Padres Lose Series, But Bats Warming Up

May 3, 2013; San Diego, CA, USA; San Diego Padres second baseman Jedd Gyorko (9) against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

The Padres won the series finale 4-3 with a walk-off fielder’s choice, thus avoiding the dreaded sweep at home. Things looked pretty grim after Friday’s goose-egg and 17 straight innings of being shutout by the worst team in baseball, the Arizona Diamondbacks.

After Saturday’s loss, things felt a little different. A little better. Jedd Gyorko hit his 2nd bomb of the year in the bottom of the ninth and the Padres rallied to nearly tie the game after trailing 4-0. Then Sunday, the Padres finally came out on top. It was the Padres’ hitting that kept them in the game after a few errors in the field and bad pitches by Tyson Ross, who pitched well.

Overall, the Friars hit .208 in the series but it is much more encouraging than that.  Gyorko hit safely in his 4th consecutive game (all since being a new father) and 6 of the 9 Padres in the original lineup had a hit Sunday. Rene Rivera continues to swing the bat well, he has 7 RBI in a 6 day span. Also, Yasmani Grandal has been seeing the ball well, hitting two doubles in the series.

I know we just lost a series to the last place Diamondbacks, and the first 17 innings of this series was downright hard to watch, but no one can ignore the fact that the Padres have had 7 runs and 17 hits in the past 2 games combined. If the Padres can build on this and hold down the fort until Chase Headley and Carlos Quentin can get healthy (which is soon) the Padres will be in good shape.

The pitching staff did a pretty good job for the most part. The starters Ross, Ian Kennedy and Andrew Cashner pitched a total of 18 innings, allowing 6 earned runs with 5 walks and 13 strikeouts. The 3 of them combined for an ERA of 3.00 in the series. The bullpen deserves some props for allowing only 1 earned run and 7 hits in 9 innings.

These numbers usually indicate a good series. However, Cashner was snake-bit (no pun intended) again with lack of offense. Kennedy didn’t help himself by allowing 11 hits and a Miguel Montero home run. Things finally clicked on Sunday and the Padres can move forward to the next series with a bit of confidence, having scored 7 runs in a 10-inning span.