Padres vs. Giants Series Recap 4/30/14

Dang it!!!! Despite missing 5 starters from the lineup on Monday, the offense struggling, Ross and Stults not being their sharpest in their outings, Erlin struggling in the first two innings of his outing, the Padres STILL had a chance to take 2 out of 3 from the Giants, but instead drop the series 2-1. It was some good baseball that went down like this.

Despite troubles early, Erlin battled into the 7th giving Pads a chance to win.

• GAME #1 – As mentioned the Pads were missing 5 starters from their lineup, they were facing one of the best left handers in the league in Bumgarner, and Ross did not have his best stuff but battled, and this team of fighters found a way to get the job done.  They took a 2-0 lead in the 4th thanks to a Rivera 2B, but the Giants quickly took it back in the bottom of thinning 3-2. Pads answered back right away again rivera doing the damage this time a 3-run HR. Giants pushed across a run in the 5th, but Ross held off the charge and handed the 1-run lead over to the bullpen who protected it safely, and got an insurance run in the 9th making the final 6-4.  Ross got his 3rd W, Street his 10th save, and the Pads took a game that most thought they could not given the lineup cards handed to the umps before the game.  Great example of the fight this team has shown all season long. 1-0 Pads.

• GAME #2 – It looked the Pads may have gotten a break with scheduled starter Cain having to be scratched due to a fluke injury to his pitching hand, but Stults simply was not sharp from the first inning, allowing 2 in the 1st, and 3 in the 3rd, and the game was essentially out of reach early.  Spot starter Petit simple threw strikes and kept the ball down, and with that big lead that was enough. Final score 6-0 Giants. Series tied 1-1.

• GAME #3 – You figured it was going to have to be another low scoring 1-run nail biter for the Padres to win it since they were going against Hudson who had pitched brilliantly all season long thus far, and that indeed proved to be the case. Erlin gave up a run in the 1st and another in the 2nd missing with location and getting stung, but really buckled down after that.  He figured out what he did have  working, which was a strong glove side fastball and solid curveball, and how to use it before the game got away from him, and pitched into the 7th keeping the Giants at 2. Hudson meanwhile was stellar again, and held the Pads scoreless through 7.  The Giants finally pushed a 3rd run across in the 7th on a 2-out infield single by Pence to make it 3-0. The Pads didn’t quit though, finally getting on the board thanks to a Maybin lead off 2B in the 8th, then made it a 1- run game in the 9th thanks to the 2-out solo blast by Grandal.  That chased Hudson, but Romo recorded the final out and the Giants held on for the 3-2 victory.  Erlin really battled, and the Friars put a late scare into the N.L. West leaders, but they came up short for the game, and the series dropping it 2-1.

The hitting continues to be the achilles heal of this club.  If you had told me coming out of spring training that Headley, Venable, Alonso, and Gyorko would ALL be hitting under .200 at the end of April, with a collective HR total of 3, I would have taken whatever bet you wanted to make.  I also would have guessed that under those improbable circumstances the team would have gotten off to a worse start in the win-loss column than last year’s team considering last year’s offense hit .30 points higher, and scored 26 more runs than this year’s to date. But this team has continued to fight, and pitch, and defend, and scratch for whatever runs they can to win the games they have, and stay within 4.5 games of the division leader so far.  It’s been so hard on a nightly basis for this team to score, that it’s easy to become skewed, and start to expect the pitching to have to allow no more than 2 runs every night.  If a guy can’t make “The” pitch in the 5th to keep the third run from scoring the focus goes there, instead of the fact that the runs are so few and far between, and that this staff is pitching under pressure every inning of every night. They’ve done an amazing job, and hopefully before they run the risk of burning out the offense can find itself and give the hurlers some kind of respite.

They’ll get a great chance to provide that run support against the D’backs during the next series, who have the highest team ERA in MLB.  The match ups for the 3-game set starting Friday will be as follows:

• Game #1 (7:10 p.m.)  – Cashner vs. Arroyo
• Game #2 (5:40 p.m.) – Kennedy vs. McCarthy
• Game #3 (1:10 p.m.) – Ross vs. Miley

The boys are playing hard, and have had some really tough and gutsy wins so far.  Hopefully the bats can come alive, and make this stingy pitching staff even more potent during this home stand.

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