Padres Recap 4/19/2014: Padres Beat Cubs 5-2

The Padres got six innings out of Andrew Cashner and home runs from Will Middlebrooks and Yangervis Solarte to power past the Cubs 5-2 Sunday and win the series 2-1 at the friendly confines of Wrigley Field. The Padres improve to 8-5 on the early season.

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The Cubs struck first scoring two runs in the first after Solarte dropped an apparent easy throw at first base and they followed it up with a RBI single by Chris Coghlan. Earlier in the inning Matt Kemp rushed a throw to second base and forgot to pick up the baseball on a single by Dexter Fowler allowing him to go to second and score on the ensuing single from Jorge Soler.

The Padres evened things right back up in the top of the second with Will Middlebrooks home run, his third of the season. After that, Cashner settled down and went through six innings without allowing another run, now his second consecutive start of allowing runs off of errors but no earned runs. Cashner stated following the game as reported by Corey Brock of MLB.com that:

"“I think the mental grind to kind of start the season has definitely been tough,” Cashner said. ” … I think today finally I settled down after the first, second innings, really started to make pitches. I made a couple mistakes with my sinker today, but for the most part, my sinker was down. Really good changeup today, some good sliders, but finally was able to locate my fastball down and away a lot better.”"

Will Venable getting a rare start made the most of it, collecting a go-ahead RBI single in the 6th before Solarte hit a two-run shot in the 7th to put the Padres up for good.

The memorable play of the game came in the 4th when a comebacker that Jon Lester snared got stuck in his mitt. He then took a few steps and threw his entire mitt to first baseman Anthony Rizzo who had the presence of mind to drop his own mitt to catch Lester’s. You will be seeing that one for awhile and you can also see it right here:

In general Lester, who signed a massive free agent contract before the season, was outpitched by former Cub Cashner. Cubs prospect Kris Bryant who was called up Friday has yet to really make much of an impact except adding to Padres pitchers strikeout totals, though he was hit by a pitch today.

The Padres bullpen finished out the job with Brandon Maurer, Shawn Kelley, and Joaquin Benoit all getting in scoreless innings. The save was Benoit’s first of the season as the Padres gave Kimbrel the day off after not looking sharp in Saturday’s extra inning loss.

Another strange occurance in the game was Bud Black getting tossed in the top of the second inning after a strike call to Will Middlebrooks. Of course Middlebrooks did end up homering in the at-bat, so maybe he should get tossed more often. He was already his second ejection of the season.

The Padres now head to hitters-haven Coors Field for four games.

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