By Jeff Sanders | San Diego Union-Tribune
For at least a morning at Petco Park, the home of yet another free-fall toward the bottom of the NL West, Trevor Hoffman, as only he can, delivered a much-needed change-up from Cooperstown to a fan base eager to root for something.
“There are no shortcuts,” the Hall-of-Fame closer reminded all in his closing remarks in a small village on the other side of the country.
Not in life, no.
Not in baseball, certainly.
And most definitely not in rebuilds as the Padres are again learning the hard way in Year 2 of this reboot.
The latest setback came via a 5-4 loss to the Diamondbacks, who beat up on rookie Joey Lucchesi just enough and had two eighth-inning replays go their way in sending the Padres to their fifth straight defeat and 29th in their last 38 games.
