Padres tie Diamondbacks in their latest Spring Training adventure

In a very unusual ending for baseball fans, the Padres finish in a tie against the Diamondbacks at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick in Scottsdale, AZ.

The Diamondbacks jumped out 4-0 early, but the Padres did enough late to secure a 4-4 tie in their most recent meeting with the NL West foes.

Vasquez takes the mound

In his fifth start of the spring, Randy Vasquez has been off to an impressive start, creating a little bit of a buzz in the fanbase. But on Sunday, he got tagged a little bit, giving up four earned runs on five hits in four and a third innings pitched. Vasquez was able to get through the first three innings unscathed; however, in the fourth, the Diamondbacks figured him out.

He began the inning by hitting Alek Thomas, then a single to right by Ildemaro Vargas allowed Thomas to score from first. Armais Garcia singled, moving Vargas to third. Then two pitches later, Jorge Barrosa mashes a triple that hits off the top of the wall and gets away from left fielder Castellanos. The next hitter, Ben McLaughlin, put the cherry on the cake for the Diamonbacks, getting a single to center, capping off the four-run fourth inning. That would do it for Vasquez on the day. One positive to take with the outing is that he allowed no walks and had a seventy percent strike percentage. The Diamondbacks were just a bit better today in the fourth than they were.

The Padres make noise late

The Padres have had multiple games where they get out hot from the jump offensively. But today, you had to wait for your action in the back part of the game from the offense. All six hits came from the sixth inning on.

Most of the damage on the scoreboard was done in the eighth. With one out, Mason McCoy was able to reach on an infield single to third. Diamondbacks pitcher Bradyn Garcia then gave up back-to-back five-pitch walks to Francisco Acuna and Anthony Villar. Nick Solak did his job and put a fly out into right to give the Padres their first run of the game on a sac-fly.

This set up for one of the Padres’ best hitters so far in Spring Training, Romeo Sanabria, who hits a sharp groundball down the third base line, scoring the two runners who were on first and third, inching the Padres closer to the Diamondbacks four spot.

Onto the ninth, the Padres needed one more run to be able to get the game to the bottom half of the inning. With one out, Luis Campusano worked out a four-pitch walk.The  Padres pinch ran Kai Roberts, who has 49 stolen bases in his minor league career. He was able to snag second base. But Calos Rodriguez failed to get him in with a flyout to left for the second out.

However, Pablo Reyes came in clutch, lacing a ball over the center fielder’s head 107.4 off the ba,t and that brought Kai Robinson home for the tie.

Padres’ next adventure in the closing days of Spring Training

Hard to believe the MLB season is almost already here. The Padres have seven spring training games left. They are 11-11-2 so far, and just a little bit away from the real thing.

The Padres return to their training complex to face another NL West foe, the San Francisco Giants. The game is at 1:10 Pacific standard time and features two veteran starters. Tyler Mahle will take the mound for the Giants and Walker Buehler for the Padres.

Wyatt Dearen

Hi Padres fans, I’m Wyatt Dearen. I am from Farmington, New Mexico, which is home to one of the most prestigious high school baseball tournaments in America, the Connie Mack World Series. When it comes around, I do color and statistics for the radio. I am currently pursuing a degree in Sports Administration at the University of Houston #GoCoogs. I have been a sports fan my whole life, following all the major sports leagues since I could walk, and it has been my dream my whole life to work in sports. Thankful to write about the team and for the East VillageTimes.