Padres 3, Diamondbacks 0: The Force is strong with Robbie Erlin

A long time ago in a ballpark not so far away, Robbie Erlin got absolutely shelled by the Rockies. But tonight was a much different story. In his second start of the season, Erlin threw seven shutout innings, allowing only four baserunners on two hits, a walk, and a dropped third strike. Jeremy Hellickson was looking almost as good, but the Padres offense finally got to him in the sixth inning. They also got a little insurance off Josh Collmenter to really seal the deal.

Erlin was on fire for the first five and two thirds innings, causing fans to hold their breaths as they dared to think about the possibility of a no-hitter. But Ender Inciarte was clearly irked that the Padres Productions crew had put his face on Jabba the Hutt, so in the top of the sixth he hit a ball down the third base line for a triple. But the real action happened in the bottom half of the inning, which Cory Spangenberg led off with a double to left field. A wild pitch sent him to third, and Jedd Gyorko hit a sacrifice fly to right field to give the Friars the only run they would ever need.

Spangenberg came back to do more damage in the eighth, leading off with an infield single. Matt Kemp followed that with another single, and a Justin Upton double brought Spangy home and put Kemp on third. That brought the Return of the Jeddi, who hit another sac fly to right to put the light side up 3-0.

James Shields will try to deliver an Empire Strikes Back and not a Phantom Menace as he goes for the series win tomorrow at 1:10 PM.