Padres Recap: Home Run Ball Stings Padres in Blowout to Pirates
May 28, 2015; San Diego, CA, USA; San Diego Padres starting pitcher Ian Kennedy (L) walks to the dugout after being taken out of the game in the fourth inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports
Ian Kennedy (2-5) was not on his game tonight. It was 6-0 Pirates (25-22) before a lot of Padres fans go to their seats Thursday night. He could not get out of the 4th inning as he allowed 3 home runs and 7 runs total in just 3 2/3 innings. It was similar to his second start of the season against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Petco Park in April.
The Padres offense did their best to come back, eventually making it a 7-4 game and twice the Padres had the tying run at the plate. Justin Upton had two hits and an RBI and Will Middlebrooks had three hits.
Two doubles by Josh Harrison and Andrew McCutchen quickly made it 9-4 and it was downhill from there as the San Diego Padres (23-26) dropped the first game of this four game series, 11-5.
Shawn Kelley had a good outing in relief of Kennedy, pitching 1 1/3 innings with just one hit and two strikeouts. Cory Mazzoni let the game get out of hand. Alexi Amarista had a throwing error as well, which eventually made the sore 11-4.
Jedd Gyorko drove in a run in the bottom of the 6th when he grounded into a double play, squandering the chance for possibly more runs.
Neither starter was sharp as A.J.Burnett allowed the most runs he had allowed all year with 4 earned runs and 5 total. He also struck out six, earning his 5th win of the year.
Jung Ho-Kang got the Pirates scoring started with a two out, two strike, three-run home run. Gregory Polanco and Starling Marte followed suit in the next two innings. McCutchen also had three hits, two RBI and two runs scored. The only position player that did not get a hit for Pittsburgh was Pedro Alvarez.
Kennedy missed too many spots and the offense just couldn’t keep up even with 5 runs on 9 hits.
Tomorrow the Padres look to bounce back by throwing their unbeaten ace James Shields (6-0) out there against the veteran lefty Francisco Liriano (2-4) .
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