Silent bats, Webb's bad inning cost D-Backs vs. Padres

SAN DIEGO - Here come those NL Worst jokes again.

Like it or not, someone is going to have to win this division — even though right now, “not” is the runaway favorite.

Safe in the knowledge that the Los Angeles Dodgers had already lost their fifth straight in Washington to the woeful, 85-loss Nationals, the Diamondbacks and ace Brandon Webb promptly marched out Tuesday and were soundly trounced, 9-2, by the 82-loss Padres at Petco Park.

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One of these teams took a seven-game losing streak into the series. Trying to figure out which one was more difficult than watching Webb struggle through his worst inning of the season — a five-run, five-hit, 38-pitch nightmare that gave San Diego a 5-0 lead in the third.

By then, his first chance at a 20th win and Arizona’s latest chance to fatten its three-game lead over the Dodgers had disappeared without drama.

“Pretty much from the get-go, I didn’t have very good stuff. Something wasn’t right,” said Webb, who had won eight straight decisions, but tying his 9-0 start to the season was never a possibility this night. “I just wanted to get out of that inning. … I think I threw 18 pitches in the first two innings, then it felt like I threw about 50 in the third.

“It was just brutal, not fun. I just wasn’t making any pitches at all.”

Meanwhile, the same offense that managed only one hit over the final five innings of Monday’s 4-2 loss struggled to get just three off rookie Chad Reineke — making his third major league start — and his friends. A single by Adam Dunn and a two-run homer by Mark Reynolds in the fourth inning represented the only sign of life all night.

Thanks to some patience and some free passes — Stephen Drew drew a 12-pitch walk in the fifth — there were some chances to rally. But the chances disappeared with some undisciplined at-bats with runners in scoring position.

“We put ourselves in some good positions, we had quite a few people on base … but we couldn’t get the big hits,” said outfielder Chris Young, who had two of Arizona’s eight strikeouts. “They just beat us. It’s been awhile since we’ve had a game like that with Brandon on the mound, but nobody’s perfect.”

Webb said the chest bruise that has been causing him lots of pain since Thursday wasn’t a factor, but he was having some trouble correcting problems with his release point. “I feel like I can usually throw a strike when I want to, and a quality strike, but I wasn’t able to do anything,” he said. “I felt like I was rushing to the plate, I felt my elbow dropping down. … I knew what was wrong, I just couldn’t fix it.”

So while the Dodgers have been stumbling around the East Coast, the D-Backs have gained only one game, making the weekend series with L.A. beginning Friday night all the more important. And if Webb is to become only the sixth pitcher since 1990 to win his 20th in the month of August, it will have to come in Sunday’s series finale.

“You can’t look at what (the Dodgers) are doing, but we’ve let a couple of chances get away here,” Webb said. “We’re trying to win every game we can. It seems like they’ve helped us a bit … with five straight losses. We’ve capitalized a little bit, but the last couple of games have been a little bit of a letdown.”