Pirates, blanked by Padres, suffer 9th consecutive loss

The Pittsburgh Pirates and San Diego Padres met again Tuesday night in a battle of teams experiencing drastically different fortunes of late.

The Pirates, losers of eight straight at first pitch, have all but eliminated themselves from serious postseason contention over the last two weeks.

San Diego, by comparison, is heating up at an opportune time, winning 17 of 20 dating to July 20.

In the second of three games at Petco Park, the Pirates had no answer for Padres starter Michael King and went 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position, falling 3-0 for their ninth consecutive loss.

King (10-6, 3.19 ERA) delivered six scoreless innings, striking out 10 with zero walks.

“(King) executed pitches. I think that was the thing,” manager Derek Shelton said on the SportsNet Pittsburgh postgame show. “He executed pitches throughout the whole thing and as we’ve talked about even going back to when (we played San Diego) in Pittsburgh, you get into their bullpen and you’re going to see electric stuff.”

Luis Ortiz lasted five innings, allowing two runs (one earned) on three hits with a pair of walks and three strikeouts.

Ortiz struggled with command early, as he walked Luis Arraez to begin the bottom of the first and plunked Jurickson Profar soon thereafter.

When Jake Cronenworth hit a bouncer back to the mound, it looked like a tailor-made double play, but Oneil Cruz, covering second base, failed to catch a good throw from Ortiz, which loaded the bases and spoiled a double play.

The error was Cruz’s 23rd on the year, good for second-most in MLB.

“He dropped a double play ball,” Shelton said. “He’s got to catch that ball.”

San Diego’s next batter, Manny Machado, was robbed of multiple RBIs thanks to a diving grab in center field by Ji Hwan Bae, but Arraez still managed to tag up from third, putting the Padres up 1-0.

Thankfully for the Pirates, that was all the damage the Padres did, as Xander Bogaerts hit into an inning-ending double play.

Meanwhile, the Pirates (56-63) squandered scoring opportunities in the second and third, stranding a pair of runners in both frames.

King allowed a fair amount of contact early on — five hits through four innings — but he also struck out nine with zero walks during that span, maintaining his club’s narrow lead.

In the bottom of the fourth, with a man on base, Jackson Merrill took an Ortiz sinker to deep center field, but Bae made another nice grab on the run, robbing him of extra bases at the warning track.

“That was big for Bae to get me out of trouble,” Ortiz said through coach and translator Stephen Morales. “That’s Bae — he’s playing hard.”

However, the Padres did not wait long after that to extend their lead, as David Peralta jacked a 3-1 sinker from Ortiz over the right-center field wall for a solo homer, putting them ahead 2-0 in the fifth.

After the sixth, King’s night ended and the Pirates went about trying to trim their deficit.

Jason Adam took over to begin the seventh and hit Isaiah Kiner-Falefa, who went on to steal second and third base.

On third base with one out, the Pirates were unable to bring him home, as Bryan De La Cruz and Bae both struck out.

Following Ortiz’s (5-3, 3.32 ERA) exit, Ben Heller took over and pitched scoreless sixth and seventh innings.

In the eighth, the Pirates stranded yet another runner, failing to capitalize on a one-out double by Bryan Reynolds.

San Diego took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the eighth when Machado singled home Arraez, who singled and took second on a De La Cruz error in right field.

Machado’s ground ball deflected off of Cruz’s glove at shortstop on a sliding attempt by the latter.

No error was charged to Cruz on the play, with Machado picking up an RBI base hit.

Reynolds went 3 for 4 in the loss.