Headley’s Late Homer Lifts Padres To Fourth Straight Win

The Padres keep rolling after winning their 4th straight tonight in Cincinnati and improving their record to 19-21. Although it wasn’t the offensive output from the Marlins series, the Padres were still able to get the job done.

Andrew Cashner kept up the trend of great starting pitching. He went 7 innings allowing just one run and striking out 6. The one run came in the first inning when Billy Hamilton tripled  after Carlos Quentin took a poor route to ball. Hamilton would later score on a Brandon Phillips single.

Following the first inning run, Cashner became locked in and in top form. He did put himself in some dicey situations, but he bailed himself out every single time. It was a good sign because you never know how a pitcher will bounce back from a bad outing, but it’s clear Cashner has a short memory.

On the other side Mike Leake was even better. He allowed just three  men to reach base over 8 innings of work. However, a lead off double by Seth Smith (who had the only other hit off Leake) led to a sac fly to tie the game up at one.  Leake would then retire the final 13 batters he faced.

After Leake was replaced, the Padres’ faced an even taller task in Reds’ closer Aroldis Chapman. In just his second outing since his head injury that occurred in Spring Training, he looked as good as ever striking out Smith and Carlos Quentin.

However, Chase Headley stepped to the plate and on 1-1 pitch belted a home run over the left field fence to give the Padres the late ninth inning lead. Bud Black would then turn to Huston Street who closed the Reds out 1,2,3 for his 12th save of the year.

The string of good pitching continues for the Padres’ as all 5 starters have gone 6+ innings allowing 2 or fewer runs in consecutive starts.

With the starting rotation rolling,  Ian Kennedy (2-4 3.12 ERA) will get a chance tomorrow to keep the Padres’ streak going. He’ll face arguably the best pitcher in baseball this season in Johnny Cueto (3-2 1.43 ERA).

First pitch will be at 4:10 PDT.