Padres 4, Phillies 3: Austin Hedges gets heroic

It was throwback night in Philadelphia tonight, which is probably why the Padres were so good. There’s something about wearing brown that just brings out the best in the Friars. Specifically, it brought out the best in Austin Hedges, who went deep twice and hit a game-winning sacrifice fly in the ninth inning. Jose Pirela joined Hedges with a solo shot, providing four runs of support for starter Clayton Richard, who held the Phillies to one run in six innings.

Pirela got things started in the first, and he worked hard for it. He got ahead 2-0 before Nick Pivetta battled back to a 2-2 count. Then Pivetta left one up in the zone, and Pirela drilled it.

It wasn’t long before Hedges doubled that lead. Pivetta tossed him a slider that didn’t really slide, and the handsomest man in baseball did some naughty things with it.

Richard allowed his one run in the fourth, when Tommy Joseph took him yard. No big deal. Hedges just needed to hit another bomb.

Phil Maton ran into a little trouble in the seventh inning, when he allowed runners to reach second and third with one out. A ground out advanced both runners and sent Maton packing. Brad Hand took over, but couldn’t get the third out before Freddy Galvis hit a game-tying single. It’s a good thing there was a hero waiting in the wings.

Cory Spangenberg singled to lead off the ninth, and Carlos Asuaje followed up with a one-out single to put runners on the corners. That brought up Hedges, who diealed it back a bit with a mere sacrifice fly. But it was more than enough for Brandon Maurer to pick up the save.

Jhoulys Chacin takes the mound tomorrow in hopes of a series win. First pitch at 1:10 PM.