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Padres baseball is back in San Diego as today we celebrate the 2015 home opener at Petco Park! This will be the first time seeing our shiny new team on our home field for a regular season game, and the anticipation couldn't be higher in San Diego. After dropping the opening series in Los Angeles, Padres fans are even more anxious to see the boys back on the field to erase the awful memories of a former fan favorite knocking about a billion balls out of the park against what's supposed to be one of the best pitching staffs in the league.
The Friars will host the Giants for the next three days, beginning with this afternoon's matchup, which pits Ian Kennedy against Tim Hudson. While he's no James-Shields-type ace, having Kennedy open up the series against San Francisco really works out for San Diego. IPK is 9-4 with a 2.52 ERA in 20 career starts against the Giants.
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That's not to say he'll have an easy job of it today. Even though it is an odd year, the Giants are coming off a world-championship season and a series win against the Diamondbacks to start the year. And Hudson has fared pretty well when facing the Padres in the past, going 7-4 with a 3.07 ERA all-time against them. But the righty will be pitching to a much more formidable lineup than he's seen from the Friars, who are looking to get their home schedule started with a performance as electric as the atmosphere of the crowd on Opening Day.
Despite the opening series loss in L.A., we got a tasty sample of what we can expect from this new Padres lineup on a regular basis. We saw Wil Myers steal a couple of bases, already a third of the way to his career best of six SB in a season. We saw Matt Kemp hit comfortably and drive in some runs in the 3-spot while Justin Upton get some hits of his own, including a home run, while batting cleanup. Derek Norris has everyone forgetting about his unimpressive Spring and anticipating watching his moves on the basepaths.
We should be in for the first of many treats today.
Finally, baseball season in San Diego. #PadresPride pic.twitter.com/fFp6VOCIat
— Ben Higgins (@BenHigginsSD) April 9, 2015
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