The Padres started five rookies in Wednesday’s series finale against the Brewers. This is not exactly the youth movement we’ve been hearing about but if it keeps yielding the same results the Friars will certainly take it.
San Diego whipped Milwaukee 12-3 to win the 3-game series at Petco Park. The Padres had five rookies in their starting lineup, including Ryan Schimpf, who on Wednesday found out he was named the National League Rookie of the Month for July. Schimpf led the Major Leagues with nine home runs for the month and finished July with an absurd 1.092 OPS.
On Wednesday Schimpf added another extra-base hit to his resume. He doubled in a run in the 7th inning but still may have had the least impact on the lopsided outcome.
Leadoff hitter Travis Jankowski had a pair of hits, stole two bases, scored three runs, and made a stellar diving catch in centerfield ... Jabari Blash hit his first career MLB home run, a laser that just snuck over the right field wall (making Twitter explode with the #Blashtoff hashtag) … Alex Dickerson doubled, drove in a run and scored another ... and Jose Rondon had a single and scored a run.
Not bad production from the young lineup assembled by Padres manager Andy Green (a rookie skipper) but he sees a lot of work still to be done.
"I think it's good," said Green. "I go back to the process right now. There are things we can improve on today. Today's a great game, you win 12-3, but there are still things you can do better. Each one of those guys has something that occurred during the game that they could capitalize on to a higher degree. Pleased with the final result? Sure. But I think where our focus is going to remain the rest of the year is on the process and how we execute in those situations."
The offense didn’t need to be that good with veteran Edwin Jackson on the mound. The 32-year-old starter took a shutout in to the 8th inning before giving up three runs, two of them on a Ryan Braun home run to center, but by then it was too late to make a difference. Jackson finished the 8th inning to get his second win of the season.
The Padres scored in the first, third, sixth and seventh innings and every time a run crossed the plate one of their rookies was involved somehow but the biggest day belonged to 3rd baseman Yangervis Solarte (an old man in his third big league season). Solarte had three hits, including a long 2-run home run in the 6th inning, drove in three runs and scored three runs. 1st baseman Wil Myers and catcher Christian Bethancourt also had a pair of hits. In fact, every member of the Padres starting lineup had at least one knock.
The Padres are off on Thursday then start a 3-game set against the Phillies on Friday night at Petco Park.
