El Nino Washes Away the Braves

Solarte's big game helps San Diego sweep Atlanta

The Padres completed their 3-game sweep of the Atlanta Braves with a 3-2 win at Petco Park on Wednesday afternoon. In a season almost completely devoid of positives at least we have this little tid-bit for today:

The win gets the team back to 29-29 at home. Anything in 2015 that is associated with a non-losing record must be considered a good thing.

Third baseman Yangervis Solarte followed up his home run from Tuesday night with another big day at the plate. Solarte went 3-for-3 with a home run, a double and two runs batted in. He scored San Diego’s third run on a double by rookie catcher Austin Hedges.

In the post-game clubhouse Padres players and coaches took great glee in bestowing a new nickname upon Solarte. From “Slowarte” due to his lack of foot speed … to “Fastarte” after legging out a triple … Yan is now known to his teammates as “El Nino.” Not even he knows how, why or who came up with that one but if he's going to continue to swing a hot bat the moniker fits.

Tyson Ross made the start and only allowed one run in 6.0 innings, striking out five. He was relieved by Shawn Kelley, who struck out the side to get his second win of the year. Joaquin Benoit gave up one run in the 8th inning on a Nick Markakis double but closer Craig Kimbrel worked a perfect 9th on 11 pitches to get his 35th save of the season.

The Padres improve to three games under .500, but things get a lot tougher this weekend. The St. Louis Cardinals come to Petco Park for a 3-game series starting Friday night. The Cards have the best record in baseball, sitting 33 games over .500. Andrew Cashner gets the start for the Padres against John Lackey.

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