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Padres Series Recap: Steel City Streak Continues For Padres

By Nick Lee |
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Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

The Padres (54-62) won their series against the Pirates (62-55) this weekend. They stumbled out of the gate, but finished strong. The Padres continue their success against the NL Central. They have now won a series against each team from that division this year. The team’s bats were hot and cold.

The team hit .215 in Pittsburgh. They also were 5-for-18 with runners in scoring position. The offensive player of the series is Seth Smith. That’s starting to sound like a broken record. He had a bases-clearing triple in Sunday’s win and 4 RBI total. Yangervis Solarte contributed with 4 hits, 2 walks and 2 runs scored.

Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Game One

Game 1 looked a lot like the first half Padres. The Padres only mustered 5 hits, the only extra base hit was Everth Cabrera‘s double. Ian Kennedy pitched well enough to win, with 5 strikeouts in 6 innings and only one earned run. Vance Worley stifled the Padres for 7 innings as the Pirates won 2-1.

The offense was simply nowhere to be found, and Kennedy continues to be arguably one of the unluckiest pitchers in all of baseball. He has pitched so much better than his record indicates. Bud Black would be the first to tell you that Kennedy’s effort is consistent every time he takes the mound, but sometimes the bounces just don’t go a guy’s way. For some pitchers, it’s a start to start issue, for others, they have entire seasons that pan out like that. For Ian Kennedy, it’s the latter.

Mandatory Credit: Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports

Game Two

Game 2 was a mirror image of Game 1. For the second time in a row, the runs scored in the first inning were the only ones scored the entire game. Eric Stults seems to have found himself again, he pitched 6.1 innings, striking out 6 and only allowed one run. Jedd Gyorko and Yasmani Grandal were responsible for the 2 runs and that was enough to even the series.

After taking the brunt of the abuse from fans and opposing hitters alike, Stults has turned in back to back solid starts against some pretty good teams in the National League with the Atlanta Braves and the Pirates. With the Padres only 7 1/2 games out of the second and final Wild Card spot, if Stults can continue a semi-resurgence, and the bats continue to do enough to win, don’t be surprised if over the next seven weeks, the Friars make things interesting for other contending teams, especially those jockeying for wild card positioning.

Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Game Three

The finale was a lot less stressful, as the Padres broke out for 8 runs on 11 hits. Tyson Ross didn’t have his best stuff, but still got his 11th win thanks to Smith and Gyorko’s bats.  The Padres win yet another series and are now only 8 games below .500, the closest they have been to .500 in over a month.

They are 9 games ahead of the last-place Colorado Rockies, who begin a series with the Padres on Monday night, and 3.5 games ahead of the Diamondbacks. The Padres have been hottest team in the National League in the past 10 games, winning 7 of them. The Padres look to widen the gap between themselves and the bottom-feeders of the NL West as they head home to play the Rockies.

Keep the Faith.

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