Friars 4, Nats 2: Padres Split Series

With dominant pitching and a combined effort of Chris Denosaurus, Everth Cabranana, and Cameron Maybelline; the Padres split the four game series with the Washington Nationals and hit the road happy to San Francisco.

Big arms, big at-bats, and big gloves appeared at Nationals Park today. It was a triumphant welcome-back party for DL resident Cameron Maybin, showcased through solid hitting with RISP and dominant pitching. The Padres were happy to have their young center fielder back and our nerves were settled; shown through splitting the 4 game series and beating the Gnats nice and gooooood.

The day started off bright and early this morning as we were tweeted and treated by the lovely news of Maybin being reactivated and added to the roster for the 10:35 AM start:

#Padres reinstate @spidermayb24 from DL and he's in today's lineup. Club optioned Kevin Quackenbush to @epchihuahuaspic.twitter.com/5yMFzmDKKH

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) April 27, 2014

This gave Padres fans something to be titillated by, especially after recording our last two miserable games against Washington in an outscoring of 15-1. El Paso tourist Cameron Maybin was hitting .243 in his 37 plate appearances by the time he left his rehab assignment with the Chihuahuas.

While .243 isn't something to double-take, we were told they were "quality at-bats" and he was giving "hard contact". Skeptically; even the faithful wanted to wait and see if he would produce today in his first major league start of the season.

And produce he did.

It took a Nationals 1-0 lead via a Jayson Werth RBI double and 3 innings for Maybin to get his first at-bat. But once he did we were greeted with that familiar speed and zippy power that we remembered from so long ago. Maybin smacked one hard down the line and rounded first to arrive at his season-debut no-out double.

Although the Pads wouldn't spoil him too much by letting him score; Mayb's hit included my favorite moment of the game. A stand-up reminder of what I loved about watching him play ever since I attended his first outing in Petco as a San Diego Padre: Those windmilling, pumpin', flailin' arms that he gets going when turning corners at Maybin-speed.

4 at bats, 1 run, 2 hits. Welcome back, Cam.

With the team riding Ian Kennedy's amazing outing into the the 4th inning; a walk by Chris Denorfia, double from Yasmani Grandal, and subsequent sac fly from Jedd Gyorko would put the Padres on the board tying the game 1-1. But it wouldn't stop there. An RBI single in the 5th from Denorfia drove Everth Cabrera in, who had reached third base on a pair of steals.

Deno is now leading the club with a .338 average and .838 OPS out of Padres with 25+ games played. Not bad.

Once the innings struck 6, Venable and Maybin dished out back-to-back singles. This prompted the replacement of Aaron Barrett (who was put in to deal with Taylor Jordon's not-so-great 4 inning start) with Ross Detwiler.

A little switch from Bud putting Nick Hundley in Alexi Amarista's spot would end up negating the value of the pitching change, as Nick hit a soft single to load the bases. (Hundley would then be congratulated by being asked to sit down and let Jace Peterson do the running.)

Afterwards things got slightly out of hand for the Gnats.

Detwiler proceeded to walk in two more bases-loaded Padres runs in a row, seducing a second pitching change. Jerry Blevins would finally come in to control the chaos, but not before leaving the field trailing San Diego 4-1.

The Nationals were probably a little upset, and reasonably so. The team they had been pounding on for the past two days was now up by three, and with the game already in the bottom of the sixth Jayson Werth was facing two outs and was ready to strike back. But Will Venable (who more than likely realized it had been way too long since he's been featured as an ESPN highlight) had something to say about that.

Nice try, Werth. But that's Vill freakin' Wenable.

It wasn't until the bottom of the 8th that a phenomenal outing from Ian Kennedy would come to an end. Giving the big guy some rest after an impressive 7 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 BB, and 9 sexy strikeouts; Nate McLouth would pop a desperate solo HR off Joaquin Benoit to take the Padres' lead down to 4-2.

Though that wouldn't be enough as the Friars responded with continuing defense and closing ace-in-the-hole Huston Street, who would go on to pick up his 9th save in 9 opportunities in the 9th inning.

Padre fans were teetering on the edge of the ship after the last two beatings from the Gnats, but hopefully the Friars have roped them back in today after showing them that, with the help of old friend Cameron Maybin, the team is still well worth watching at ten in the morning. It's a long season, guys!

[Ed. note: I (jodes) dominated all you suckers with 65 comments. Like 30% of them were about breakfast foods. Good ol' daveysapien doubled my rec total, however, receiving four on the day. Good work, team!]