Padres Score: Nelson Cruz Dominates, Seth Lugo Shines in San Diego's Win
Talk about everything coming together at once for the Friars. Everybody brought their A-game in the team's fourth game against the Braves on Sunday and won 10-1 in dominant fashion.
Nelson Cruz, what an outing! At 42-years-old, he was able to cash in six RBI's in just six innings. Put that along with Seth Lugo bringing forth another great performance at the pitching mound with only one run allowed and that is a recipe for success.
The game was pretty calm up until the third inning where Ha-Seong Kim got the ball rolling with a double to centerfield that saw Jake Cronenworth record the first run of the day.
Fast-forward one inning and Cruz started his masterclass showcase with a home run that only brought him in but also Xander Bogaerts and Manny Machado.
The very next inning, Trent Grisham saw a pitch he fell in love with and took Dylan Dodd deep once again.
Just like that, we had ourselves a 5-0 lead.
Juan Soto ran to home plate thanks to another RBI from Cruz in that same inning and then Kim returned to bat with even more firepower this time.
He hit his second home run of the season that saw Cruz score with him.
Former Padres beat writer Bill Center provided some excellent insight as to just how successful the Friars were at the plate at this point in the game.
"In five innings, the #Padres already have a season-high seven extra-base hits -- homers by Cruz, Grisham and Kim; doubles by Cronenworth, Kim, Soto and Cruz."
(Via Bill Center)
Orlando Arcia then made sure that the Braves did not completely scoreless as he gave them their first run of the game thanks to an RBI from Ronald Acuna Jr.
The superstar of the day Nelson Cruz decided he had one more in him in the sixth inning and connected on another powerful single to centerfield that brought in Xander Bogaerts and Machado. This now put the Padres up 10-1.
Arcia was able to sneak in another run for Atlanta thanks to a single from Matt Olson.
The Padres are back at it Monday at 4:10 pm PT against the New York Mets as they look to win another series.
