Padres Game Recap – Apr. 24, 2015

Too much Greinke, and the Dodgers take game one from the Pads 3-0.  It’s not that he was perfect, but he was close enough, and made so few mistakes in the strike zone that there wasn’t a whole heck of a lot for the Padres batters to take advantage of.

The Dodgers didn’t have a whole lot of fun facing Cashner tonight though either, but were able to get on the board in the second thanks to a Grandal 2B, and Uribe 2-out single up the middle to give L.A. a 1-0 lead. Other than that Cash was much tougher on the opposing hitters than he had been in previous two outings  mainly because of his command to the glove side with his fastball and slider.  In the previous couple of games he could not consistently get the ball to either side of the plate, so he had to work more back and forth and use a lot more using his changeup.  Tonight he was able to go to both sides of the plate more consistently, but especially to the glove side which was complimented by his slider out there as well. If\’ made a for a very effective combination to both righty sand lefties. He gave up a solo HR to Crawford on a changeup that hung out over the plate in the 7th, and that was it.  A 7 inning, 2-run night the resulted in an L.

As for the offense, as mentioned above Greinke worked similar to Cash strong to the arm side. The closest they got to getting to him was in the second when thanks to a walk, single, single they loaded the bases, but were not able to take advantage. Once Greinke left after 7 the Friars had a better chance against Baez, who although he throws 94-97 MPH will make some mistakes in the zone, which this year’s Padres are able to do something with. He did make those mistakes, and Kemp and Upton indeed got to them for hits but he induced a ground out by Alonso to end the threat.

Quackenbush, recalled before the start of the game with Kelley going to the DL with a left calf strain,  then allowed a run to cross in the 9th and it was all over.  Simply too much to overcome too late against the close du jour for the Dodgers, Yimi Garcia.

Of note in this game was the departure of Puig after his groundout in the 6th.  He had been struck in the left knee in his first at bat by Cash, and hobbled around for quite a while after that impact. Then after running hard to beat out a grounder to Middlebrooks he took a long time to slow down after passing the bag, and hobbled back to the dugout. It was later reported that in fact it was the recurrence of a hamstring problem that forced him to miss there games in their recent series with the Mariners.  Although you never wish harm on an opposing player, it’s no secret that the continued recurrence of this problem may require a DL stint, which of course would be a loss for their lineup, and thus helping the Friars.

Also of possible interest to Padres fans might be the presumption that former Pad prospect Joe Weiland will make the start for L.A. on Sunday.  He was part of the trade along with Grandal that brought Kemp to S.D.

The Friars will look to even the series with the return of Ian Kennedy to the mound, who has missed two starts with a Puig like left hamstring strain.  First pitches at 5:40, and look forward to you joining Uncle Teddy and myself as we bring you all the action on the Mighty 1090.

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