A solid team win with a nice debut from a highly drafted Padres prospect.
All Star Tyson Ross on the mound. Major league debut for 2011 first round pick Cory Spangenberg. Vista High School grad Trevor Cahill toeing the slab for the opposing team. Sounds like a quality Padres game to attend or tune in for. I don't have the ratings for the game, but judging by the crowd at the ballpark despite the temptations to watch San Diegans spent their Labor Day doing something else. Even this recapper was out and about and listening to parts of the game on radio. Since you likely missed out on this quality affair, let's go over what happened.
Cahill is not the pitcher he was in 2010 when he was all All Star and finished 9th in the Cy Young voting. It's been an especially tough year for the North County right hander, but today he looked better than his typical 2014 outing. Through the first 3 innings he got ground ball outs, a couple of strikeouts and a weak fly ball or too. That's the formula he needs for success. In the fourth it was a ground ball with eyes that drove in the first run for the Friars. Cahill got away from the formula when he gave up a single and two walks. With two outs it was Alexi Amariata who put eyes on that grounder and drove in Will Venable. In the 5th Cahill was done after a leadoff Yasmani Grandal single followed by a Jedd Gyorko double.
Cory Spangenberg's path to the majors hasn't been the most direct. Position changes and a couple of concussions had set it askew. Nevertheless a solid season with San Antonio earned him a call up and a major league debut with a start at 3B. His impact was felt immediately when a diving stop kept a ball out of the outfield and saved a run. His first at bat resulted in a fielder's choice, but his speed helped him avoid letting it become a double play. His second at bat was a fly out that moved a runner to third who would end up scoring the first run. Before his third at ball he would end an inning by making a barehanded grab and throw to strand two runners. That third at bat would be his best. He would single with the bases loaded to drive in the Padres' other two runs. A solid debut from a player many did not expect to see in San Diego this season.
At this point Tyson doing excellent things on the mound is hardly unexpected. Today was no exception. He battled a little, but still struck out 8 over 6 innings while only allowing a solitary run. With the Padres' bullpen that is plenty. Nick Vincent, Dale Thayer and (quack, quack, quack) Kevin Quackenbush easily held that against a less than full strength DBacks team to seal a win for the home club.