The San Diego Padres got a quality start from Eric Stults and scored just enough runs to defeat the Colorado Rockies 4-2 on Saturday evening.
Kyle Blanks hit his 3rd home run in his last 5 games, taking advantage of the starts he has been given in the absence of the injured Yonder Alonso, and Everth Cabrera continued his hot streak, hitting over .500 with an OPS over 1.000 in the month of June, to give the offense all that was needed for the win.
Eric Stults, who has been one of San Diego’s best starting pitchers in 2013, continued his strong season by giving up just 1 earned run (2 runs total) in 7 innings. Stults didn’t allow a single walk while striking out 4 Rockies, and he held former all-stars Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzlez to just 1 hit in 8 at-bats. Luke Gregerson pitched another scoreless inning in the 9th, after getting a few men on and in scoring position, to lower his ERA to 0.91 on the season.
This victory puts the Padres up 2-1 with 1 game left to play in the series on Sunday. The series, as a whole, has been very typical of the 2013 Padres. When the starting pitching is good, San Diego usually gets the win. When the starting pitching is bad, the Padres often lose after pulling close late. If Padres GM Josh Byrnes can find a way to open up a starting position for Kyle Blanks, who is showing himself to be one of the best players on the roster, and improve his starting rotation with a trade, it could be enough to get San Diego into contention this season.