Padres at White Sox Game Recap 3/28/12

A flurry of late-inning runs helped lift the Padres to a big win over the White Sox yesterday.  In the 13-2 victory, Edinson Volquez pitched seven innings (he was slated for six), the Padres hammered out 18 hits, and the team had five extra base hits – including three home runs.

Volquez struggled in the first giving up a single, a triple, and a sacrifice fly.  The two runs, though, would be all Volquez would surrender for the entire game.  In all, Volquez tossed seven innings, gave up five hits, walked three, and allowed just the two runs in the first.  His spring ERA is at 3.48, and the team has now slated him as the number three starter in the rotation.  Volquez has continued to show great improvements this year compared to his spring of 2011.  He has 13 strikeouts to 11 walks in five games.  He is holding opponents to a .179 average.  Perhaps most notably, Volquez’s BB/9 went from 11.2 last spring (in only 9.2 innings pitched) to 4.95.

The Padres actually trailed in this game leading up to the fifth inning.  In the fifth, Chase Headley doubled in two runs to give the Padres the lead.  In the seventh, Headley homered, Bartlett doubled in two runs, and Andy Parrino homered.  In the eighth Brad Davis drove in a run with a  single and Daniel Robertson tripled in three more.

It was an impressive offensive performance.  Yonder Alonso hit his first home run of the spring earlier in the game to get the Padres on the board in the second.  Will Venable had two hits to raise his spring batting average to .360.  Headley’s two hits are pushing him closer to that .300 mark.  He’s sitting at .286.

Of least importance, but interesting to note, the Padres are fourth in the Cactus League standings, just two games back of Oakland who is playing their opening series in Japan.  San Diego also has the most wins in the Cactus League at 17.  We all know spring training numbers and wins don’t often translate to the regular season, but if you’re living in the now, it’s pretty exciting.

The Padres will host the Cubs in Peoria today at 1:05 PT.  Clayton Richard is scheduled to start and go six innings.

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