Fresh faces from even more fresh roster changes boosted the Padres in all the ways we could ever hope. Famous Friar pitching and a productive young lineup is almost as fun to watch at Wrigley as Mark Grant in the middle of the 7th.
With a still very-recent trading of Chase Headley, a sucker-punch announcement of a suspended Cameron Maybin, and the rest of our "veterans" riddled with injuries and rehabbing in the minor leagues; the Padres were looking scary thin after a blowout loss to the Cubs last night.
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But with a creepy-baby-faced Headley playing for the Yanks and Maybin on a 25-day suspension, there was heavy movement on our roster and the untried Friars had their shot tonight against the NL Central Cellar Dwellers. Yangervis Solarte, Jeff Francoeur, Chris Nelson, have now been initiated upon the Cubs. Very hard.
For his Padres debut Solarte smacked the most baseball-looking triple ever, driving in Chris Denorfia. San Diego at that point was already projected to do at least 1000% better than they did last night. Following the Yangervis triple, Carlos Quentin popped a little sac fly to plate a 2-0 lead off the first inning of Japanese newcomer Tsuyoshi Wada.
Welcome the the Padres Solarte, please enjoy your stay.
About two innings would pass until we saw action from Jeff Francoeur, rebounding off his first fly-out with a sweet bloop single into right field.
Francoeur pranks the Cubs with the bloopiest of bloops.
Former Rockiangleyankee Chris Nelson would then jam a double into the ivy of Wrigley's walls, sending home Francoeur putting the Padres up 3-0.
Nelson oppo-SMASH.
BONUS GIF: Capping Headley's entire physical 2014 defensive performance in one play.
Luis Valbuena stung back in the bottom of the fourth, taking great advantage of a hanging 76mph curve from Ian Kennedy. Valbuena's three-run blast tied the game back at 3-3.
Fast forward to the fifth for a pair of walks from a smart Solarte and Quentin; first-base-familiar Tommy Medica would aim for the ivy knowing any hard hit would be blasted down by winds. A ground-ruled double would get Solarte home, until a Francoeur walk would load the bases for a succeeding Rene Rivera walked-in-run; giving the Pads a 5-3 lead.
Medica playing it off like he knew exactly what mess he left for the Chicago outfield.
The fantastic pitching of the Padres took it scoreless for the remainder of the game, giving the Pads a chance in the 8th inning to pile on the lead with three more runs in the form of a sexy Seth Smith RBI single, another Medica RBI, and a sac-fly from a productive Francoeur. 8-3 would be the final for the night.
Top Performers
Ian Kennedy: 6IP, 3ER, 6SO, 1W
Yangervis Solarte: 2H, 1RBI, 1BB, 0SO
Jeff Francoeur: 1H, 1RBI, 1BB, 1SO
Tommy Medica: 3H, 2RBI, 0BB, 1SO
Chris Nelson: 1H, 1RBI, 1BB, 1SO
Padres hitting was so active we were given 13 RISP opportunities, and capitalized on only three of them for 8 runs. On the flip side: our pitching gave the Cubs only 4 opportunities, allowing them to capitalize on 1 in the form of a 3-run HR, but left 7 on base for the night. Kennedy keeping the Cubbies to the "golden three" and the Pads beating that same number gave us a good win to throw against otherwise consistently bad news this season.
Tomorrow we go for another series win with homeboy Tyson Ross throwing against a highly-paid uphill-battling Edwin Jackson. It's also the last day before I head off to get lost in the wonders of the San Diego Comic Convention. As a Browncoat you should expect to see me bringing the brown and yellow.
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Despite the dark times there was a good turnout for a middle-of-the-week contest. TheThinGwynn had a rec, and so did Sam nope.