Padres lose home opener to Brewers in 12 innings

SAN DIEGO- The Padres rallied in the ninth and threatened in the 11th, but it was not enough.

Ji-Man Choi doubled off Adam Cimber and Orlando Arcia singled him home in the 12th inning, propelling the Brewers to a 2-1 victory on Opening Day in front of 44,649 fans at Petco Park.

Milwaukee scored their first run of the contest with the help from an unlikely source-- the pitcher. With two outs in the third, starting pitcher Chase Anderson lined a pitch up the middle off starter Clayton Richard for a base hit. Lorenzo Cain and Christian Yelich followed Anderson with singles, with the latter one scoring Anderson.

It ended up being the only run that Richard allowed. The Padres starter threw seven innings of one-run baseball, giving up six hits and striking out four.

Andy Green complimented Richard after the game, who was making his first Opening Day start at age 34: “Clayton was outstanding, his sinker was very good, and he was beneath the zone consistently. We definitely want to win games when Clayton Richard throws the ball like he did.”

Talking about his start, Richard said he only had two pitches he would take back; them being the 1-2 pitch that Anderson hit his single on, and the 0-2 pitch in which Yelich hit the RBI single. He also said getting the Opening Day nod was “special,” especially because he was able to have his family there to watch him.

The Brewers’ starter, Chase Anderson, was able to one-up his counterpart. He did not allow a hit until one out in the fourth, when Jose Pirela slashed an opposite-field single past a diving Jonathan Villar. It was the only hit he would allow in an impressive Opening Day performance. Anderson ended up throwing 97 pitches, 61 of them for strikes. He allowed the previously mentioned base hit, walked three, and punched out six in six innings.

After a breakout 2017 in which he went 12-4 with a 2.74 ERA, his 2018 is off to a tremendous start.

Down 1-0 in ninth, San Diego tied the game on a two-out Freddy Galvis run-scoring single. The rally came off of 2017 All-Star Corey Knebel, who saved 39 games a year ago. With one out, Carlos Asuaje lined an opposite-field base hit. After Chase Headley flew out, Matt Szczur came in to pinch-run for Asuaje. Szczur promptly stole second base to get himself into scoring position, and on the Galvis single, scampered home to tie the game up.

The Padres had a golden chance to walk-off after loading the bases with one out in the 11th inning, but Chase Headley grounded into a 5-1-3 double play to dash the hopes of the San Diego faithful.

“His pitches had a lot of sink,” Headley stated when asked about the double play. “I hit the ball relatively hard, but that’s baseball. We just could not get the big hit today when we needed to.”

What we learned
Infield Defense

The much-improved and much-talked about infield defense showed potential of what it could be in 2018. The Padres turned two highlight-reel double plays in the first two innings.

The first came from Chase Headley, who picked a hard-hit line drive to start a 5-4-3 double play off the bat of Ryan Braun. Per StatCast, the ball was hit at 106 miles per hour.

In the second inning, Freddy Galvis fielded a ground ball on an awkward hop, which caused him to end up on the seat of his pants. From there, he flipped to Carlos Asuaje, who threw the ball onto first to complete the twin-killing.
Richard, who led all of baseball with 32 ground-ball double plays last season, said those two plays on defense “changed the complexion of the game. If it was not for the defense, we would not have been in the game late.”

The Padres have not been shy about their confidence in their infield defense, and if today is any indication, it should help not only Richard but the rest of the pitching staff in 2018.

New Digs

Eric Hosmer went hitless in his Padres’ debut, going 0-4 with two strikeouts. He did walk once. The $144 million man grounded into a rare 5-6-3 in the eighth inning.

“It’s day one, a lot of guys getting their feet wet.” Hosmer said of his debut. “We have to come back and bounce back tomorrow.”

Freddy Galvis went 2-4 in his first game as a Padre. His two-out, game-tying RBI single in the ninth brought home the Padres’ first run of 2018.

Chase Headley’s return to San Diego was an 0-4 day with a walk.

For the Brewers, Lorenzo Cain made his presence felt in the lineup immediately. Hitting out of the leadoff spot, he was 3-5 with three singles on the day. Christian Yelich went 1-4 with a walk and an RBI single.

Matt Albers, who signed a 2 year, $5 million deal with Milwaukee in the offseason, threw a scoreless 8th inning.

New position for Wil

Wil Myers played in right field on Thursday for the first time since 2016. After the game, he said he “felt good” in right field. Myers handled three putouts on the day.

Opening Day Blues

The Padres are now 21-29 as a franchise on Opening Day, and have not won the season opener since 2014. They fell to 25-25 as a franchise in home openers.