It Always Has To Happen On Fireworks Night…

April 25, 2009

It was the night before Saturday,

And all through the house, not a creature was stirring…

Except for Kaybee.

Last night, the Padres set out to battle the Pirates at PETCO Park. It was a beautiful night for baseball, and a big crowd of 25,601 was out there to cheer for their Padres.

Kevin Correia started the game, throwing five innings of three-run three-hit ball. He was goooood. He gave up the first run in the second. The Pirates had the bases loaded and their pitcher, Ian Snell, knocked in a run.

The Padres got their first run in the bottom of the second on Adrian Gonzalez’s sixth homer of the year. We got a run each in the third and the fourth, on David Eckstein’s triple and Nick Hundley’s double. 

Correia left in the sixth with two on and no outs. Cla Meredith came in and allowed both runs to score, thus tying the game.

It stayed tied for a long time. There was one inning, I think it was the fifth, when I was brushing my teeth while listening to the game. I started yelling at my boys, since they were doing well in that inning. At that time, we needed more insurance. So, Brian Giles and Chase Headley are on base, and Kouz comes to the plate. I start yelling at him, cheering him on, calling him some weird nicknames. It was pretty funny. Ian Snell was starting to lose it by then, so he was throwing balls pretty consistently. My boy got walked!! Then I started yelling at Nick Hundley, who was next up, but he grounded out to end the inning. Oh well. I was hoping for a grand slam or something!

I think I was in bed by the top of the seventh. That doesn’t seem completely right…but I think that was it. Yeah, it was Friday night and all, but we have a big day today, so we went to bed fairly early. And yes, I was in bed with my ancient Walkman and my headphones 🙂

We had some great pitching performances last night. Edward Mujica threw a solid 1-2-3 inning. Luke Gregerson threw the eighth.

Then, Heath Bell came in for the top of the ninth. Nyjer Morgan started off with a single. Heath always makes it interesting 🙂 Then, Jack Wilson popped up right behind himself. Nick Hundley threw the mask off in an instant, and caught the ball. It was a great play! The crowd got back into it, and you could just feel this energy sweep the park. Then Heath picked off the runner at first! You thought the pop-out got the crowd pumped, well this REALLY got them pumped! It was so cool! The batter flew out to right field, and that was that.

But the Padres were unable to score in the bottom of the ninth, so we went into extras.

It always happens on fireworks night. ALWAYS. I mean, extra innings are almost certain on fireworks night. The fireworks, or Friarworks as they’re calling them this year, happen after the game. Extra innings happen, and you’ve got fireworks downtown near midnight!!

 The tenth went pretty well. Both teams got some runners on, but neither were able to score.

In the top of the 11th, I was starting to fall asleep.

Not because the game was boring or anything, but it was late, dark, I was in bed, and it had been a long day. So, once the inning was over, I got out of bed, went into the bathroom, turned on the light, and stared at myself for a few minutes. That woke me up, so I was pretty wide-awake when I climbed back into bed for the bottom half of the 11th.

Needless to say, I was ready for the game to be over. I just wanted to sleep!

It was a great inning, though. Luis Rodriguez started it out with a flyout, then Chris Burke came to the plate. He had a great AB to get walked.

Jody Gerut came up. The first pitch Matt Caps threw him, Jody hit way down the right field line…but foul. The guys said that it was about a foot and a half from being fair, and that would have ended it. But no! 

Either that pitch or the walk before had definitely rattled Matt Caps. He threw like three pickoff attempts to first, even though Burke showed no sign that he was going to try to take second. Caps kept throwing over there, then he would step off the mound, and Jody would call time, and it took forever for Caps to throw his next pitch to Jody. But Jody popped out.

Next up was David Eckstein, but Caps was still concerned about Burke over there at first. He threw two pickoff attempts before throwing a pitch to Eck, and when he finally did, he threw a ball and then a pitch out. Burke finally did steal second, the throw going into shallow center field.

Eck walked. So there’s two outs, runners on first and second, 11th inning, 3-3 tie, and Brian “Overdue Overdue Overdue” Giles coming to the plate. He had a great at-bat, running the count to 1-2. I knew he would hit the next pitch. In my slightly sleepy state, it was almost like I was there, at the ballpark, watching the ball in the pitcher’s hand. I just knew that would be the one. And it was. Gillies ripped it down the right field line, and Burke scored easily from second. Padres win!

Of course, by now my whole family was fast asleep. It was 10:45 pm, and I was probably supposed to be sleeping. Kind of hard to have a victory celebration without making noise. I hissed “YES!!!”. Thankfully, my sister was asleep, or she would have hissed, “BE QUIET!!”. I sat up in bed, fully awake now, and pumped my fist a few times. It was all I could do to keep from scream and leaping out of bed to jump around, but I was able to hold back.

It was such a great game. Edwin Moreno threw two great innings to earn his first major league win. We left 12 runners on, but in the end, we got it done. I really really enjoyed listening to the game, and boy was I pumped up afterwards!

Tonight we are playing the Pirates again, Shawn Hill against Elijah Duke. I think our momentum from last night’s game will definitely carry over.

GO PADRES!!!!

(photo credits: farm4.static.flicker.com, examiner.com)     

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Written by Kaity Bergquist Posted in Dailies Tagged with brian giles, friarworks, kevin correia, padres, petco park, sleeping, walk-off win