Brandon Morrow might not have a whole lot of wins in his starts, but the team he pitches for does, and that’s a whole lot more important.
Morrow made his 5th start in a Padres uniform on Saturday night at Petco Park. His stat line against the Colorado Rockies looked like it has pretty much every other time he’s taken the mound:
6.0 IP, 7 hits, 2 runs, 4 K and a San Diego win. The Padres took down the Rockies 4-2 and have now won all five of Morrow’s starts (even though he’s only been credited with two of them). Not bad for a guy who was fighting for the 5th starter job in Spring Training, huh?
Perhaps even more encouraging than Morrow’s performance was the work of the Padres bullpen. A unit that is much better than it’s shown this season was without Joaquin Benoit, who’s resting what pitchers call a “dead arm,” was perfect on Saturday.
Brandon Maurer efficiently blew through the Rockies in the 7th and 8th innings, needing just 23 pitches to do it. That left the 9th to closer Craig Kimbrel, who had a little extra juice on the mound. His usual 97-MPH fastball hit 99 a couple of times. Kimbrel struck out a pair, including former Padre Nick Hundley to end it, notching his 7th save of the year. It was a nice way to bounce back after getting roughed up in a 7-2 loss to the Astros in his last outing on Wednesday.
The Padres offense came from … well, everybody, really. Seven different starters had a hit. San Diego scored their first run in the first inning, something they’ve done better than any other team in the National League this season.
Wil Myers led off with a walk and scored on a Matt Kemp single. Myers was on base three times and scored a pair of runs (extending his Major League lead), the second one coming in the 5th inning on a Justin Upton RBI single. Derek Norris also scored, putting the Padres up 3-2.
Their final run came on a Myers RBI single that scored Clint Barmes in the 6th inning.
San Diego is back over the .500 mark again at 13-12. They try to complete the sweep of the Rockies on Sunday with James Shields on the mound against Kyle Kendrick.
