The San Diego Padres bullpen has been struggling lately, mostly due to being overworked. Andrew Cashner did what ace pitchers are supposed to do and gave the bullpen a rest, pitching eight innings and allowing just two earned runs, on the way to his fifth win of the season.
Heading into Tuesday night’s game, Tim Hudson held a 6-0 record and a 2.70 ERA against the San Diego Padres over the course of his career. Although he’s now on the downside of his career, he was good enough to hold the Padres to three runs in 7.1 innings on Tuesday. That would’ve been enough if it weren’t for Cashner being brilliant in front of the home town fans.
Chase Headley continues to show signs of waking up from his slump, hitting a home run in the bottom of the 1st and and walking in the 8th inning to finish 1-for-3. That early home run and a couple of key hits by Nick Hundley and Carlos Quentin was all Andrew Cashner needed.
Joe Thatcher and Luke Gregerson combined to get the final three outs of the game, with Gregerson picking up his third save of the season. San Diego has not had a day off since May 23, and the bullpen is the group that is showing the most wear and tear as a result of that long stretch of consecutive games. Luckily, they’ll get a day off on Thursday of this week.
The Padres can make a big statement with a victory tomorrow and a sweep of the Atlanta Braves, who have the second best record in the NL in 2013. Unfortunately, they’ll most likely need the consistently inconsistent Edinson Volquez to pitch well for them to have a chance to win.