"I've got guys busting their a** all night" - Mike Shildt calls out 'unacceptable' decision to end Padres' fightback against D-backs

The San Diego Padres lost their fifth consecutive game in a 4-3 defeat to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday. Manager Mike Shildt had some choice words for the controversial call that ended his team's late fightback.

Eugenio Suarez and Gabriel Moreno's back-to-back solo home runs in the second inning scripted an early 3-0 lead for the Diamondbacks. However, the Padres fought back through catcher Kyle Higashioka's solo homer in the fifth inning. Jake Cronenworth followed with an RBI double to level the score at 3-3 after the fifth.

The game seemingly headed to a tense finale after Ketal Marte's go-ahead single in the seventh for the Diamondbacks. Cronenworth, hoping to draw his team level in the bottom ninth, batting on a 3-2 count, was called out on a controversial call. Home-plate umpire Erich Bacchus called a third strike on Cronenworth despite the ball missing the strike zone.

Padres manager Mike Shildt immediately rushed to confront the umpire but to no avail. Shildt highlighted the controversial call in his post-game comments as he felt his team deserved a better end to the game.

“You’d like to have a chance to actually end the game on your own terms," Shildt said. "I respect the umpiring profession highly, and I don’t complain a lot. But I’ve got guys busting their a** all night, got a guy with a mild strain in his hip flexor willing to take an at-bat.

"You can't end a game with a ball six inches off the plate, borderline high. That's just not acceptable."

Despite his explicit outburst, Shildt refrained from blaming his team's loss on the controversial call but he maintained that his team deserved a better end.

"Again, we lost, I’ll take ownership of that. I don’t want to blame anybody. But that’s a bad way to end a ballgame.”

Padres players reflect on the controversial call

Jake Cronenworth was one of the brightest spots for the Padres on the night. The All-Star infielder was seemingly in the mood to add to his RBI on the night after battling seven pitches against Diamondbacks closer Paul Sewald in the ninth.

“It was a ball,” Cronenworth said. “I don’t even know what to say, took the bat out of my hands at the end of the game.”

Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr. discussed his team's fighting spirit to come back from 0-3 down in the game but felt it was a hard pill to swallow for the team.

“We’ve got to keep grinding,” Fernando Tatis Jr. said. "We’re putting together good at-bats collectively. We didn’t have a few calls go our way for the guys behind me. It’s a hard one to swallow.”

Tatis Jr. extended his hitting streak to 12 games on Thursday, the longest active streak in the MLB. He registered a hit in his first three at-bats, hitting in eight consecutive at-bats, a franchise record.