San Diego Padres Showed Encouraging Signs on Opening Day

While one game in one hundred sixty-two means nothing in the big picture, there were plenty of positives to take away from the San Diego Padres Opening Day loss to the Brewers.

In yesterday’s extra-inning loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, the San Diego Padres did all they could to stay in the game. Whether it was the solid showing from the relief corps or even Clayton Richard‘s strong showing, the Friars gave us all reason to believe.

The Brewers are a much-improved team and they were only a handful of games out of the second NL Wild-Card last season. Richard kept them off-balance at the plate through seven fantastic innings of work.

There were more than a few jams that the Padres pitchers had to work themselves out of yesterday, nearly all of them panning out in the Pads’ favor.

Even when Adam Cimber allowed the game-winning run in the 12th inning, he showed poise and located his pitches beautifully. Sometimes, the ball just finds the bat. I, personally, hope Cimber doesn’t get discouraged. He looked pretty darn good overall.

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San Diego Padres offense looked OK, maybe a little flat

Freddy Galvis made me look like Nostradamus yesterday. All offseason I’ve been telling anyone who’d listen just how excited the prospect of Galvis in this lineup had me. He didn’t disappoint.

Galvis made a few great plays at shortstop, including one acrobatic little ditty that found him falling over himself and backhand-tossing the ball to second to turn a 6-4-3 double play to get Richard out of a jam of his own.

Eric Hosmer and Wil Myers had tough days at the plate, but with Jose Pirela and Freddy Galvis doing their part, their contributions weren’t completely missed.

Sure, was Myers coming up in the 11th with a runner on base a big spot that we wish he would have delivered in? Of course.

Next: Opening Day MLB Rundown

My feeling is that this San Diego Padres team will be finding themselves in many more tight games throughout the season. Yesterday’s loss shows that this team is short on quit. That’s a good trait to have.