Padres throw first shutout of 2020 in 3-0 victory
Credit: USA Today Sports
Zach Davies and company pitched the San Diego Padres first shutout of the season in a 3-0 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
All three runs for the Padres came on solo home runs. Fernando Tatis Jr. hit his on the first pitch of the game, and the Padres never looked back.
In the first series between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the San Diego Padres, San Diego chased the Arizona starters out of the game early. Two weeks later, the Padres executed the same gameplan against Diamondbacks starter Luke Weaver.
After Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jake Cronenworth took Weaver deep early, he left after only pitching three innings.
Zack Davies pitched well in his home debut for the San Diego Padres. He took a perfect game into the fifth inning and threw five ⅔ scoreless innings. Craig Stammen relieved Davies in the sixth and stranded Starling Marte at first to keep Davies in line for the win.
Zeroes in the places where you want 'em. 🥚#FriarFaithful pic.twitter.com/Y7xqxIpHbF
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) August 8, 2020
Edward Olivares did not start the game Friday, but that did not stop him from hitting his first career home run when pinch-hitting for Abraham Almonte.
Edward Olivares hit a homer in the bigs and is happy about it. pic.twitter.com/IWyA4lppjq
— AJ Cassavell (@AJCassavell) August 8, 2020
Outside of the three early solo home runs from the San Diego Padres, pitchers dominated in Petco Park Friday night. No Padres reached scoring position all game, and only two Diamondbacks reached scoring position.
The Padres bullpen executed their 7-8-9 gameplan to perfection. Drew Pomeranz and Emilio Pagan locked down Arizona and set up Kirby Yates for his second save of the season.
FINAL: #Padres 3, Dbacks 0#PadresWin #FriarFaithful pic.twitter.com/z3tv3yQJxA
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) August 8, 2020
Saturday’s game will start at 6:10 once again. Chris Paddack will take the bump for the Padres in his fourth start of the season. In Paddack’s first start of the season, he threw six scoreless innings against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Merrill Kelly will start for Arizona. He is the only starter for the Diamondbacks who is yet to face the Padres in 2020.
Dominic is a graduate of Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, with a bachelor’s degree in Sports Journalism. He also is the producer and co-host of the “Padres EVT Podcast.”
Hopefully Hosmer is back tonight and Croenworth moves to second base. We still have serious issues at catcher that will need to be addressed before the trade deadline. Either Vasquez from Boston or Contreras from Chicago will make us true national league contenders, I believe. Quantrill, Gore or Patino should take Luchessi’s spot in the rotation. How is Castillo progressing from his lat strain? Most of the pieces are there for Tingler. He just has to make the proper daily matchups for us to be sucessful and be contenders.