Padres Walk Around Cubs For Win

Friars pitchers get into, then out of trouble and ride Renfroe blast to victory

Monday’s game between the Padres and Cubs was technically held at Petco Park in San Diego. But it seems more likely it took place in Bizarro World.

The Cubs got 15 baserunners … but only had three hits and scored two runs while Padres rookie outfielder Hunter Renfroe hit the second grand slam of his career in a 5-2 San Diego win in front of a palindromic 41,414 fans in the East Village.

Padres starter Jarred Cosart got into immediate trouble against the defending World Series champs. In the first inning he loaded the bases on a pair of walks and hit batter then served up a 2-run single to Jason Heyward to put Chicago on top 2-0.

Cosart kept having trouble finding the strike zone, walking five in 4.0 innings, but he was able to keep any more runs from crossing the plate. Had he been able to get one more inning in he would have been in line for the win.

While he was struggling Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks was cruising. He set down the first 10 San Diego batters he faced but then it went bad really fast. Hendricks gave up singles to Yangervis Solarte and Wil Myers then hit Ryan Schimpf with a pitch to load the bases for Renfroe, who launched a 1-1 pitch into the left field seats for his 10th home run of the season and a 4-2 Padres lead.

The Padres got their other run in the 5th inning on an RBI groundout by Wil Myers.

After the Cosart left the bullpen continued the parade of walks. Jose Torres walked two in 2.0 innings, but at the plate he also got his first MLB hit with a single to left field. In the 7th inning Ryan Buchter made things really interesting.

The lefty walked the bases loaded with one out and was pulled for another lefty, the infinitely effective Brad Hand, who finally proved there was not something wacky with the mound in Downtown San Diego. Hand got Heyward to ground into a double play then tossed a scoreless 8th inning. Hand lowered his season ERA to 1.82 and is going to get a lot of interest from other teams looking to add a reliable reliever for the pennant push.

Brandon Maurer threw a perfect 9th inning for his 7th save of the year. The Cubs and Padres play game two of their series at Bizarro Park on Tuesday night. Dinelson Lamet takes the mound for his second MLB start against Eddie Butler.

Contact Us