PITTSBURGH — It was 44 degrees and gray when the first pitch was thrown. The sun peeked from behind the high clouds for just a bit in the middle innings, and it never got warmer than 46 on the banks of the Allegheny River on Thursday.
But just in time for their first series of the season against the Dodgers, the Padres heated up.
They began the early afternoon game by doing everything on offense they had not done the previous two nights, hitting a home run, three doubles and a single and going 3-for-5 with runners in scoring position in the first inning.
That staked Chris Paddack to a four-run advantage as he walked to the mound for the first time. The lead was never fewer than five runs after the second inning, and Paddack was able to make it through five innings for the first time this season as the Padres earned a split of the four-game series by beating the Pirates 8-3 at PNC Park.
A sweep in Texas and win the first night here were followed by two losses in which the Padres went 2-for-20 with runners in scoring position. By closing with a victory, though, they finished 5-2 on the trip, their best winning percentage (.714) on a road swing of at least seven games since 2006.
Manny Machado’s home run and doubles by Jake Cronenworth, Eric Hosmer and Tucupita Marcano comprised the first time the Padres had four extra-base hits in the first inning since 2007.
Hosmer’s two-run single in the second inning was the Padres’ first hit in 13 at-bats since opening day with the bases loaded. Tuesday, they grounded out three times with the bases loaded.
They finished the day 4-for-11 with runners in scoring position, halting a run of futility in which they were 13-for-77 with runners on second and/or third base over the previous 10 games.
While it was only a matter of time before the offense performed as expected, perhaps the most positive development Thursday was Paddack, after going four innings in both his first two starts, navigating five against the Pirates.
After throwing 38 pitches and allowing a run in the second inning, he made it through the third and fourth in just 24 more. Despite yielding a single and double with one out, he was almost through the fifth without allowing a run when a sinking and tailing line drive bounced off Marcano’s glove in right field and allowed two unearned runs to score. Paddack ended the inning by getting a groundout.
Paddack lasting as he did and Craig Stammen earning a three-inning save helped spell a bullpen that had throw 28 2/3 innings in the previous five games and 13 1/3 in the middle two games here.
That could be beneficial in Friday’s opener against the Dodgers, as the Padres will give rookie Ryan Weathers his first major league start. Weathers threw 64 pitches in his final spring training game March 26 and has thrown a total of 80 in his three appearances (six innings) this season.
