Yangervis Solarte needs to be a Padre for as long as he is playing professional baseball. Not only is he a great clubhouse presence, he is turning in to a heck of a baseball player.
Solarte drove in four runs in the Padres home opener to help San Diego to a 7-6 win over the Giants in front of 43,441 fans at Petco Park.
San Francisco got on the board in the 1st inning when Padres starter Luis Perdomo balked with Joe Panik on 3rd base to gift San Francisco a run. After that Perdomo retired 11 consecutive Giants hitters while his offense went out and got him a lead.
Manuel Margot got the Padres right back in to it with a leadoff shot off of Matt Cain, the first Major League long ball of Margot’s career. He also went deep in his second at-bat to make the 22-year old rookie the 4th-youngest Padre to have a multi-homer game.
Yangervis Solarte drove in two runs with a pair of singles to give the Padres a 4-1 lead but in the 6th inning Perdomo got in trouble and couldn’t get out. San Francisco loaded the bases on a single, a double and a walk and Padres Manager Andy Green decided to let Perdomo try to work out of it with nobody out.
Giants 1st baseman Brandon Belt crushed a grand slam to right-center to put the Giants on top 5-4. It was the second time salami Padres pitchers have allowed this week, both on Opening Day. Joc Pederson touched up Jhoulys Chacin in the season opener at Dodger Stadium on Monday.
The Padres re-took the lead in the 7th inning. Travis Jankowski walked and Wil Myers singled to bring up Solarte and once again the fan favorite came up huge. Yangervis doubled to the call in right-centerfield to bring in two runs and put the Padres back on top 6-5. They tacked on one more run when Green decided to play a little small ball.
Austin Hedges executed the safety squeeze to perfection, laying down a bunt to bring home Solarte with what turned out to be the game-winning run.
In the 8th Belt hit his second homer of the game to make it a one-run affair. Brandon Maurer worked the 9th to get his first save of the season. The Padres improve to 2-3 and drop the Giants to 1-4 and last place in the National League West. Game two of the series is Saturday night at Petco Park. Chacin gets the start against Giants ace Madison Bumgarner.
