Padres News: Week in Review – June 22-28th

Diamondbacks Series Recap

The Padres returned to San Diego after a disappointing road trip and Pat Murphy looking for improvements from the starting pitching staff of all places. Friday and Saturday night at least the Padres delivered.

While Tyson Ross is turning in a respectable season, he has yet to really show the dominance that earned him an All Star trip in 2014 and hopes that he would challenge James Shields along with Andrew Cashner for the “ace” tag of the staff. That said, he has pitched at least 5 innings every start, has allowed no more than 4 runs and only done that twice. His June 20th start against Arizona was his best yet when he threw a complete game striking out 9 and only allowing 1 run. Friday night he didn’t have his best control again, walking 5, but managed to get through 6 innings only allowing 2 runs and the Padres bats came through for a 4-2 victory. His consistency is to be applauded though, as opposed to the shaky Andrew Cashner who got the start Saturday night.

Andrew Cashner took the hill Saturday after several very bad starts. He was able to pitch his best game in over a month and record his first win since May 27th. He hurled 7 innings only allowing 2 runs and no walks. Justin Upton hit his 14th home run of the season and Cashner himself even threw in a suicide squeeze bunt to drive in a run. The Padres won 7-2. To be fair to Cashner, the 7 runs provided were the most since September 2013, as reported by Corey Brock and Jake Rill of MLB.com.

Matt Kemp started things off in the series finale with a lead-off home run but Odrisamer Despaigne gave those runs right back and the Padres were down 4-1 by the third inning. Derek Norris came through with two home runs and they cut the deficit to 4-3 before a Daniel Peralta home run gave the D’backs 2 more. They mustered another run but lost the game 6-4. They failed to win a third straight game for would’ve been only the 6th time all season. Yes, before their June 2-6 four game win streak they had not won 3 in a row since May 1-3 when they swept Colorado. Ouch.

Next: Closing Thoughts