Padres vs. Nationals Series Recap 4/27/14

They say that on the road you’ll take .500, and the Pads pulled that off in this four game series with the Nationals by book ending victories.  Just ignore the middle two games of this series, and you’ll be fine.  Here’s a run down of how the trip to the nation’s capital went.

Kennedy was brilliant in Game #4 allowing 1 run in 7 innings.

• GAME #1 –  One of the most exciting, and interesting games of the year.  There was a little bit of everything including some solid pitching by Stults, clutch 2-out hitting by Grandal to get to Zimmerman, extra innings, controversial instant replay challenges, Cashner playing left field, and ultimately a game winning 2-out, 2-strike base hit up the middle by Nady to take the physically and emotionally draining series opener 4-3 in 12.  To read the full recap, because it deserved it’s own article to cover all the twists, turns, and Padres historical firsts just click here.  Pads lead series 1-0.

• GAME #2 –  As fun, exciting, and ultimately uplifting as game #1 was, this one was not so much. Erlin was not sharp allowing 8 runs on 13 hits, and by the third inning this one was over.  Strasburg was Strasburg posting zeros for 7 innings, and striking out 11.  Get ’em next time.  Series tied 1-1

• GAME #3 – Looking to rebound from the previous night’s boat race, the Pads sent Cashner to the hill to restore some order and give the Pads a chance to take the series.  It didn’t quite work out that way.  For the second outing in a row Cash was not down in the zone with his fastball early, and the hitters made the Cashman pay for it posting 3 runs in the first.  Not helping matters was some poor Padres defense that although it did not get recorded as errors due to some egregious home town scoring, had the fairly routine plays ben made none of the runs would have crossed.  Meanwhile the offense was non existent as Roark pitched a 3-hit shutout.  At one point Buddy, while at the mound, appeared to read the team the riot act a bit as they were not looking so sharp with the gloves nor the bats.  Cash eventually settled down, but with no runs crossing for the Pads it was academic by that point.  Maybe the worst all around game played by the friars this year.  Turn the page, and press the reset button!  Nats lead series 2-1.

• GAME #4 – The boys needed to rebound after that rough one the night before, and salvage the final gem of this series.  With the offense still not producing it rested squarely on the shoulders of Kennedy, who was coming off a really gutsy effort in Milwaukee.  Things did not get off to the perfect start as The Nats scored in the first inning on back to back doubles, looking to continue the bad mojo for the Pads from the previous two games.  Then Kennedy buckled down, stranding the runner at second and taking absolute control of the game from that point forward.  For the next 22 batters he would allow only two to reach base – a hit batsman in the 2nd, and a single in the 7th.  In fact, Espinosa the hit batsman made not effort to get out of the way of the ball and for that reason should not have been allowed to go to first! at all!  He ended up on the ground writhing in pain as he took it in the knee instead of the calf as he was intending, so at least there was some justice served.  Kennedy was as sharp and dominating as he has ever been as Padre, spotting his 2-seam and 4-seam fastballs to both sides, working int and out, up and down, and touching 94 MPH several times.  Brilliant!  The deMeawhile the offense finally gave him some support with a run in the 4th thanks to a Grandal double, and Gyorko sac fly, another in the 5th via Cabrera and Denorfia singles, and finally two more int the 6th on three singles and the help of two Nats bases loaded walks (hey they’ll take it!).  After Kennedy’s 7 innings, Street notched his 9th save with Benoit bridging the gap. 4-2 the final score,  and the Friars board the plane with a 2-2 series split and a Happy Flight to San francisco.

Not the prettiest games in the middle but two really nice bookend victories to keep the Friars within 3.5 games of the Giants, who they play next.  Here are the match ups for that final 3-game series of the road trip:

• Game #1 (7:15 p.m.) – Ross vs. Bumgarner
• Game #2 (7:15 p.m.) – Stults vs. Cain
• Game #3 (7:15 p.m.) – Erlin vs. Hudson

Until the offense can turn things around the pitching staff will have to continue to shoulder the load.  Maybin rejoined the club off the DL for the final game, and contributed 2 hits, so hopefully he can add something at the plate while covering centerfield.  Smith was available to pinch hit, but is not yet ready to run full tilt with his strained groin, so the bench is still a bit thin.  For now they may simply have to continue to find ways to scrape and scratch for whatever runs they can get, and pitch and defend like crazy to make the runs stand up.  It can be stressful, but there have been a lot of close, fun games to watch so far.

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