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

Apr 11, 2015; San Diego, CA, USA; San Diego Padres third baseman Yangervis Solarte (26) singles during the third inning against the San Francisco Giants at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Opening Thoughts

 The Padres had a successful week, taking 2 of 3 from the Arizona Diamondbacks early and then 2 of 3 from the Cubs and newly called up wonderkind Kris Bryant. Matt Kemp got his first Padres home run of the young season and Yangervis Solarte continued to hit well wherever he could be put onto the field. Defensively he has been a bit of a liability. The starting pitching continued to excel, but the middle inning pitching has started to elicit some early question marks. Nick Vincent was sent down to AAA but his replacements Brandon Maurer and Rearick didn’t exactly shore things up as expected. While the back-end triumvirate of Dale Thayer, Joaquin Benoit and Craig Kimbrel has remained oustanding, help might be needed beyond that. Short term issue or cause for concern?

Offensively Wil Myers is still hitting lead-off and still hitting well while also not creating any question marks defensively in the outfield. Justin Upton continues to show how quickly he can change a game with his powerful home runs and Yonder Alonso is making people forget there was a position controversy at first base for the Padres.

While rumors still circulate that GM A.J. Preller is still looking for options at shortstop and second base, he has to be happy how a lot of his new imports are performing save Shawn Kelley in the bullpen; more on that later.

Click through the slideshow to see how the week went down the Padres and who wins this week’s Friar of the Week.

Next: Diamondbacks Series Recap

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

ROY candidate

of the Cubs. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports

Cubs Series Recap

All of the talk about Friday’s opener between the Cubs and Padres focused on was the call-up of third baseman and University of San Diego product Kris Bryant. His call-up was delayed primarily due to financial concerns. By waiting two weeks, they delay his arbitration clock by another full year. Would the wait live up to the hype?

Everything that happened Friday was overshadowed by Kris Bryant, who by the way went 0-4 with three strikeouts. Shields labored but made it through 6 and allowed 4 runs, 3 earned, and striking out 9 men. The pivotal play though was in the 7th inning with the Padres down 4-2 and CF Wil Myers at the plate with two men on, Cubs reliever Brian Schlitter thought he had strike 3 on a borderlin pitch. He was upset about it, Joe Maddon was upset about it, and the crowd starting booing loudly. So naturally the next pitch Myers deposited into the construction zone beyond centerfield to give the Padres the lead they would not relinquish. Thayer/Benoit/Kimbrel did their jobs and the Padres won 5-4 with Shields picking up his second Padres win in 3 starts.

The second game saw the Padres rally from 4 down to tie it in the 9th before losing in extra innings 7-6 with Craig Kimbrel losing his first game as a Padre. Last year the Padres NEVER scored 4 runs in the 9th – this year they have managed to do it twice already. Matt Kemp hit his first homer as a Padre but Miguel Montero for the Cubs hit 2 home runs – one off of Ross and the other off of Chris Rearick – to pace the Cubs offense. Bryant also contributed his first hit and RBI single to back the strong start by Kyle Hendricks. Kimbrel showed rare control struggles in the 11th, walking two before allowing 2 hits and the Starlin Castro walk-off single.

The finale was Sunday, with Andrew Cashner going against big free agent addition of the Cubs Jon Lester. Much has been made this year in particular of his fear or inability to throw to first base. He took this to another in a webgem that will be played on blooper shows for years to come. He fielded a grounder that got stuck in his glove. It could’ve been a double play, but he realized what happened, jogged a couple of steps towards first base and threw his mitt with the ball in it to first base. Ever alert at first base, Cubs 1B Anthony Rizzo dropped his own glove in order to catch Lester’s with the ball still stuck to record the out. It was a funny sight to see.

Besides that, it wasn’t Lester’s best day as he allowed 3 ER in less than 6 innings of work. Former Cub Andrew Cashner pitched 6 strong only allowing 2 unearned runs after Yangervis Solarte dropped a routine throw to first base. So if you are keeping track, in one week Solarte led to 6 unearned Cashner runs. Hope he at least buys him a nice meal. To end the week on a good note, Maurer, Kelley, and Benoit all pitched innings of scoreless relief to finish off the week on a winning note for the Friars. Will Middlebrooks provided a powerful home run to left field to tie the game at 2 in the secondas well as Solarte hit his first homer of the season in the 7th to give the Padres some insurance runs and they won 5-2. Bud Black was also ejected quickly in the second for arguing balls and strikes. Umpires seemed testy around the league on Sunday with several quick hook ejections.

Next: Needs Analysis

Apr 11, 2015; San Diego, CA, USA; San Diego Padres first baseman Yangervis Solarte (26) smiles in the field during the eighth inning against the San Francisco Giants at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Friar of the Week

 This week’s Friar of the Week goes to Yangervis Solarte. He hit the game-tying hit in Saturday’s eventual loss off of the bench and delivered a crucial two run homer on Sunday to power the Padres. He has made three errors but two were at first base which is a position he has not played at the major league level and only once in the minors until this year. He might continue to spell Yonder Alonso at lefties and even help out Jedd Gyorko with his offensive struggles at second base. Even at first base he did still make a fine defensive play on a line drive from Anthony Rizzo‘s in Sunday’s game.

This week the Padres head out to Coors Field in Colorado for four against the Rockies before coming back to Petco Park and hosting the Dodgers for the weekend series. This team really appears to clicking on all cylinders right now. While I bring out some concerns about the bullpen, the other reality is that most of their starting pitchers are delivering at least 5-6 innings of work every start which is huge. Jedd Gyorko’s struggles are easy to overlook while Wil Myers is hitting close to .300, Matt Kemp and Yonder Alonso are holding steady around .350, and Justin Upton and Will Middlebrooks each have 3 home runs. Brandon Morrow has been excellend in his couple of starts and if Despaigne can continue to fill in for Ian Kennedy based on his first two appearances, the depth looks strong.

 I also believe that James Shields start on Friday should be admired by the aspiring aces of the staff in Cashner and Ross. Shields battled through a little bit of a rough game for him, but he was able to make the pitches he needed to make and get through his 6 innings of work.

Last Week Prediction: 5-1   Actual: 4-2.

Current Record: 8-5

Current Standings: 2nd place, 1.5 GB from Dodgers

Weekly Prediction: 4-3

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