SAN DIEGO _ On the most surreal of opening days, in a nearly empty ballpark, Chris Paddack fulfilled a dream.
It was Eric Hosmer who assured Friday night will be remembered fondly, as he tied a career high with six RBIs on a pair of bases-loaded doubles to help the San Diego Padres to a 7-2 victory that started a season that was tardy and will be truncated due to the spread of COVID-19.
Paddack, making his first opening day start, was his typically ferocious self as he faced off against Madison Bumgarner. That's good news for a team that has long been in search of an ace. Paddack was the Padres' eighth opening day starter in the past eight years, making them the only team with that dubious distinction.
Just as gratifying to the Padres, if not more, was what the offense was able to do in scoring enough to beat Bumgarner for a second straight year on opening day.
Hosmer, previously fruitless against Bumgarner and generally futile against left-handers, punctuated a sixth inning the Padres hope characterizes their offense.
After five innings of mostly failing against the glowering Hall of Fame-bound lefty, the Padres did what they had time and again this summer vowed was their mission. They kept the line moving with baserunners, loading the bases on a double and two walks before Hosmer cleared them with a double to the base of the wall in right-center field that put the Padres up 3-0.
Kole Calhoun's home run off Emilio Pagan made it 3-1 in the seventh.
Again stringing together quality at-bats in the bottom of the seventh, the Padres scored one run on singles by Trent Grisham and Tommy Pham that sandwiched a Fernando Tatis Jr. walk. After Manny Machado was called out on a 3-2 pitch well below the zone, Jurickson Profar followed with a walk to load the bases and bring up Hosmer, who drove Kevin Ginkel's 2-2 fastball off the left field wall.
Drew Pomeranz pitched a perfect eighth inning before Javy Guerra yielded a run on two hits in the ninth.
With a nod to his own Texas roots and Bumgarner's part-time pursuit of competing in rodeos, Paddack had referred to the matchup as "a cowboy showdown."
The two dueled from the early evening start until just after sundown.
"We're looking for Paddack to be himself, to be the aggressor," Padres rookie manager Jayce Tingler said before the game.
The 24-year-old right-hander, as usual, was that.
He threw a first-pitch strike to all but four of the 21 batters he faced. Of his 81 pitches, 63 were strikes. (As a rookie in 2019, Paddack's first-pitch strike rate of 71.4% was tops in the majors. Bumgarner was third at 69.5 percent.)
Paddack had to work to out of a bit of trouble early, doing so by getting double play grounders in each of the first two innings.
Successive singles off Hosmer's glove put Diamondbacks at first and third with one out in the second before Carson Kelly sent a change-up on the ground to start an inning-ending double play.
Jake Lamb led off the third inning by belting a 96 mph fastball in the upper middle portion of the strike zone to the base of the wall in right-center field for a double. A strikeout and a groundout later, Paddack had escaped another jam.
He would not allow another hit, and a walk by Lamb gave the Diamondbacks their only baserunner in Paddack's final three innings.
Bumgarner, who was making his sixth career start on opening day but his first for the Diamondbacks, allowed two singles in the first five innings.
Hosmer's first hit against Bumgarner in 16 career at-bats (not counting his going 1-for-9 in the 2014 World Series) was a single off the wall in left field in the second. Machado led off the fourth inning with a single into center field, and Hosmer ended that inning with a line drive that Calhoun caught near the top of the right field wall.
Wil Myers, who walked leading off the fifth, was the Padres' third baserunner. A pop fly by Ty France and Francisco Mejia's grounder to third that began a double play ended the inning.
After Lamb, playing first base, grabbed Grisham's 103.3 mph liner for the first out of the sixth inning, Tatis Jr.'s double off the right field wall gave the Padres their first runner in scoring position.
He moved to third on Machado's grounder, and Pham followed with a walk on six pitches. That brought up Profar, the Padres' surprise cleanup hitter. Profar worked a 10-pitch walk to load the bases.
Hosmer fell behind 0-2 before a slamming a cutter that Bumgarner left up in the zone that ended Bumgarner's night.
