Proving once again that nothing goes better with baseball than breakfast, the Padres snapped their 4 game losing streak, snatching the brooms out of the hands (fins?) of the Marlins. Ian Kennedy had a tremendous start, holding the Marlins to just a single run on a 3 hits and a walk in his 6 innings of work. Oh, and did I mention the 5 strikeouts? Still, that one run looked a little daunting, given the way the last few games have gone.
But the offense was undaunted. In the top of the seventh, Will Venable and Tommy Medica picked up back to back singles, then moved up on Yasmani Grandal's one-out grounder. With two down, Bud Black sent birthday boy Alexi Amarista to the plate to pinch hit for Kennedy. The Little Ninja quickly fell behind 0-2 to Nathan Eovaldi, but he kept fouling off pitches, like Donatello swatting away Foot Clan soldiers. Finally, on the ninth pitch of the at bat, he found one he liked and sent it down the right field line for his first homer of the season.
The fish got one of those runs back in the bottom of the inning. Alex Torres had no problems retiring the first two batters he faced, but Jarrod Saltalamacchia and pinch hitter Jeff Baker touched him for a single and a double to narrow the gap. Dale Thayer replaced Torres to end the threat.
Chris Denorfia pinch hit for Seth Smith in the top of the eighth. Not satisfied with a leadoff single, he quickly stole second, and then took third thanks to an error on the throw. He came home courtesy of Yonder Alonso's sacrifice fly, giving the bullpen a little extra room to work. Not that they needed it. Joaquin Benoit and Huston Street both retired the side in order to wrap up the fish (in newspaper, obviously).
The Padres head to Cleveland tomorrow for their first interleague game, where Robbie Erlin will take on Corey Kluber and the Indians at 4:10 PM. Kluber's first start of the season was lousy, so hopefully the friars can get a winning streak going.
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| Total comments | 183 |
| Total commenters | 23 |
| Commenter list | #24, All Things SD, CurbEnthusiasm, Darklighter, Dex, Drama, Friar Fever, Hormel, Jonathan Gardner, SD_Hat_Guy, Sam (sdsuaztec4), SolanaFan, TheThinGwynn, Timmah73, Winfield's Ghost, abara, ariz2cali, ja86, kevintheoman, lylestyles, recorddigger, shawman35, walkoff59 |
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TheThinGwynn led the way in the comments, and he also shared the rec title with Dex at 4 apiece.