after the trade deadline, the Diamondbacks had a much different outlook. They traded their slugging corner infielders and one of their best starting pitchers last week and sat six games below .500.

The Padres, who had perpetrated arguably the most talked-about trade deadline machinations in years, are now firmly in playoff position in a race that is ostensibly down to seven teams for six spots.

And they had one of their deadline acquisitions on the mound for his first start with the team.

It did not go well.

The Diamondbacks scored in the first four innings against left-hander JP Sears and went on to beat the Padres 6-2.

Sears allowed the first five of those runs on 10 hits in his five innings.

Arizona’s final run came on a home run Alek Thomas hit off Yuki Matsui in the eighth.

Conversely, the Padres were dominated by Diamondbacks starter Brandon Pfaadt for much of his 5⅔ innings and by two relievers for all of the rest of Monday’s game.

Pfaadt began the game wildly, spraying four different types of pitches not really even close to the strike zone. But after two batters, that was done and he spent much of the rest of his outing quickly dispatching the Padres with his sinker and changeup.

Fernando Tatis Jr. and Luis Arraez walked to begin the game, but the inning ended eight pitches later. And Pfaadt just kept throwing strikes after that.

Following his walks at the outset, Pfaadt threw three or fewer pitches to 13 of the next 15 batters and retired all but three (and one of those reached base on catcher interference).

The Padres got their first two hits in the third inning – on back-to-back two-out doubles by Manny Machado and Jackson Merrill — and then a two-out single by Tatis in the fifth before driving Pfaadt from the game in the sixth on a two-out walk by Gavin Sheets, an infield single by Ramón Laureano and single lined to right field by Jake Cronwenworth that made it 5-2.

Both managers made a move at that point, with Arizona’s Torey Lovullo bringing in right-hander Andrew Hoffman and Mike Shildt countering with pinch-hitter Ryan O’Hearn.

The inning ended on one pitch from Hoffman, as O’Hearn launched a fly ball that was caught short of the track in right field.

Hoffman set the top of the Padres’ order down in order in the seventh. Kyle Backhus did the same in the eighth and worked around a lead-off single in the ninth.

Sears had no such luck, as he laid a lot of pitches in the upper portion of the strike zone that were put in play for hits.

His first clean inning was his last one.

The Diamondbacks did not waste getting their first two runners on in the bottom of the first inning or their first three runners on in the bottom of the second inning.

Singles by Ketel Marte and Corbin Carroll and a one-out single by Lourdes Gurriel Jr. put the Diamondbacks up 1-0 before Sears got out of the first inning.

He went about getting in more trouble right away in the second, walking Blaze Alexander, surrendering a single to Thomas and hitting Jorge Barrosa to load the bases with no outs.

A strikeout of Marte was followed by Carroll’s sacrifice fly before Geraldo Perdomo popped out to end the inning.

Sears, who took 49 pitches to get through those two innings, began the third inning more economically. But the result was the same.

After Sears retired the first batter in an inning for the first time — and did so on two pitches — the Diamondbacks pushed their lead back to two runs when Tyler Locklear hit the first pitch he saw into the Diamondbacks bullpen beyond the left field fence in the left field corner.

The fourth inning was the most costly.

It began with Barrosa lining a double to left field. He moved to third on Marte’s single and scored on a double by Carroll that advanced Marte to third. With one out, Gurriel drove in Carroll with a single.

Shildt did not have anyone warming in the bullpen until Carroll’s double.

It was clear he was operating on the premise he espoused Saturday.

“I have to make it very clear right now,” Shildt said that night, “we cannot pitch five innings every night out of our bullpen with 50 games to go. You just can’t do it.”

His point was that despite the depth and relative excellence of the Padres’ bullpen, which added Athletics closer Mason Miller at the deadline, the starters are still going to have to cover their share of innings.

Shildt said that after having to replace Randy Vásquez with two outs in the fifth inning on Saturday and before Dylan Cease went just five innings Sunday.

The Diamondbacks not having to bat in the bottom of the ninth saved some work for Padres relievers, who have had to cover 12⅓ innings over the past three days.

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