By Liz Alper
Photo: National Ice Cream Day at Petco Park. Courtesy @Padres on Twitter
July 17, 2016 (San Diego) – It’s that day again, folks. Sweep day. Do the Padres finally break the curse? Surprise: they did. And they did it in a dramatic way. The kind of dramatic that’s way more dramtic than it should’ve been. Not the good kind of dramatic.
A fun pitching matchup awaited: Johnny Cueto against the recently called up Edwin Jackson.
A quiet game to start, but Matt Kemp ended the deadlock with his second home run in as many days in the fourth to give the Padres a 1-0 lead. Bethancourt destroyed a ball to the upper deck in left field for his fifth home run of the year and the Padres had two home runs in a row against Cueto in the fourth. They now led 2-0.
In the sixth, the Padres chased Cueto out of the game in favor of George Kontos, who gave up a single to Ryan Schimpf to drive in Alex Dickerson and the Padres led 3-0. Jackson was phenomenal at the plate as well, knocking a base hit to left to drive in Bethancourt for a 4-0 Padres lead and a new Giants pitcher, Javier Lopez.
Jackson’s no-hitter evaporated after six and a third innings in the seventh in a big way when he gave up a three-run homer to Conor Gillaspie and just like last night, the Padres’ big lead was now one at 4-3.
Yangervis Solarte saved the day again with a line drive homer inside the right field foul pole and the Padres went back up by two 5-3. They’d take that to the end for their first sweep of the season. You read that right: the sweep curse is gone. And it’s against the best team in baseball, no less.
The Padres say goodbye to Petco Park for a week and a half as they embark on a long road trip, starting tomorrow with a four-game set in St. Louis. The first pitch is at 5:15 p.m. Christian Friedrich will start for the Padres against Mike Leake.
Transaction News:
- The Padres have optioned pitcher Buddy Baumann to AAA El Paso