Offense comes alive in Padres’ 8-2 win over Reds
Credit: AP Photo
Petco Park- San Diego, California-
Putting on a worthy encore to Thursday night’s performance at Petco Park was going to be a tough task for the San Diego Padres on Friday evening. Thursday night brought a full stadium of rocking Padres’ fans, dramatic home runs, and a walk-off-win. Friday, however, was equally impressive.
Though absent was the drama that made Thursday’s 6-4 win so exciting, Friday night’s 8-2 win over the Cincinnati Reds was a major step forward for a Padres’ team looking to find some consistency.
The tone was set early on by Padres’ leadoff hitter Tommy Pham with a leadoff home run that put the Padres ahead 1-0 right away. The leadoff home run was the second such home run for Pham this season and his sixth overall.
Following a top of the 2nd inning that saw Padres’ starting Chris Paddack strike out the side, Wil Myers joined in the act, hitting a line drive home run toward the Western Metal building, which put the Padres ahead 2-0.
The home run for Myers was his 58th at Petco Park, setting a Padres’ franchise record for most home runs at the San Diego ballpark that has been open since the start of the 2004 season. Myers again homered in the 4th inning, adding to his franchise record and putting the Padres ahead of Cincinnati 4-2.
When asked about his performance Friday night, Myers gleefully reviewed his performance. “It felt great. I think we did it all around the field tonight. Not just me at the plate, but everybody else. We were able to score in a lot of innings. Cumulative hitting is big for us,” he explained.
Paddack made strikeouts his theme on Friday night, tying a career-high with 11 total in five innings of work. The tall right-hander had very few hiccups and pitched one of his better games of the season. In his five innings, Paddack finished with only two runs allowed while only walking one on top of his 11 punchouts.
The Padres would go on to score four more times after Myers’ second home run, making for a much welcomed lopsided victory.
In all, five Padres’ batters had multiple hits in the game, including Pham, shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr., third baseman Manny Machado, Myers, and second baseman Jake Cronenworth.
Six Padres’ drove in runs in the victory, including Tatis Jr.’s 50th of the season, putting him in the National League lead; an impressive statistic considering the close to three weeks of action that Tatis Jr. has missed.
“I thought it was great. We were pressuring. It felt like every inning. The guys’ at-bats were great all the way through,” said San Diego manager Jayce Tingler when asked about the offensive performance from his team Friday night.
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The Padres looked as good as they have in quite some time, getting strong pitching performances from Paddack and the bullpen (four scoreless innings), while the offense was a well-oiled machine that has been a frustrating inconsistency.
Having guaranteed at least a split in their four-game series with the Reds after winning the first two games, the Padres will look to take the series and run their win streak to three games on Saturday evening at 4:15 PM at a fully open Petco Park.
Kevin is a San Diego Native covering the San Diego Padres and their affiliates