Local. San Diego. Sports.

In what was supposed to be a trade-celebrating game, the Padres were dropped 4-2 by the Marlins after a lack-luster home start by Wade LeBlanc.

“No pitch is perfect, there are always going to be mistakes.  You make them, but you just hope that nobody is on base,” LeBlanc said after the loss.  “I don’t know, it feels like mine are finding the stands.”

LeBlanc (5-9) was taken out of the game after 6 1/3 innings in which he allowed four earned runs on just five hits.  The Padres lefty continues to struggle with giving up the long ball.  He allowed two more home runs tonight, which brings his total up to 11 in his last seven starts.

“It’s a concern, it’s nothing to brush off,” LeBlanc said.

“That’s going to be his challenge going forward,” Bud Black said noting LeBlanc’s lack of control over his location.  “He doesn’t have the luxury of throwing in the high 90s like other guys.”

Although it did not directly cost them any runs, the Padres made a few uncharacteristic base-running errors in the game.  After Chase Headley plated the team’s first run, he was caught in a run down after taking a wide turn around first base.  Then in sixth, Gonzalez was tagged out trying to advance to third on a groundball to short.

Gonzalez’s base-running blunder stalled what could have been a big inning for the Padres.  Chris Denorfia had led off the inning with a booming triple to the right center gap.  Denorfia’s dead sprint ended in a belly-flop slide into third that earned huge cheers from the Friday night crowd of just over 30,000.

Marlins starter Chris Volstad turned in five strong innings.  The 6-8 righty allowed two runs on seven hits while striking out just one.  Volstad looked shaky early, but the Padres were never able to put together a consistent effort against him.

“We had a good first inning, made [Volstad] throw a lot of pitches,” Black said.  “But we just couldn’t mount anything after that.”

It was an up and down debut for new Padre Miguel Tejada.  After a first inning 10-pitch walk, Tejada was retired three times which included a ninth inning strikeout.  But even in a losing effort, Tejada is still thrilled about his recent transition from worst to first.

“It’s great.  It’s exciting to be competing,” the new Padres shortstop said after the game.  “I want to push myself, but play the same game that I always have.”

“He came in and looked good, looked comfortable,” Black said.

Notes

Yorvit Torrealba extended his hitting streak to 13 games with a fourth inning single…Edward Mujica struck out three more batters tonight to bring his season total up to 40 strikeouts compared to just four walks.

{ 1 comment }