SD 4, LAD 7: A first baseman bullies the Padres

Wow. Well. It's not very often you're going to see Andrew Cashner give up three home runs in one game. Heck, you wouldn't see him give up 10 in a season. But tonight the narrative had former Friar Adrian Gonzalez playing villain. We're not talking Disney villain, either. We're talking Nazi Germany in a World War 2 flick villain. In this three game opening series AGon absolutely bullied the Padres. Tonight, that bullying is what smothered the Padres into a 7-4 loss.

Last night Tyson Ross went 6 innings only giving up 2 earned runs. Tonight, Andrew Cashner lasted 5, giving up 5 earned runs (6 unearned, although it's arguable that an error-filled night should have given Cash a break.) He didn't have his stuff, left his high-90 heat in batting practice zones, and was terrorized by a former Padre first baseman.

The offense took a bit of a dip as well. While 4 runs isn't anything to spark 2014 nostalgia over, a total of 13 strikeouts and 12 left on base isn't going to cut it against a club like the Dodgers. Albeit the Doyers are not going to have the luxury of Adrian hitting 3 bombs a game. A few inning-deflating strikeouts and hits blasted right into the Mattingly shifts left the Padres dead in the water.

Things got exciting in the 6th, when the Padres rallied for the first time since the first inning of the game. Striking early for the third time in a row, a Justin Upton 2-run HR put the Padres up 2-0. After almost six-straight innings of Doyer scoring, the Pads were trailing 6-2, and cut the lead down to 6-4 after a Will Middlebrooks solo HR and a pair of doubles turned into a run from Yangervis Solarte.

Things carried into the 8th and Los Angeles kept picking at the Padres' pen. Gonzo pinned another run, NOT from a homer, in the sixth. With things at 7-4 the Friars couldn't string anything together to make a dent. Strikeouts, groundouts, and lone runners left on. Will Venable made his 2015 debut in the 9th with a weak groundout. Wil Myers, to his own surprise, pulled a ball not into a Dodger shift. Derek Norris just missed the ball taking it to the warning track for the second out. Then Matt Kemp was packed up and struck out.

The good news? We don't have to deal with Adrian Gonzalez for a while now. There are no Adrian Gonzalez' on the Giants, as far as I know. Also, there's much more baseball to be had. We get to lure San Francisco into our nice ballpark with a brand new pretty scoreboard and crush them into smithereens in order to get the bad taste of this series loss out of our mouths.

JWilhite lead the discussion and the 1,000+ comment streak was broken after two-in-a-row. yuhfriard won the most rec'd comment trophy.