PADRES GET INDEPENDENCE DAY WIN AGAINST DBACKS

By Liz Alper

Photo:  a patriotic Diamondbacks fan at Chase Field on the Fourth of July.  Courtesy @Dbacks on Twitter

July 4, 2016 (Phoenix) - After failing to get a sweep AGAIN, the Padres celebrated our nation’s Independence Day in the desert with a night game against the Arizona Diamondbacks.  Luis Perdomo started for San Diego against Archie Bradley for the snakes.

The Diamondbacks struck first.  Paul Goldschmidt doubled in the first, scoring Jean Segura and the snakes slithered ahead 1-0.  A bad throw from third to first by Yangervis Solarte caused an error and a run to come home.  2-0 Dbacks.

Solarte came back with a bang (Fourth of July pun intended) when he hit a two-run homer to tie the game in the fourth.  It is the longest homer in the Statcast era:  440 feet.

But as usual, the bad guys found a way to take the lead again.  Jake Lamb tripled in the fifth, scoring Michael Bourn and the Dbacks reclaimed the lead 3-2.

But the Padres came right back in the sixth with Matt Kemp’s double that scored Wil Myers to tie the game at three.

This time, the Padres were the ones that broke the tie with another two-run homer, this time by Derek Norris to give the Padres a 5-3 lead.

Norris gave the Padres a boost again in the eighth with a double that scored Travis Jankowski and made the score 6-3 Padres.  Ryan Schimpf doubled to drive him in and the Padres went up 7-3.  Football scores on the Fourth of July.  Doesn’t get more American than that.  But that perfection wouldn’t last long as the Padres kept upping the score.  Alexei Ramirez singled, driving in Schimpf and the Padres led 8-3.

The Dbacks narrowed the deficit a little bit with Nick Ahmed’s sac fly in their half of the eighth, scoring Brandon Drury and cutting the lead in half, 8-4.  But those were all the fireworks that would go off on this Fourth of July as the Padres take game one by four runs.

Game two is tomorrow night at 6:40 p.m.