Padres 8, Phillies 4: Spangenberg is a lil’ troublemaker

The Padres picked up where they left off last night, with stay-in-the-game pitching and some consistently good offense. They’re weirdly climbing into .450 % territory, and at least giving fans a good home series as the regular season is starting to wind down.

Dinelson Lamet was critical tonight, with yet another stellar August start. Dude threw 7 good frames, striking out 7. He only walked one, and his 2 earned runs were on a 2-run home run from Jorge Alfaro, his very first major league home run and the hardest hit HR from a Phillie all season. Not enough to win the game, though.

Carter Capps and Kyle McGrath sewed up the game, with Capps throwing a shutout inning and McGrath poorly giving up 2 runs, but still respecting the 8-run lead the Friars lineup provided him.

Those runs came from two RBI-doubles in the first inning, one from Yangervis Solarte and another from Cory Spangenberg. Spangy, who has been on quite the tear lately, would end up crushing a solo HR in the 4th inning to put the Pads up 4-0.

Then, in the 5th, Spangy would get on first with a bases-loaded RBI-forceout, putting Solarte on third. With Hector Sanchez at bat, Spangy took second base easily and goaded an errant throw from the catcher Alfaro. Solarte took advantage and scored, undoing half of Alfaro’s earlier damage.

Then, Sanchez homered to put the Pads up 8-2.

Despite the late 2-run shot from the Phils the Friars would keep the lead and take the series. They finish up the series with a day game tomorrow, before housing a series against the Nationals.