Padres recover from being swept by winning Game 1 against the Braves in Atlanta – NBC 7 San Diego

Friday night in Atlanta, we got a glimpse of the diversity within the San Diego Padres pitching staff. The starter had a knuckleball dancing on the breeze…the guys who came after him bring a left-handed splitter, a right-handed slider, a 100 MPH fastball and another with elite spin rate on his heater .

When everyone is on their game, it can leave an opposing lineup grasping at straws, which is exactly what happened in a 3-1 Padres win over the Braves to open a 4-game series in Georgia. Matt Waldron, Yuki Mastui, Enyel De Los Santos, Robert Suarez and Jeremiah Estrada combined to retire 18 Atlanta batters (and no, I didn’t list the last two out of order).

Waldron was attached to his knuckleball and it worked. The right-hander hit a career-high 10 and allowed just one run in his 5.2 innings of work. He got some support at the point, which hasn’t always been the case in his starts, in the 5th inning when the Friars used the “death by paper cuts” approach. Luis Arraez singled, Fernando Tatis Jr. walked, Jurickson Profar singled to score Arraez, Jake Cronenworth singled to score Tatis and Manny Machado brought Profar home with an RBI groundout. San Diego had 13 hits, all singles.

This would be enough for the weapons. Matsui and De Los Santos took them to the 8th inning with a 3-1 lead and manager Mike Shildt made an interesting tactical choice. He dismissed closer Robert Suarez for the 8th inning. The 2-3-4 spots in order… Ozzie Albies, Marcell Ozuna and Matt Olson… were expected. All are All-Stars and pose the biggest threat to the lead. So, Shildt went to his best bullpen arm one run into the top of the inning.

It worked perfectly. Suarez walked around two hits to pitch another scoreless frame, then gave way to Jeremiah Estrada, the youngster who found success as Triple-A El Paso’s closer. He could also have a future at the back end of a big league bullpen. Estrada homered to earn his first career Major League save and end San Diego’s three-game losing skid.

The rest of the series is also shaping up well for the Brothers. They send Yu Darvish, who is working on an 18-inning scoreless streak, to the mound Saturday and expect to get Joe Musgrove back from the injured list for Sunday. On Monday, it will be Dylan Cease, who has been the Padres’ most consistent starter this season.

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