ST Wrap-Up: Padres lose to Royals, 6-2

The Padres faced the Royals today. Jered Weaver was the starter for the Friars and Nathan Karns hurled the horsehide for the Royals. Today’s lineup didn’t have too many surprises. Solarte started at second base, as Andy Green had hinted while Soley was with Team Venezuela, and Spangenberg is moving over to third. Allen Cordoba is in the outfield again, this time in leftfield. Austin Hedges is behind the dish and in the heart of the lineup just as he is in the hearts of us Padres fans. Here’s the lineup en Español:

The Padres were retired in order to lead off the game, and Jered Weaver objected to such treatment of his teammates by plunking two of the first four batters he faced. That strategy backfired when he gave up a double, another double, and a single to consecutive batters, which put a four-spot up for KC. Carlos Fisher was brought on to clean up the mess, and he mercifully stranded the runner he inherited. So ended Jered Weaver’s outing, leaving him with this awful line: 0.2IP, 3H, 4ER, 2K, 2HBP. Royals led the Padres through one, 4-0. Yuck.

Fisher surrendered a solo homer to Mike Moustakas in the second and finished his day with two innings of work before passing the horsehide to Christian Bethancourt. Bethancourt recorded four outs by way of groundout, but gave up a double and a balk in the process. Please, someone fill me in on exactly what the balk was all about, because I find these things interesting and I didn’t have a video feed up to record the incident. Regardless, he held down the fort and lowered his spring training ERA to a tidy 1.42. Brandon Maurer followed Bethancourt with a scoreless inning. Ryan Buchter didn’t get away as easy, serving up a solo shot to Chelsor Cuthbert (no relation to Elisha) in the sixth during his single inning of work. Trey Wingenter and Brad Hand each pitched a scoreless inning to complete the game.

The Padres bats were very quiet through the first six innings. Jabari Blash decided “enough is enough” and nearly sent his sixth dinger home, only to settle for a double off the top of the wall. Cory Spangenberg knocked him in with his second double of the game. The Pads tacked another one up in the eighth with back-to-back singles from Allen Cordoba and Luis Torrens, then a single from Erick Aybar plating Cordoba. Sadly, those two measly runs were all that the Padres could muster on this day. Final score, Royals 6, Padres 2.

Tomorrow’s game features the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, which is not only the most loquacious title in all of baseball, it’s also so redundant that it repeats itself twice. Luis Perdomo is scheduled to start the game, so expect a stronger start than today’s woeful performance. Let’s all hope that Mr. Weaver is getting this out of his system now.