Padres Week In Review: April 13-19th Starting Pitching Cruising

Apr 15, 2015; San Diego, CA, USA; San Diego Padres left fielder

hits a solo home run during the eighth inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Petco Park. The Padres beat the Diamondbacks 3-2. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Diamondbacks Series Recap

In the Diamondbacks opener, Andrew Cashner continued to run into some bad luck in the early goings of 2015. After running into Adrian Gonzalez in the Dodgers series, this time Cashner’s good outing was spoiled by 4 unearned runs in the second inning after a Solarte error. He has now gone 17 consecutive starts without allowing more than 3 earned runs per start. He did strike out nine in the game and all runs allowed were in the one inning. Justin Upton also had a nice diving play in the first to help him out on defense. On the Arizona side Rubby De La Rosa pitched six solid innings allowing three runs.

Offensively for the Padres in this one Yonder Alonso continued his strong start with this first home run of the season and Solarte contributed a double trying to atone for his error. Brandon Maurer allowed a run following Cashner’s departure and the finishing blow was Shawn Kelley allowing three runs in 2/3rds an inning of work. Final score was 8-4 D’backs in this one.

In the second game of the series the Padres got a great performance in his first start of the season from Odrisamer Despaigne after coming in for perfect relief for Ian Kennedy last week. He went 7 innings and allowed just 2 hits and one run. Benoit and Thayer each pitched an inning to finish out the easy 5-1 victory. For the offense, Justin Upton launched a home run into the second deck at Petco Park and Matt Kemp tripled to continue to his solid early season performance. Describing Despaigne as told to Corey Brock, Derek Norris said this, “For him, he’s always changing arm angles. Sometimes, I don’t think he knows what he’s doing before he does it.” He has allowed just one run in his 11 2/3 innings of work so far this season.

In the final game of the series, the pitching matchup was Brandon Morrow versus Chase Anderson. Perhaps not inspiring but Brandon Morrow turned in his second consecutive great start in the fifth spot of the Padres rotation. As well as Despaigne has started, the Padres may just consider a six man rotation when Kennedy comes back. Morrow pitched 7 strong allowing two runs and left with the game tied. Yet in the 8th Justin Upton knocked out another homer for his third hit of the day and Craig Kimbrel closed things out in the 9th for his third Padres save. Benoit worked the 8th and earned his 3rd win of the young season which leads the team.

It was a good series overall three solid starting pitching outings and Justin Upton rocking Petco Park. The middle innings bullpen showed some cracking but the Padres would head to Chicago knowing that rookie Kris Bryant was to be called up for Friday’s game. Would the bullpen be able to right the ship as the Padres looked to win their third straight series.

Next: Cubs Series Recap