Uncle Barry Zito made another return to San Diego, probably his last in a Giants jersey, and faced off with Ian Kennedy who was in need of some Petco respite after getting knocked around by his old teammates in Arizona six days prior. Despite the fact that the last time I took in a Giants game it was the Tim Lincecum no-hitter and the time before that was the blow out on Fedora Night, I attended this one in person. It would seem I too was look for respite. Something to get the bad taste of those games out my mouth. And the $1 hot dogs weren't gonna cut it (although I did have two... and a Sculpin).
The game proved to be a quick and concise victory for the home town Friars. Kennedy went 6 strong innings, allowing only 1 earned run and striking out 7. The bullpen did its job too as Nick Vincent, recently recalled Tommy Layne, Luke Gregerson and Huston Street shut out the defending World Series Champions over the final 3 innings. The runs for the Padres came quick. In the second inning Zito walked 3 and gave up 2 hits that allowed 3 runs to come across. Nick Hundley tacked on his career best 11th HR of the season in the 4th inning to cap off the scoring for the Pads. The Padres bats only combined for 4 hits, but because of that 2nd inning rally and the great pitching it was enough. Perhaps the offense will wake up one of these days as it has been slumping since early Auguest, but I'm not too worried about it since 5 of the Padres position players you'd expected to be Opening Day starters in 2014 weren't playing today (Carlos Quentin, Chase Headley, Yonder Alonso, Cameron Maybin and Everth Cabrera).