Padres 4, Astros 1: Baseball is good again

The Padres may be awful at home, but they are now perfect on the road. A lot of that falls on Luis Perdomo, who twirled an impressive five innings against the World Series Champion Astros. He got four perfect innings of relief out of his bullpen and, most importantly, four runs from the offense. Jose Pirela led the charge with his three hit night. The lineup as a whole went 13-for-38, and three other Friars joined Pirela with multi-hit games.

San Diego got a gift run to start the game. Pirela hit a single, and Eric Hosmer put him on second by drawing a walk. Pirela made Houston starter Lance McCullers nervous enough to attempt a pickoff at second, and the throw went into center field, advancing both runners. A passed ball sent Pirela home, and the Padres were on top.

The Astros evened things up in the third. George Springer led off with a single, and his speedy wheels took him to third on a Jose Altuve base hit. A sacrifice fly knotted things at one each.

The Padres took the lead irrevocably in the fifth. Five Friars combined for a rally of two doubles and three singles to plate two runs. Even the struggling Austin Hedges got in on the action, starting the rally with a two-bagger to left field. They added one more run in the ninth when Christian Villanueva followed up Hosmer’s two-out double with one of his own. That gave Brad Hand a solid buffer to work with as he wrapped up his second save of the season.

Bryan Mitchell will take the mound at 4:10 PM in the hopes of starting the season’s first winning streak.