San Diego Padres: Luis Perdomo Makes Spring Debut

The San Diego Padres played another game under the lights last night, defeating the Kansas City Royals 5-4.

We are now just three weeks away from San Diego Padres Opening Day. Starting pitchers will begin to stretch out their outings, prospects will be moved to minor league camp, and we will finally get a better idea of the lineup Andy Green will use during the regular season.

However, last night was about giving a lot of the backups and prospects more playing time. Going into the ninth inning, the Padres and Royals were headed for a spring training tie, all squared up at four runs a piece.

Matt Szczur, making his spring debut, laid down a sacrifice bunt with runners on the corners, bringing in Webster Rivas to score the eventual game-winning run.

Franchy Cordero and Luis Perdomo shined for the San Diego Padres

While Chris Young made the start and pitched very well for three innings, minus a solo home run allowed, the story of the night was Luis Perdomo.

Perdomo came out firing in his spring debut, striking out Lucas Duda and Salvador Perez. He froze Duda with a fastball that crisply cut back over the inside part of the plate. With two strikes against Perez, Perdomo buried a slider in the dirt to get him swinging. He was sequencing his pitches very well and hitting his marks.

The next two batters secured a walk and an RBI-double before Perdomo ended the inning with another strikeout. Overall, the brief appearance has to make Padres’ fans excited for what Perdomo can accomplish this season.

His final line read: 3 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K

Franchy Cordero continued his blazing spring with two hits (single and double). His highlight came as he showed off his cannon in centerfield.

Quick note about Kazuhisa Makita who you see in the above video, he threw a 52-mph curveball. How? I have no more words on that.

Finally, there was the return of Cal Quantrill. His first performance came five days ago against the Texas Rangers. He pitched just one inning, giving up four hits and four earned runs. Padres’ beat writers chalked it up to nerves and too much energy.

Quantrill calmed it down last night, pitching two scoreless frames and picking up the win in the process. He didn’t allow a single base runner and struck out two.

I will leave you all with a Fernando Tatis Jr highlight, because it’s Fernando Tatis Jr.

Next: OF Alex Dickerson Won't Make Opening Day Roster

The Padres return to day baseball today with a noon contest against the San Francisco Giants. There will be no TV coverage of today’s game. Tyson Ross and Madison Bumgarner are the scheduled starters.