Padres 5, Marlins 0: Cashner Shuts Down Miami

This is the way you like to start a series, isn't it? The offense hammered away all game and took advantage of the Marlins' many mistakes. But the real star of this game was Andrew Cashner, who tossed a scoreless 7.1 innings, allowing just 4 hits and 3 walks while striking out 4.

1st Inning

Everth Cabrera took a walk, and then took second for good measure. Then, with 2 outs, Carlos Quentin popped up. It was awful. Or it would have been if Rob Brantly hadn't dropped it and Cabrera hadn't hustled all the way home.

1-0 Padres

2nd Inning

Jedd Gyorko hit another home run, this one to dead center. I could get used to this.

2-0 Padres

4th Inning

Nick Hundley walked, and then Andrew Cashner worked the ASSPAT perfectly to move him into scoring position. With two outs, Chris Denorfia singled to right off the glove of Chris Valaika. Hundley scored on a picture perfect slide while Deno took second. Cabrera followed that with another single to right. Denorfia's slide looked just as good as Hundley's.

4-0 Padres

7th Inning

Cabrera walked again. Then he took second again. Then Chase Headley came to the plate. He looked back toward the seats, winked at Ron Fowler, and smacked a double to left.

Final: 5-0 Padres

And that's the Padres' first shutout of the season. It feels pretty good, especially since they're poised to overtake the Dodgers at the time of this writing. They'll try to widen the gap when Eric Stults toes the rubber against Alex Sanabia at 7:10 PM tomorrow.