Rain delayed the start of Sunday’s series finale between the Padres and Nationals by 80 minutes. Whatever the Friars were doing in the clubhouse to pass the time, they might want to implement it on a more regular basis.
San Diego avoided being swept by the Nationals with a 5-3 win in Washington on Sunday. In the first two games in D.C. the Padres struck out 31 times and had just six hits. The offense reversed that in the series finale.
In the first inning Wil Myers drew a 2-out walk from former Padres farmhand Joe Ross. The next batter was Ryan Schimpf, who had a chance yesterday to do early damage but struck out with the bases loaded against Stephen Strasburg.
This time Schimpf got into one, a 2-run home run to right field to put San Diego up 2-0. They needed an early jolt because with Jhoulys Chacin starting on the road there was a good chance Washington would get a few runs.
In his last start in New York Chacin got demolished, allowing seven runs on 8 hits and not making it out of the first inning. He got into early trouble again, allowing a single, a double and a walk to load the bases with nobody out. This time, though, Chacin was able to wiggle off the hook.
He struck out Ryan Zimmerman with a fantastic slider, got Adam Lind to ground out (allowing one run to score) and whiffed Michael Taylor for the final out of the inning. Chacin ended up allowing three runs in 4.1 innings but stifling that first inning rally likely saved the game.
After Chacin left the Padres bullpen was tremendous. Kirby Yates, Ryan Buchter, Brad Hand and Brandon Maurer combined to throw 4.2 hitless innings, striking out five.
The Padres got what turned out to be the winning runs in the 5th inning. Hunter Renfroe singled and went to third on a double by fellow rookie Franchy Cordero, who collected the first two hits of his MLB career. They both scored on a single by Chase d’Arnaud, who started at shortstop for Erick Aybar and played a whale of a game with a pair of hits and a tremendous diving stop of a Zimmerman ground ball in the 7th inning.
The series in Washington didn’t go as well as the Padres would have liked but the road trip as a whole is one they’ll take. The Friars come home with a 3-3 east coast jaunt. They return to Petco Park for a 1:40 p.m. Memorial Day start against the reigning World Series champion Chicago Cubs.
