The San Diego Padres traveled to Mesa, Arizona to take on the Chicago Cubs in the Cactus League on Tuesday. Starter Marco Gonzales, who had location issues after more than a year off the mound, lasted 1.2 innings and allowed three runs on five hits and hit one batter.
Ron Marinaccio followed with 1.1 scoreless innings pitched, relying more on his long relief attempt by going up and down during the first and second innings. He will soon start for Team Italy in the World Baseball Classic but has not allowed a hit so far.
Advertisement
Bradgley Rodriguez struck out two in his inning of relief and got a weak swing on a pop-up to first. Reliever Francis Peña continues to struggle with his command while allowing two walks, a home run and a double for three runs in his 0.2 innings pitched.
The rest of the pitchers held the Cubs in check, but the Padres fell just short, scoring three runs in the final two innings, but couldn’t come back and lost 6-5.
First baseman Romeo Sanabria had another good day at the plate, replacing Nick Castellanos, getting a single and scoring a run. Castellanos also had 11 pitches at bat in the fourth inning, which resulted in a double off the centerfield wall and two RBIs. Outfielder Bryce Johnson was 2 for 2 with two singles and a walk. He’s had a great spring, currently 3-for-8 with one walk in his three games played.
New Padre Sung-Mun Song was hitless in his Padres debut as a starter, but played clean third base and drew a walk with good at-bats in the third inning.
Advertisement
Although outfielder Tirso Ornelas was designated for assignment last week, he was granted waivers and returned to spring camp yesterday. He came on in the sixth inning for DH Miguel Andujar and had a single in his first at-bat.
Occupied practice fields
With the game being a 40-minute drive from Mesa, the practice fields saw early action and then bullpens for Joe Musgrove, Nick Pivetta, Walker Buehler and Miguel Mendez.
Germán Márquez threw live BP to the backfields with Manny Machado and Jackson Merrill taking swings and several members of the pitching staff watching.
The team bus left at 11 a.m. for Mesa and the players making the trip got to work early and then left the fields. The rest of the team completed fielding and infield work as well as batting practice. Ramon Laureano took a break while walking between the fields to sign autographs and take a photo or two.
Tomorrow’s game will be back between Peoria and the Angels. Michael King will make his Cactus League debut.
