Stop the Chop - Padres take down the Braves
The Padres followed up their weekend series win over the Cincinnati Reds with a weekday series win over the Atlanta Braves who came into Petco Park as a first place team in the NL East.
The series began with an 11-4 Padres win on Monday June 4th. San Diego’s offense exploded, setting a season high in extra base hits with 9 and tying a season high with 4 home runs. Eric Hosmer set the tone in the bottom of the first with a solo shot and Cory Spangenberg hit his 5th of the year in the second.
The #Franimal, @La_Mole_13, launched this one for our 1️⃣1️⃣ run of the night!#LetsGoPadres pic.twitter.com/LKE9qWG8sD
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) June 5, 2018
After the Braves tied the game at 2 in the top of the 4th, Raffy Lopez homered to give the Padres a 3-2 lead. In the 5th inning, the Pads blew the game open scoring 7 in an inning that included extra base hits from Spangenberg, Travis Jankowski, Hosmer and Jose Pirela. Franmil Reyes hit his 5th homer of season in the 6th inning to give the Padres an 11-3 lead. Atlanta added one in the top of the 9th but it was little more than a consolation run as the Padres took the first game of the series.
The script was flipped on Tuesday as the Braves scored 14 runs on 18 hits while the Padres were held to just one run of four hits. Freddie Freeman had 4 hits and was just a triple shy of hitting for the cycle while the Padres lone run came from a 455 home run from Reyes in the bottom of the 9th. For many folks, this best part of the game was a fan who caught a foul ball in her beer and proceed to chug said beer.
Beer — and baseball — served to your seat at @Padres games 🍺⚾️ pic.twitter.com/zCh3HjeUyD
— Petco Park (@PetcoPark) June 6, 2018
San Diego bounced back on Wednesday as five Padre relievers held the Braves to just one run on 4 hits in a 3-1 victory. Matt Strahm went the first 2 ⅓ innings giving up one run on two hits before José Castillo pitched the next 1 ⅔ giving up just one hit. Adam Cimber, Kirby Yates and Brad Hand pitched the next five innings, allowing just one hit.
In the bottom of the second, Spangenberg tied the game at 1 with an RBI triple and Manny Margot gave the Padres the lead with an RBI single. Freddy Galvis added an insurance run with an RBI sac bunt in the bottom of the 8th and Brand Hand recorded a six out save as the Padres took the series.
The Padres now sit at 29-35 in last place in the NL West yet only 4.5 games behind the division leading Arizona Diamondbacks. The Friars will head down to Miami for a three game series with the Marlins this weekend. Eric Lauer (2-3, 6.82 ERA) will get the start on Friday night and Tyson Ross (5-3, 3.31 ERA) will get the ball on Saturday.
