Colin Rea wins major league debut as Padres beat Reds 11-6

Colin Rea's much-anticipated major league debut was fun for the whole family, as long as none of your relatives are Reds fans. The San Diego offense exploded for 11 runs in the first three innings and Rea did his part, limiting Cincinnati to three runs in his five innings of work.

Rea permitted the first two Reds to reach base, then induced a weak ground ball just seconds after radio team Bob Scanlan and Randy Jones requested one. He started the 1-6-3 double play, then stranded Brandon Phillips at third as Todd Frazier flied out to right. His second inning was less eventful as he recorded his first big league 1-2-3 frame, aided by an outstanding defensive play by, of all people, Alexi Amarista.

The bottom of the second brought more career firsts for Rea. Leading off the inning thanks to a three run first inning by his teammates, he worked the count to 2-2 before singling to left on Michael Lorenzen's sixth pitch. He took third on a double by Yangervis Solarte, then crossed the plate on Yonder Alonso's single. When the smoke cleared and Rea returned to the mound he had an incredible 8-0 cushion to work with. He showed his gratitude by putting in another 1-2-3 inning.

After the offense dropped three more runs in the bottom of the third to extend their lead to 11-0, Rea encountered a couple more firsts. Unfortunately these consisted of his first double and run allowed when Joey Votto and Todd Frazier hit consecutive one-out two-baggers. The new guy settled back down and retired the next two batters to get out of the inning with a mere ten-run lead. After the Padres were held scoreless in their half, Rea allowed a pair of runs on a leadoff double by Tucker Barnhart and singles by Billy Hamilton and Brandon Phillips. He picked up his fourth strikeout to get out of the inning; despite his hiccups his pitch count was still just a nice 69 after five complete.

Rea went back out for the sixth inning but was pulled by interim skipper Pat Murphy after surrendering a leadoff single to Frazier. The young righty left the field to a standing ovation from the home crowd and was replaced by Odrisamer Despaigne. All told, Rea threw 75 pitches over five innings, 47 of which were strikes. He allowed seven hits and a walk in the process of permitting three runs.

Despaigne put in two scoreless innings before Bud Norris made his Padres debut in the eighth inning. The recent waiver-claim was impressive in his new uniform and new role, sending all three Reds he faced back to the bench, two by way of strikeout. Frank Garces came in for the ninth and immediately allowed Todd Frazier's twenty-eighth homer of the year, prompting Randy Jones to ask Scan "May I use Uncle Teddy's 'That was ca-rushed'?" Garces managed to get two outs before giving up a single and Jason Bourgeois' first home run of the season. After an error by third baseman Brett Wallace and a walk to Brandon Phillips, he finally put an 11-6 victory in the books.

Jedd Gyorko led the Padres' bat parade with four RBI, two each from his first-inning double and his second-inning homer. Yangervis Solarte, Yonder Alonso, and Austin Hedges joined him with multi-hit games.

The Padres will go for the series sweep tomorrow at 12:40pm with James Shields going up against rookie Raisel Iglesias. I'd tell you more about those two but this is a recap and that's what previews are for.