Padres Series Recap: Pads Take Two Out of Three From Nats In D.C.
Game by game, series by series this team continues to just baffle me. The San Diego Padres have just won two out of three games from the Washington Nationals. This team has no identity at the moment. The inconsistency is just ridiculous. Both in a good way and a bad way.
It is just crazy how this team has managed to win series against the Giants and now the Nationals after the All Star Break. It is also strange how they manged to get swept in four games against the St. Louis Cardinals. Now that is what you call inconsistency.
This team really is just amazing. I mean we’ve lost games where our bullpen has allowed 10 runs to score. We’ve lost games where it all came down to defense. Then we’ve won series against some of the best teams in baseball. I am currently enjoying being a Padres fan. You just don’t know what to expect in every game. It adds even more excitement to an already unpredictable game of baseball. This series was a perfect example of all this, right down to the final game.
Game 1: Perdomo and The Beast(Mode)
Game one of this series was just a joy of a game to watch. Everything in this game would just go ever so perfectly for the Padres. Overall it would be the Padres best showing in the series. Both the offense and the pitching would perform to an exceptional level for the team. Luis Perdomo would get his second start since the all-star break. This would turn out to be Perdomo’s best performance of his young career. Perdomo would be fantastic for the Friars on Friday as he would throw seven innings, walk only one batter and only allow two runs in the game.
The bullpen would also be pretty solid. Brad Hand would look pretty shaky. But, Brandon Maurer would come in and look dominant. Maurer wouldn’t allow a hit through his one and third inning save. Overall the pitching performance on Friday would be amazing. The offense wouldn’t be so bad either. The Padres would manage to win this game by a score of 5-3. A huge part of that score would be Matt Kemp. Kemp would be the star of the game. He would blast two home runs off of Tanner Roark. First one would be a solo shot in the first inning of the game. The second one would be a three run dinger in the fifth inning. Kemp would be most of the offense with four RBI on the day. The only other RBI would come from Melvin Upton Jr. via a single in the fifth inning. The Padres would shock me and do very well against Roark. Overall this would be a fantastic way for the Friars to kick off this series.
Game 2: Quack Kills
Game two of this series would be another great game for the Padres. The Padres would end up losing 3-2 in this affair. Even so there were plenty of positives to look at in this game. For starters, the starter Edwin Jackson. Well props to Edwin as he would definitely prove me wrong in this game. In my opinion this would definitely be a much better start than his first start of the season. Jackson would have a nice first game, but this would top it. The German born pitcher would throw six solid inning in which he would only allow two runs to cross the plate. He would also bring down the walks in this game with three on the day. Jackson would definitely look more comfortable and “in the zone”, in this game.
The thing was that the offense would struggle against, Max Scherzer. “Mad Max” would be exceptional in this game. He would allow two runs on four hits through seven innings. He would also manage to strike out 10 batters and walk none. There would only be one Friar who would manage to get some runs past Scherzer. That man would of course be, Ryan Schimpf. Schimpf would manage to impress us yet again. He would blast a two-run shot in the first inning of the game. I mean the power this guy possesses really is fascinating. The game would remain a deadlock at two runs a piece right down to the last moments. Something of course had to have failed for the Padres to have lost this game. Well it would boil down to one man, Kevin Quackenbush. Quackenbush would get the nod in the bottom of the ninth. Well things wouldn’t run smoothly. First Anthony Rendon would get on base with a single. Then after striking out Danny Espinosa, Stephen Drew would come to the plate. Well he would triple in walk off fashion to give the Nats the W. This would be quite frustrating. Overall though, this would actually be a nice game for the Padres. It would be another very solid showing for San Diego.
Game 3: Unlikely Heroes
All three of these games would be excellent for the San Diego Padres. They would also all be very distinct from one another. Well the Final game of the series wouldn’t disappoint. Christian Friedrich would be on the hill for the Padres. Unfortunately he would have a pretty lackluster outing. Friedrich would go only three innings and would allow five runs to cross the plate. This would definitely be one of his worst starts of the season. However the pitching wouldn’t be all that bad in this game. After Friedrich’s departure the bullpen would be solid through six innings and would only allow a run on three hits. Pitching would definitely not be the highlight of the game for either team reflected by the score of 10-6. The Nationals would have top prospect, 21-year-old Lucas Giolito on the mound. He would not do so well either as he would only go three and a third and allow four runs on the day. While the Pads pen did some solid work, the Nats pen would struggle severely. The Padres would be losing the game 6-4 up until the eighth inning. Former Friar, Shawn Kelley would take the mound for the Nats. Some unlikely heroes would step up for the Padres.
First off Alex Dickerson would start it off with a solo shot. After that Ryan Schimpf would make it back to back solo shots with his ninth of the season. Schimpf would continue to heavily impress Friar faithful. The score would then be tied up at six after that eighth inning. The Padres would keep it going in the ninth inning. Jonathan Papelbon would get the nod for the Nats in the ninth inning. Yangervis Solarte would start it off with an RBI single to make it a 7-6 game. After that things would really pick up. Alex Dickerson and Ryan Schimpf would both get a hit to load up the bases for Alexei Ramirez. Ramirez would deliver the final blow of the game. The “Cuban Missile” would unload the bases with a three RBI double to make it 10-6 Padres. Ramirez would be another unlikely hero in this game. Finally in the bottom of the ninth Brandon Maurer would come in to shut the door on the Nationals. The Padres would take this game and the series. Overall this would be another fantastic game for the Padres. We saw some offense generated by key players like Wil Myers and we also saw those unlikely heroes rise in this game. This game and series would just be a joy to watch. Before this series I just wanted to see some exiting baseball. Well I certainly received more than a healthy portion of that. Now it’s time to cross the border up north and face the Toronto Bluejays. Go Padres!
Francisco, 26, Chula Vista/Tijuana. I have been a Padres fan all my life, did most of the series previews and recaps in the Padres’ 2016 season for EVT. Now I focus more on the local soccer scene. Tijuana Xolos, San Diego Loyal, San Diego Wave.