Rookies Tip Balance in Opening Win as Friars Hunt for Two in a Row: Pads vs. Diamondbacks 8/19

By Friar Wire

By Bob Scanlan

In a seesaw battle that saw leads come and go six different times, the Padres came out on top, 9–8, thanks in large part to contributions by some of the young bucks. Travis Jankowski went 4-for-5 and scored three times, and Alex Dickerson contributed 4 RBIs including all three Friar runs that crossed the plate in the 8th on his bases-clearing double to take the lead once and for all.

Tonight the Padres will look to win two in a row for the first time since their sweep of the Giants to start the second half. As they look to take care of business, some things to keep an eye on include…

1. Greinke’s location — Five days ago Zack Greinke retuned from the DL from an oblique strain

1. and could have gone right back on it with a neck strain, as he watched rocket after rocket leave the bats of the Red Sox hitters he faced in his return. He didn’t make it out of the second inning and ended up allowing 9 runs. Location was his biggest challenge, missing up and out over and getting punished for it. For a guy who’s made his living with location, it will be interesting to see if he can make the correction needed, or whether the oblique issue may not be fully healed or still affecting his delivery in some way. If so, there could be more mistakes in the zone for the Padres to pounce on.
2. Cosart’s couth against the righties — Padres starter Jarred Coasrt is coming off a nice outing

1. where he allowed only 1 run over six innings against the Mets. What’s interesting is that the Mets have only two straight right-handed hitters on their roster, so the Padres right-hander faced a mostly left-handed hitting line up that day. The lineup he faces tonight will be predominantly right-handed, which would seem to be to his advantage as a right-handed hurler, but it may not be. When you look at his splits, his success against lefties is dramatically better than against right-handed hitters. Lefties have hit only .208 with a .352 OBP helped by a lot of walks, while righties have hit a significantly higher .333 and reached base at at .417 clip. He will need to find a way to flip that trend tonight, and usually that means commanding the more difficult to get to glove side (away to righties) part of the plate.
2. Jankowski leading the charge — We noted that Travis had four hits in last night’s victory.

1. Interestingly, when you look back at the last six Padres victories, there is a common denominator in all but one of them — Jankowski had a multi-hit night. In five of those recent six wins, he has had two hits or more to set the table, and ended up scoring multiple times. He’s been an effective ignitor of the offense, and can cause distractions to opposing pitchers, as well, while on the base paths with his base stealing abilities. Hopefully for the Padres, he can be that spearhead again tonight.