San Diego Padres: Richard Throws Gem, Padres Hit…Seriously.

The streak is over! The San Diego Padres secured a win over the San Francisco Giants on Friday night, behind the arm of Clayton Richard.

Freddy Galvis and Cory Spangenberg took offense to your “imagine a left-side of the infield with Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis, Jr” talk. Solid defensive plays, throughout the night, set up by the craftsmanship of Clayton Richard, led the San Diego Padres to a 6-2 win over the San Francisco Giants.

After scoring just seven runs over a five-game losing streak entering Friday, the Padres racked up six runs on 12 hits against Chris Stratton and staff.

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The only runs of the night for San Francisco would be scored on a wild pitch by Richard in the top of the first inning and an RBI-single by Pablo Sandoval in the seventh.

Clayton Richard recorded 17 straight outs after giving up a leadoff double to Gorkys Hernandez. Eleven of his outs were recorded by way of the ground ball.

Richard worked quickly and effectively, utilizing his slider nearly 40% of the time. His final line read: 6 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 4 K. The one stat that stands out the most, no walks. It was the third time this season Richard went at least six innings and did not surrender a free pass.

Richard improved to 7-6 and lowered his ERA to 4.23 with Friday night’s outing.

As for the Padres offense, it finally woke up. Travis Jankowski, Eric Hosmer, Manuel Margot, and Spangenberg recorded two hits each. Wil Myers even got in on the action, beating out a dribbler towards Pablo Sandoval at third base. It was his first hit since returning from the disabled list.

Despite the win, there were questions, of course.

Manuel Margot was going to be the focus of the end of this, however, his play has warranted his own feature, tomorrow. Instead, I want to point out one thing that caused a little head scratching.

Despite throwing just 79 pitches through his first six innings, Richard was pulled after a leadoff single by Andrew McCutchen. Ok, fine. Andy Green has one of the best bullpens in all of baseball, work them to your advantage.

Adam Cimber faced one hitter, struck him out, and was then removed. Jose Castillo threw one pitched, induced a pop up in foul territory, and was then removed. Craig Stammen gave up a hit (run charged to Richard) before striking out the second batter he faced. He was then removed. Kirby Yates and Brad Hand (non-save situation) then proceeded to work the final two frames.

There was no need to use almost every single piece of the bullpen like that. The result? Throwing Brad Hand for an inning he didn’t need to pitch, thanks to a two-strike count, opposite-field single by Eric Hosmer that opened the game up in the top of the ninth.

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You know what, it worked. A win is a win. Soak it in. Relish it. That was fun.