SD 2, TEX 1: Friars win last series before season half

It's the return of Tyson Ross, and his goatee. After being rained out in Pittsburgh as his teammates were torn apart by weather delays and 1-run losses, the Ross returns in rotation to rough up the Rangers. Ty wasn't backed up by a hit parade or anything, but the tight Padres pitching pinned things down enough to create the win opportunity in 2 runs.

In Ross' last rain delayed start that saw him pulled after 2 innings of scoreless 2-hit baseball, Frank Garces picked up the long-inning slack. Today, Tyson went a full 6.2 innings, giving up only 3 hits this time, absolutely zero runs, while only walking two and striking out 6. He was relieved by Brandon Maurer and Joaquin Benoit, who did their jobs to pull together an inning's worth of work.

Craig Kimbrel would be called in early, though, to punch out the final out in a 1st-and-3rd situation. However, in the 9th, Kimbrel would make things a a little more dramatic as he tends to do. Allowing two hits, the Rangers would cut the lead in half, sitting 2-1 creeping up on the Padres. Things got tense as he gave up another hit, putting the tying run on 2nd and the winning run on 1st. Didn't matter though. He slammed that door shut like he intended on getting the hopes of the Texas fan-base up on purpose.

The Padres' lead was earned off an ugly little fielder's choice initiated by Will Middlebrooks, and an RBI-single from none other than Jedd Gyorko. Every Friar either had a hit or a walk today, but there were 11 left on base by the end of the game and only 2 of 11 RISP opportunities taken advantage of.

So the Padres win their final series of the first half of the season. Justin Upton and Matt Kemp share almost identical .250 and .253 batting averages, 44 and 45 runs, 48 and 47 RBI's, while Upton straight leads the club in HR's and stolen bases. Today, Kemp went 2-for-4 with a walk, while Upton went 0-3 with a walk and a run.

A healthy game considering an unhealthy first half, with a lot more baseball to be played.

One last game thread before the break, fellas.