Padres mid-game report: Villanueva named to MLB team of the month, hits 9th homer

By John Horvath
Published

SAN FRANCISCO-- Prior to Tuesday night's game against the San Francisco Giants, Padres 3B Christian Villanueva was named to MLB's Team of the Month for April.

https://twitter.com/MLB/status/991417973624754177

The 26-year-old registered a 1.103 OPS with eight home runs and 19 RBIs in the opening month of the 2018 season. Entering Tuesday's ballgame, Villanueva was leading all MLB rookies in home runs and RBI.

In the first inning, Villanueva got his May started with a 377-foot home run off Giants starter Andrew Suarez. The ball left the bat at 101 mph, per Statcast. He entered the game slugging an absurd 1.296 against left-handed pitching, and has improved those numbers tonight.

The Padres added another run in the fourth on an Eric Hosmer triple and Jose Pirela groundout to take a 2-0 lead.

The Giants have since trimmed the lead in half via an Andrew McCutchen RBI knock in the 5th inning.

The Padres currently lead 2-1 headed to the sixth.