Padres Break Out the Brooms, Sweep Giants Out of Town

The San Diego Padres are riding a big wave of momentum, even if it is just the first week of the Major League Baseball season, but it's a ride they're currently enjoying.


The Padres rode a great pitching performance by Chris Young to a 6-1 win over the San Francisco Giants this afternoon, completing a series sweep.


The 6'10" Young pitched seven strong innings giving up just an unearned run on four hits, he didn't walk a batter and struck out seven. On the other side of things, Giants' starter Tim Lincecum has had two consecutive bad outings. Lincecum gave up four runs on a career high ten hits, he walked three and struck out five through five and one-third innings.


Like the last few wins for the San Diego Padres, it was the offense that has picked up their pitchers. In the third, after an Adrian Gonzalez RBI single, left-fielder Chase Headley would hit his 2nd home-run in as many days, a 2-run shot that landed in the short porch in right field, giving the Padres a 3-0 lead.

Leading the Padres' offensive charge was Nick Hundley. The 25-year old catcher finished with his best performance as a major leaguer, going 4-for-4 with an RBI single in the 7th inning. Luis Rodriguez with add 2 RBI's of his own, both coming on sacrifice flies in the 6th and 7th innings.

The San Diego Padres will ride their 4-game win streak into New York as they will help the New York Mets open their brand new ballpark, Citi Field, on Monday night. Game one of their three game set is scheduled to start at 7:10pm, but with all the ceremonies and festivities, I wouldn't expect the first pitch to be thrown until sometime around 7:30 - 7:45pm EST.

The rotation will look a little different during this three game set as well. Tonight, the Padres will have Walter Silva on the hill (0-0, 3.60 ERA) while the Mets will counter with Mike Pelfrey (1-0, 7.20 ERA). Game two match up will be Kevin Correia against former Padre Oliver Perez and in game three, Jake Peavy will be back on the hill for San Diego against Mets' right-hander John Maine.

Silva is coming off an impressive start against the Los Angeles Dodgers, giving up two runs on five hits, he walked four and struck out one through five innings of work.

Pelfrey, on the other hand, didn't have quite the success that Silva did although Pelfrey did pick up a win. The Mets' right-hander would give up four runs on five hits, walked four and struck out two through his five innings of work in a 9-7 win over the Cincinnati Reds on April 8th.