Padres-Giants: Peavy Struggles in Loss to Giants

It was as simple as a pitch that didn't do what Padres' ace Jake Peavy wanted it to do, instead it stayed over the plate and Giants' short stop Edgar Renteria hit it out for a grand slam home run that led the Giants to an 8-3 win over the Padres.

The grand slam was the first ever given up by Peavy in his seven year career, but it was the the knockout punch delivered to San Diego.

Renteria had Peavy's number all night long, collecting three hits including a home run and five RBI's, raising is batting average to .455 against the Padres' right-hander.

San Diego took an early 2-1 lead in the top half of the fourth thanks to an RBI single from right-fielder Brian Giles in the first and an RBI double from Kevin Kouzmanoff in the fourth, Chase Headley was tagged out at the plate attempting to score on Kouzmanoff's double and you may look at that point in the game as a turning point.

Had Headley stayed at third, they may have had another chance to get him across to push the lead to 3-1, possibly giving Jake a little more breathing room and that big fourth inning for the Giants may not have happened.

But, as it stands now, Peavy will drop to 2-2 on the season. He would pitch six innings, giving up six runs on seven hits walking three and striking out three.

On the Giants' side of things, Matt Cain finally gets a win against the Padres, his first since 2006. Not saying he hasn't pitched well enough against San Diego for a win, but his bullpen has erased the leads he's turned over and he's ended up with either a no decision or a loss. Cain moves to 2-0 on the season after giving up just two runs on nine hits, didn't walk a batter and struck out five through his six innings of work.

If there is a silver lining in this game for San Diego, it's the fact that they can thank the Houston Astros for breaking the Dodgers' eight-game win streak. Not that that really matters this early in the season, but the closer they can keep the Dodgers in their sights, the better chance they have in staying in the NL West race.

The Giants and Padres will finish their two-game set this evening from SBC Park. The Giants will have Barry Zito (0-2, 10.00 ERA) on the mound while the Padres are hoping their number two man, Chris Young, can bounce back from his worst performance this season.

Young gave up seven runs on nine hits through three and two-third innings against Philadelphia, but thanks to a tremendous effort by his teammates, the Padres would rally for an 8-7 win over the Phillies.

Zito on the other hand hasn't fared well at all in his last two starts, not pitching past the fifth inning in either of them. He gave up four runs in four innings in a 7-3 loss to San Diego in his first start, then followed that up by giving up six runs through five innings pitched in a 7-2 loss to the Dodgers.

The Padres need this win to get back on track, it would be a momentum boost for their return home as they'll open a three-game home stand against the Pittsburgh Pirates starting on April 24th.

Padres Re-Acquire Chris Burke

After the San Diego Padres learned that young short stop Everth Cabrera would have to miss 6-8 weeks with a broken hand, General Manager Kevin Towers started to work on bringing bringing in another player to back up Luis Rodriguez, who will take over as the full time short stop.

According to Dan Hayes of the North County Times, the Padres re-acquired Chris Burke, a player the Padres had in Spring Training but traded to the Seattle Mariners because they were going to keep both Rodriguez and Cabrera.

Burke, a first round pick of the Houston Astros in 2001, has been playing with Seattle's Triple-A team in Tacoma, where he was hitting .237 in 38 at-bats. He's expected to be in uniform when the team starts their series tonight against the San Francisco Giants.

In other Padre notes, the Friars game against the Philadelphia Phillies was rained out last night but no makeup date has been decided.

The Padres arrived in San Francisco late last night and will be well rested for their series opener tonight from SBC Park. Jake Peavy (2-1, 3.98 ERA), coming off a win against the NY Mets, is expected to get the start for San Diego while the Giants will counter with Matt Cain (1-0, 2.08 ERA).

Cain is about the only pitcher in San Francisco's rotation that isn't struggling. He also has given the Padres fits over his last 15 starts against them, but he hasn't gotten much run support in those games either. Cain holds a 2.92 ERA against the Padres in 15 combined starts as well as holding them to a .197 batting average against in those same number of games.

Maddux goes 7 strong in win over Giants

Greg Maddux shook off a rough first inning and retired 19 of the last 20 batters he faced in his 7 innings of work in a 8-4 win over the San Francisco Giants in their home opener, giving up just 1 run on 3 hits, walking 2 and striking out five.

It was a different feel at the ballpark, a face Giants fans had gotten so used to in his tenure is no longer there and now see their team moving in a different direction. Barry Bonds was not in the Giants lineup, his face was gone from the left field wall, as was the home run counter towards right center field. A good thing for the Padres as Bonds seem to wear out Padre pitchers in the past, homering 8 times off last night's starter Greg Maddux.

Adrian Gonzalez had a big night for San Diego, going 4-5 with a HR, 2 RBI's and 4 runs scored. Khalil Greene went 2-3 with a triple and driving in 3, Jim Edmonds also had his best night thus far going 2-5 with a pair of RBI singles.

The Padres jumped on Giants' starter Matt Cain early, and often. In the 1st inning, Adrian Gonzalez hit his 2nd HR of the season, a 2-run shot to left center after a Tad Iguchi double. In the 3rd, Edmonds would single home Iguchi, Greene would follow with a sac fly that would score Adrian Gonzalez, then Kevin Kouzmanoff would score on a throwing error off the bat of Scott Hairston.

For the Giants, the only real bright spot was catcher Benjie Molina who went 2-4 with 3 RBI's. Starter Matt Cain really struggled in his 2nd start of the season, going 4 1/3 innings, giving up 5 runs (4 ER) on 7 hits, striking out 5 but he also walked 5 batters.

The 2 teams will face off again tonight at 7:15pm, Randy Wolf (0-0, 1.50 ERA) will go for San Diego. The Giants will go with young right-hander Tim Lincecum (1-0, 2.25 ERA).