Padres Show Signs of Life

Friars have their first winning streak in almost a month

In baseball you really aren’t sure if a team is on a roll until it’s well in to a winning streak. Given what the Padres have done this season it would be borderline irresponsible to say they’re rolling right now.

But they sure are doing things better than they’ve done them recently.

The Padres beat the Diamondbacks 7-2 on Friday night at Petco Park. It’s their second straight win and their first series win under interim manager Pat Murphy. In fact, it’s the first time the Padres have won a series against a National League West opponent since they swept the Rockies at home from May 1-3 (they lost six straight NL West series in between).

Starting pitcher Andrew Cashner finally got his first win of the season at home with his 7.0 innings of work. Cash allowed two runs and struck out six. He was finally helped out by some run support, too.

Matt Kemp continued to thrive in the leadoff spot and Justin Upton found his home run swing. Those two hitting at the same time is a very good thing for the Padres, who are now 9-2 when both Kemp and Upton drive in a run. Both guys had a pair of hits. In all, six different Padres had at least two knocks in the game.

The one negative from the game is the health of second baseman Cory Spangenberg, who was hit hard on a slide as turned a double play in the first inning. Spangenberg stayed in the game but was visibly hurting as he ran out a double in the fourth inning. Murphy took the rookie out of the game and revealed Cory will have an MRI to determine how bad the injury is.

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