Randy Vásquez, Padres squander big night by Ty France in loss to Rangers

Kevin Acee, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Jun 19, 2026

Published in Baseball

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ARLINGTON, Texas — What Ty France did against Jacob deGrom was not enough to overcome what Randy Vásquez had done to him by the Rangers, as a very good first inning by the Padres devolved into a very bad 9-7 loss.

France had the most productive game of his career and by one measure the biggest night anyone has ever had against deGrom in one of the strangest and most disappointing defeats the Padres have suffered in the regular season in some time.

France hit his first career grand slam and the first grand slam anyone had ever hit off deGrom to put the Padres up 5-0 in the first inning.

But the Padres’ biggest first inning of the season was followed in rapid succession by Vásquez’s worst inning ever, as the Rangers sent 11 batters to the plate and scored six times in the bottom of the first.

France led off the fourth inning by sending a home run to the Padres’ bullpen beyond left-center field that tied the game 6-6.

And in the half-inning after France made it even, Vásquez and that lead lasted two more batters, as a single and a double made it 7-6.

The Rangers would go up by two with a run against David Morgan in the sixth. That made Gavin Sheets’ solo homer leading off the eighth inning merely a tease, especially when Wyatt Langford led off the bottom of the eighth with a home run off Jason Adam.

Before all that, France did get halfway to scoring another run by hitting a double in the sixth.

That made him the first batter to ever have three extra-base hits against deGrom, who has Hall of Fame credentials and might not be considered the best of his generation perhaps only due to repeated injuries.

But France got only halfway home after his two-out line drive to the corner in left field against deGrom, who went from throwing 31 pitches in the first inning to making it through six innings on 106 pitches and getting the win.

The three hits by France accounted for 30% of the Padres’ total. Three others came in the first inning. One of those was a two-out single by Sheets that gave the Padres a 1-0 lead two batters before France added four runs to that lead with his homer over the right-field wall.

But Friday would become the first time since 1989 the Padres scored at least five runs and allowed at least five runs in the first inning.

The bottom of the first began with Vásquez dropping what would have been the first out at first base before he went about throwing too many balls and too many pitches.

He had done that a lot over his previous five starts, but he had never done it like this in a single inning.

Vásquez (6-5, 4.17) walked the second batter he faced before getting an out. The next six batters reached base, three of the next four on doubles.

The third of those, by Jake Burger, got the Rangers to 5-4. Nicky Lopez followed with a hard grounder that ricocheted off Vásquez’s right knee and bounced to the right side of the infield for a single that tied the game.

And a dribbled single to the left side by former Padres catcher Elias Díaz put the Rangers ahead.

Matsui began throwing again after Josh Jung led off the bottom of the fourth inning by lining a single to left field.

One batter later, Matsui was jogging in from the bullpen with the Padres down by a run after Wyatt Langford sent a double to the gap in left-center that scored Jung.

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