Padres Rally in 7th to Earn 4-1 Win

Jun 19, 2014; San Diego, CA, USA; San Diego Padres starting pitcher

(45) pitches during the sixth inning against the Seattle Mariners at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

The big inning is something that has eluded the Padres all season long, but this afternoon the tides had turned with a big 7th inning that lifted the them to their second straight win.

Jesse Hahn set the tone for the game. following up his last outing with another gem. This time he went 7 innings allowing  just one unearned run, while punching out 7. For his last 2 starts, he’s thrown 13 innings allowed 1 unearned run, 14 strikeouts and just 6 hits. That’s impressive for any pitcher, and for a rookie in his second and third career starts, it’s incredible. I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that I’m very excited for Hahn’s future with this team. Even though the 2 teams he’s dominated haven’t had very good offenses, it’s not like they get shutdown by every starter they face. All in all, it’s hard not to be impressed with what Hahn has done in his last 2 starts.

As for the offense, it’s hard to be impressed with what they’re doing. Erasmo Ramirez has not been good all year. Despite not allowing a run in his last 2 starts, his wildness kept him from going deep in the ballgame. You’d think the Padres would take advantage of a wild a pitcher who has struggled this year, but that’s not what happened. They could only muster 2 hits and 2 walks off of the righty in 6 innings. Thankfully for the Padres, Lloyd McClendon decided to go his dominant righty Dominic Leone. Coming into the game he had the 4th lowest ERA of any American League reliever with 1.19. He left the game with an ERA of 2.35. He got Yasmani Grandal to ground out to start the inning, but then the Padres started to have fun. Back to back triples for Tommy Medica and Cameron Maybin, a walk for Carlos Quentin, an RBI single for Chris Denorfia, and a 2 run single for Everth Cabrera. It put the Padres up 4-1 and they never looked back.

This is the first time all month the Padres have strung together wins as it is their first 2-game winning streak since May 30-31. Hopefully they can get hot and go on run and start playing like the team we thought they were coming into the season. Tomorrow they’ll kick off a 3-game series against the Dodgers with Ian Kennedy (5-8, 3.72 ERA) taking on Dan Haren (7-4, 3.54 ERA). First pitch is at 7:10 PDT.

Keep the Faith.