Padres Spring Training Report – Mar. 1, 2014

Rain, rain, go away…well it did for a little while in Surprise today anyway.  Long enough for the Padres and Royals to get 7 1/3 innings in before the skies opened up, and a deluge of water chased first fans and scouts to the concourse, and moments later the umpires and players to the cover of the dugouts.  It did not take long for the decision to be made to call the game, and to commence with building an ark, with the final score being 7-3 in favor of the host Royals.

While the Friars are still looking for their first Cactus League victory, there were of course some bright spots despite the unfriendly score, and unfriendlier dark skies.  Ian Kennedy started on the mound for the Pads and looked sharp. Well located FB’s, and a few CB’s and SF’s with late movement were the order of the day, and helped Ian to post 2 scoreless frames.  The Padres took their first lead of the spring in the third when Cameron Maybin connected with a 2-run blast over the left field wall scoring Rene Rivera who had singled in front of him.  Good to see Cam swing the bat with some controlled authority, hopefully signaling that his wrist after several problematic years really is feeling better.

Unfortunately the lead was short lived.  The same snake biting them again as in the previous two games, that being the big inning given up by a young pitcher.  The Pads were victimized by it with Patrick Schuster in game one, Leonel Campos and Joe Wieland in game two, and now Keyvius Sampson and Adys Portillo today.  Sampson allowed 4 to cross , and Portillo 3 in giving the Royals their final 7-3 lead after the 4th.

Order was restored when Tony Sipp came in to convincingly post two goose eggs.  Dale Thayer followed with a dominating 1-2-3 inning himself, striking out two.  Although the Pads pitching staff has surrendered 26 runs in the first 3 games, all but 3 of those have come against the younger pitchers experiencing their first big league camp.

It was nice to see the Pads swinging the bats with more authority today.  Along with Maybin’s blast, Jedd Gyorko smoked a double into the gap, and Tommy Medica had 3 singles, while Alexi Amarista’s line drive 1B in the 4th drove in the other Padres run.  Things are starting to pick up with the bats, and hopefully it carries over into tomorrow’s split squad contests with the Reds at home, and the Dodgers at Camelback Ranch.

In other camp updates, no new news on Chase Headley who is improving each day, and playing catch, but not yet ready to resume hitting activities.  Yasmani Grnadal continues to get closer to be able to perform full and ungoverned baseball activities on both sides of the ball.  The last step seems to be full mobility behind the plate in moving side to side and blocking errant balls in the dirt.  He’s still well ahead of schedule and both he and the team appear to continue to gain cautious optimism about his being ready to compete by opening day.   There are no other significant injuries in camp to report at this time.

Ted Leitner and I will be broadcasting the home game on Sunday against the Reds on the Mighty 1090.  Game starts at 12:05 PST, and I sincerely hope you’ll join us.

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