The San Diego Padres defeated the Atlanta Braves 10-2 to win the competitive series (3-1). The Friars improved to (6-4) on the early season, which ties them with the Arizona Diamondbacks for first in the NL West Division.

The bats showed up to Atlanta this weekend after a rough start in Game 1 of the series, Thursday night. However, it wasn’t the bats that were the story of this series. The story of the series was the dominance from the Padres’ starting rotation.

Michael Wacha shut down the Braves Saturday night as he allowed just two hits while striking out ten batters. Seth Lugo piggybacked off of Wacha with a great six innings in the ATL to wrap up the series. Lugo allowed five hits but did walk four as the fatigue started to show in his later innings.

The signings of Wacha and Lugo have been huge to start the season for the Padres. With Joe Musgrove set to come back this month, the rotation could be primed for a great season. Lugo allowed his only run of the game in the 5th inning, and the Padres infield still managed to get a productive out on the play.

This game was over in the 5th inning. The first runs of the game came early for the Friars as Jake Cronenworth and Ha-Seong Kim hit back-to-back doubles to kickstart the offense in the second inning. A Manny Machado bloop led to a Nelson Cruz 3-run homer to put the Padres up 4-0 early in the third.

CRUZ MISSILE 🚀 #BringTheGold pic.twitter.com/HrOfjIpKam

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) April 9, 2023

Boomstick had a huge game finishing with six RBIs as he finished a triple shy of the cycle. The 42-year-old signed with the Padres for just $1 million. That is a huge steal if he will have multiple games like this for the Padres this season.

Anyone enjoy watching The Masters this Sunday? I know Kim did. After a Nelson Cruz ground-rule double, Kim launched a shot to left field that put the Friars up big.

Get this man a green jacket 🏌 #BringTheGold pic.twitter.com/HdO8THxAj5

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) April 10, 2023

San Diego led 8-0 which marked the biggest lead for the Padres so far this season. That was until they extended the lead to nine (10-1) in the 6th inning. Guess who? That’s right, Cruz hit in the 10th run of the game for the Padres as the bats really dominated a young Braves pitcher tonight.

Dylan Dodd is going to be a good starter in this league. He is extremely accurate, but the Padres took advantage of that Sunday night. He pitched well in his debut against the St. Louis Cardinals but allowed seven runs to the Padres off of 10 hits all before the 5th inning ended.

The Braves scored one last run thanks to a Matt Olson RBI single, but the Padres took the game and the series 10-2.

The Padres have now excelled to (6-2) since losing the first two games of the campaign. They will head to New York to battle it out with their Mets for three games before taking on the Milwaukee Brewers at home next weekend.

Yu Darvish will go up against Max Scherzer Monday night at Citi Field. Sound Familiar?

Chris Spiering

Chris is a graduate of the University of San Diego. He is the former Sports Editor for the USDVista newspaper. Chris has covered the San Diego Loyal, and now covers San Diego State Men’s Basketball. He also contributes regularly about the Padres. Chris is an athlete and is a huge fan of San Diego sports.