ECM PADRES REPORT: VILLANUEVA HOME RUN HAT TRICK GIVES PADRES THEIR FIRST WIN OF 2018

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By Liz Alper

Photo:  Christian Villanueva hit three home runs to give the Padres their first win of the season.  Via @Padres on Twitter

April 3, 2018 (San Diego) - 0-4.  That’s the Padres’ record so far.  But they’ll win one.  They have to.  No team is that bad.  We were all holding our collective breaths tonight, however, as Tyson Ross took the mound against Kyle Freeland for the Rockies.

Freeland is only in his second year and it showed when Christian Villanueva blasted and absolute bomb to the third deck of the Western Supply Co. building in the second inning for a 1-0 Padres lead.

But you know.  Nolan Arenado tripled in the third to drive in two runs to put the Rockies ahead 2-1.

They added more in the fourth with Chris Ianetta’s single that scored Gerardo Parra to give Colorado a 3-1 lead.

Villanueva hit another solo homer in the home half of the fourth, making this game his first career multi-homer game, and it was 3-2.

The Padres, as usual, confused everyone in the sixth with Freddy Galvis’ RBI single that scored two.  Carlos Asuaje grounded into a fielder’s choice to score Villanueva and just like that, the Padres were on top 5-3.

Do hat tricks exist in baseball?  Of course they do; Villanueva blasted his third home run of the night to left field in the seventh.  It was good for three runs and the Padres took an 8-3 lead.  The Rockies added one more in the ninth after Renfroe couldn’t make a diving catch on an RBI single from Ianetta, but the Padres finally got their first win of the season in a well-deserved 8-4 win over the Rockies.

Game three is tomorrow at 7:10 p.m.  Jon Gray starts for Colorado against Clayton Richard.

 


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