Spangenberg, Padres walk off with win

For some two months, Odrisamer Despaigne and Jesse Hahn breathed life into the rotation as injuries threatened to sink the Padres’ strong suit. Now another rookie is doing the same for the offense.

Tuesday’s heroics were bit grander, too: In the pinch and in the ninth of a tie game.

No, Cory Spangenberg never dared let his imagination run this wild.

“I’ve always dreamed of playing Major League Baseball; I don’t think I ever got into detail about hitting the walk-off home run,” Spangenberg said after lining the first pitch he saw over the fence for a 2-1 victory over Arizona that sent the Padres to their fourth walk-off win in their last six games. “It’s just incredible.”

So, too, have been the last few days for a 23-year-old rookie who two months ago was just beginning to shake off the after-effects of his second concussion in the last three years.

He hit right from the start of his season reset at Double-A San Antonio to earn a promotion over the weekend and pulled a two-run single through the infield in his debut Monday. On Tuesday, Phil Plantier was in manager Bud Black’s ear the moment Diamondbacks reliever Brad Ziegler left the bullpen in the ninth in a 1-1 game.

Never mind veteran Seth Smith still sitting on a deep bench. Go with the rook, the Padres’ hitting coach implored his manager.

“To be quite frank, Phil Plantier felt pretty good about the at-bat,” Black said after pulling Cameron Maybin for Spangenberg after Rymer Liriano flew out to right to start the ninth. “We were thinking Smitty maybe in the pitcher’s spot if somebody was on base. The pitcher’s spot was four away and Cam didn’t have great numbers against Ziegler.

“Phil thought that Ziegler’s type of pitching was pretty good for Spangy, and Spangy is a slasher who likes the ball out and a little bit down.”

What he got was a slider up and in the middle of the plate, which he yanked over the short porch in right to send what was left of a crowd of 14,316 – the third lowest in Petco Park history – home with a win. Spangenberg appreciated the opportunity as much as he did the hittable pitch.

“They trust me already, and that’s huge,” Spangenberg said after retrieving the ball from two season-ticket holders. “If the head coach and hitting coach trust you on your second day, that just lifts your spirits and gives you that much more confidence.”

Confidence, too, is growing again with Despaigne.

In continuing a series of re-adjustments in an up-and-down start to his career, Despaigne scattered four singles – three in one inning – didn’t walk a batter and struck out four over seven strong innings and Nick Vincent and Kevin Quackenbush (3-3) each threw a scoreless inning to best the Wade Miley-led Diamondbacks.

“The last two outings I’ve been more aggressive,” Despaigne said through an interpreter after facing the Diamondbacks for the third time this season. “I’ve always tried to be aggressive and throw strikes early in the count, but for some reason the last two outings I’ve been more consistent doing that and I’ve been able to use my off-speed pitches to make guys chase bad pitches.”

Despaigne’s first two starts against the Diamondbacks spanned both ends of the success spectrum, as had the first 12 starts of his career. The Cuban defector won one easily (6 1/3 IP, 1 ER), lost another somewhat handily (5 IP, 3 ER) and entered Tuesday’s start looking to sustain newfound momentum after striking out a career-high nine in a win over the Brewers last week.

After cruising through his first five starts – which included taking a no-hit bid into the eighth inning – Despaigne’s ERA had ballooned to 5.89 over his next six starts.

Simplicity, not stuff, has carried him out of that funk.

“I think with any starting pitcher, his performance starts with the fastball,” Black said. “You look at (his previous) outing and you see fastball command, locating the fastball and using it effectively to get to his secondary pitches. Despaigne got away from that in starts 3, 4, 5, and even in the no-hit bid, he threw a lot of breaking balls.

“The last couple of games the emphasis was getting back to more fastball usage.”

Tuesday’s entry was more of the same.

In turning in his second straight quality start, Despaigne dispensed first-pitch strikes to 19 of the 25 batters who stepped into the box (David Peralta was picked off first after a first-pitch strike to Mark Trumbo in the first). He also threw 74 of his 109 pitches for strikes and allowed his lone run on Miguel Montero’s bloop single in the fourth before giving way to pinch-hitter Tommy Medica with a runner on second base and two outs in the bottom of the seventh.

One problem: Miley, with all his experience against the Padres, was pretty darn good, too.

The 27-year-old left-hander retired Medica on a fly ball to right to end that jam, one of a handful the Padres mustered in his seven quality innings.

Credit a filthy move to first – or base-running blunders, depending on your perspective – for Miley limiting his damage to just Alexi Amarista’s run-scoring single in the fifth inning. It caught both Abraham Almonte, in the first, and Liriano, in the seventh, leaning the wrong way as the Diamondbacks starter left with just one run allowed on seven hits and two walks in seven innings.

Miley struck out five.