Eric Stults settles down in finale

Padres starting pitcher Eric Stults closed his spring with a solid outing Friday against the Rangers. Stults threw four innings in the tune-up start, and he allowed just one earned run.

Stults held the Rangers to three hits in the game, while walking two batters. He allowed two runs, only one of which was earned, to lower his ERA to 5.87. Stults struck out three batters, and had two groundball outs to five fly balls.

Despite posting a mediocre ERA in the spring, Stults enters the season as a member of the Padres' rotation thanks to his wonderful work in 14 starts a year ago. He will make his first start of the season Thursday against a Mets team he threw five shutout innings against last season.