San Diego Padres starter Luis Giolito was dealing against the Sacramento A’s at Petco Park in San Diego on Sat May 23, 2026 (AP News photo)

By Mauricio Segura

The Sacramento Athletics had enough baserunners to have made Saturday night a clear win, but the absolute lack of finishing touches failed to get any of them across the plate. A 2-0 loss to the Padres became a lesson in missed chances, survival pitching, and how a game with only two runs can still feel like it had a dozen turning points hiding in the San Diego the dirt.

Sacramento opened with immediate pressure against Lucas Giolito. Carlos Cortes started the game with a hard line-drive single to right, and Nick Kurtz followed with a base hit to move Cortes to third. Two powerful statements right off the bat (pun intended), especially with the heart of the order due. But Shea Langeliers then lifted a ball to right, Brent Rooker struck out, and Tyler Soderstrom’s easy fly was shut down as the inning slipped away without a run. The A’s had Giolito wobbling, but they never made him pay.

J.T. Ginn, making his first start since taking a no-hit bid into the ninth inning against the Angels, had to work through speeding traffic right away. Fernando Tatis Jr. drew a walk to begin the Padres’ first, and Manny Machado later reached as well, but Ginn struck out Gavin Sheets and Nick Castellanos to keep San Diego off the board. Considering Ginn had been riding one of the more dramatic recent starts by an A’s pitcher, his early command issues made this outing feel like a very different test. This one was not about chasing history. It was about escaping a pileup.

The escape act finally cracked in the second. Jackson Merrill reached, stole second, and the Padres loaded the bases after Freddy Fermin and Sung-Mun Song reached. Tatis was hit by a pitch, forcing in Merrill for the game’s first run. Ginn still avoided major damage when Miguel Andujar grounded into a force at the plate and Sheets flew out, but San Diego had taken the lead without needing a big swing.

The Padres added their second run in the third after Castellanos reached and Merrill doubled to right. Ty France grounded out to short, scoring Castellanos, and that was enough breathing room for San Diego’s staff. José Suarez replaced Ginn in the inning and limited the damage, while the A’s bullpen later gave the lineup a real chance. Joel Kuhnel delivered two perfect innings with three strikeouts, and Scott Barlow worked around a France walk in the eighth to keep it at 2-0.

The issue was the offense kept stepping into traps. In the third, Cortes drew a walk before Kurtz hit into an unassisted double play. In the fourth, the A’s had their best chance after Rooker and Soderstrom reached, Giolito uncorked a wild pitch, and Henry Bolte reached to load the bases. Jeff McNeil then hit into a double play, ending the threat and turning a possible turning point into another stranded opportunity.

Kurtz still gave the A’s one of their better storylines by reaching again with his second hit of the game, extending a streak that had already placed him among the longest in Athletics history. Big Amish’s ability to keep reaching base has become less of a hot streak and more of a nightly expectation, which is absurd in the best baseball way. Langeliers also nearly sparked something in the eighth with a double to left, but Jason Adam struck out Rooker and Soderstrom to end that threat.

By the ninth, Mason Miller finished it with force. Zack Gelof and Bolte struck out before McNeil grounded out, leaving the A’s with five hits, several chances, and no runs. The Padres did not win the game with any heroics. They simply cashed in once with a hit batter, once with a groundout, and let their pitching do the rest.

For the Athletics, the loss was frustrating because it was so reachable. Their pitching staff allowed only two runs, the bullpen settled the game beautifully, and the lineup had the right names at the plate in the right spots. But baseball being baseball, unpredictable, sometimes the whole night is not decided by who creates the most noise. Sometimes it is decided by who does the smallest thing at the exact right moment.

Game 3 starters for Sunday’s series closer will be Luis Medina (1-1 / 2.41 ERA / 18 k) for the A’s, and Michael King (4-2 / 2.31 ERA / 59 K) for the Padres at 4:10pm

Costa Rican-born Mauricio Segura has been covering sports in the Bay Area since 2001 for a variety of magazines and newspapers, as well as his own publication, Golden Bay Times.

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