Padres 11, Braves 4: Atlanta loses to a real baseball city

The Padres have now seemed to have the number of the Braves when at home for a good 15 games now. Tonights display was an extension of a streak against the Braves that left the Padres on top, and somehow within 4.5 games of first place in the NL West.

Clayton Richard worked his groundball magic tonight, trucking through 6 innings only allowing a max of 3 earned after inducing 13 ground ball outs, striking out 5, walking 2, and giving up 6 hits. But with the Padres’ offense tonight, he could have given up 3 more runs and the Braves wouldn’t even come close. Matt Strahm provided some 0-run relief, and Phil Hughes gave up a run with 2 strikeouts in the 9th inning and the Braves still weren’t even close.

Eric Hosmer kicked things off in the first inning, smashing his 7th home run of the season to center field, a solo shot. In the second, Cory Spangenberg hit his own solo HR, his 5th of the season, for a 2-0 Padres lead. The Braves evened things up in the top of the 4th, but then Raffy Lopez homered for his 3rd of the season, putting the Padres right back up 3-2.

The Padres then exploded in the 5th. First, Freddy Galvis drove in some insurance with a sac fly, bringing home Jose Pirela. Then, Spangy struck again with an RBI-triple bringing home Hunter Renfroe. Lopez, who had a 3-for-4 2 RBI night, plated his second run with an RBI single. Then, three straight RBI doubles from Travis Jankowski, Hosmer, and Pirela. The Padres were flat out beating up on reliever Luiz Gohara, who left the game with a higher ERA than starter Julio Tehran.

At 10 runs, the Padres weren’t quite done pounding yet. Franmil Reyes capped off the night of scoring with a solo HR of his own, his 5th of the season, to center field.

Good night, Braves. You’ll get your shot against Jordan Lyles tomorrow at 7pm.