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It was a fitting end to a terrible season. Citi Field was littered with garbage as Clayton Richard gave up three two-run homers, and an anemic Padres offense could barely get on base (and when they did, they couldn't stay there). In the clubhouse after the game, Richard told reporters, "I knew this season was going to bad, so I just thought I'd put it out of its misery." The Padres would go on to be shut out 8-0 — oh, sorry, this is the recap I was letting Twitter write for me before the 8th inning. There's no denying that our starting pitching has come up short so far. Just ask Corey Brock.
That's it for #Padres Richard. Allows 3 HR's. Padres starters so far (Volquez and Richard) have only combined for 7.1 innings. Cashner in.
— Corey Brock (@FollowThePadres) April 4, 2013
Down 8-0, another 36-minute YouTube video was all but guaranteed. But then the Padres showed up. Andrew Cashner came in as long relief and threw 2.2 innings, allowing only one hit and one walk while striking out two. Then a pair of singles by Jedd Gyorko and Nick Hundley put a Padre in scoring position. Gyorko scored his first big league run on a pair of fielder's choices. Then Luke Gregerson followed up with a perfect eight inning.
Our boys really started to threaten in the top of the ninth with singles by Everth Cabrera and Will Venable. Cabrera would score on a sacrifice fly by Carlos Quentin. A two out error by Ruben Tejada scored Venable and kept the rally alive. Hundley followed up with an RBI double to close the gap to four runs, but that was all she wrote.
Overall, definitely not a good game, but some good work by the bullpen and late offensive life kept this one out of the utter disaster column. Hopefully the boys can pick up some momentum and avoid the sweep tomorrow.