Yasmani Grandal caught 7 innings tonight and is closing in on being ready for opening day.
All kinds of good things happening for the Padres tonight along with the 7-2 final score favoring the Friars over the Mariners. My family is arriving from San Diego in a few minutes so let’s get to it….
- Ian Kennedy threw 5 2/3 of 2-run, solid baseball tonight. After allowing a run to cross in the first he appeared to get stronger and stronger as the outing went on. You could just see the feel of the FB and especially the breaking pitches getting dialed in the more he threw. Great to see him have his best outing of the spring with one more start before it means something. Ian seems to finding it at just the right time.
- Chase Headley played for the third straight day (2nd in Cactus League), and is showing no signs of the calf bothering him. He had a hit tonight, and although no testers on defense appears to be building up his endurance and timing at the plate. He’ll likely rest tomorrow then get after again on Sunday. So far so good after the scary calf injury 3 weeks ago.
- Yasmani Grandal caught 7 innings tonight and had 4 plate appearances, and like Chase is showing no sign of his knee injury slowing him down at this point. His next step is to play every other day instead of even 3rd, and the innings are increasing. Pretty soon it will back to back days, and then every day season ready. Uninhibited progress towards being ready for opening day.
- Huston Street threw a clean inning striking out 2. True, he did not face MLB hitters, but he had his location and movement which is what you want to see regardless of the results or who they were against. Aagain, another health concern player that appears to be on track to answer the opening bell.
- The Padres bats woke up a bit tonight, with Will Venable, Yonder Alonso, Kyle Blanks, and Ryan Jackson all contributing multiple hits.
All the pieces that were under the microscope today showed nicely. A good day for the Padres. There was one fly in the ointment today, and that was that Chris Denorfia will need to take a few days off to rest a sore shoulder. He apparently did not injure it on a particular play, but just general use recently caught up and created some aggravation. Hopefully it clams down quickly.
Tomorrow the Pads host the WHite Sox at Peoria. Game time 1:05, and broadcast will on ESPN 1700. Hope you;ll join us! Family almost here….YES!!! ‘Night all!
Scan
Comments are closed