PADRES FAIL TO CRACK DEFENSE AGAIN, LOSE TO NL WEST RIVAL GIANTS

By Liz Alper

Photo: San Diego Padres on Twitter

March 17, 2016 (Peoria, Az.) - The Padres always have trouble against the World Series champion Giants.  In the spring, it’s no different.  The fact that the the Giants are World Series champions probably doesn’t help either.  And the luck of the Irish certainly wasn't with the Friars on St. Patrick's Day.

Right off the bat (pun intended), Brandon Belt hit a sac fly to center to drive in Ehire Adrianza for a 1-0 Giants lead.  Jarrett Parker hit a solo homer off of starting pitcher Andrew Cashner on the next at-bat for a 2-0 San Francisco lead.  

 

In the bottom of the first, Jon Jay hit his first homer of the spring to cut the Giants’ lead to one on a solo shot to center off of former Padre Jake Peavy.  But the Padres had runners at the corners for Derek Norris and he couldn’t drive home the tying run, so we went to the second with the Giants holding a 2-1 lead.

In the second, after a brilliant shot to left for a stand-up double by Alexei Ramirez and clever base running by Cashner, the Padres had runners in scoring position.  Jay took one for the team and hit into a sac groundout to drive home Ramirez and tie the game at 2.

In the third, the Padres continued to have issues with wild pitches after Cashner threw a wild pitch with the bases full of black and orange and two out to drive home a run to give the Giants a 3-2 lead.  Trevor Brown hit a grounder to left to bring home two more runs and the Giants led 5-2 after three.

In the bottom of the third, Matt Kemp did what he does best; he hit his first homer of the spring to cut the Giants lead to two at 5-3.  

Things stayed quiet until relief pitcher Josh Martin came in in the fifth and gave up an RBI double to Parker to give the Giants one more run.  6-3 San Francisco.  A sac groundout from Brown gave the G-men a four run lead at 7-3.  Ramiro Pena had a nice two-out cut for a triple and an RBI.  8-3 Giants.

The Friars staged a mini-rally in the ninth on a single by Jemile Weeks to cut the Giants’ lead to four, but Christian Bethancourt chased a terrible pitch from Giants reliever Josh Osich to end the ballgame.  The Padres once again have trouble cracking through solid pitching and defense and lose 8-4.