Tagged: lance zawadzki
Middle of a Double-Header…
The Padres lost their first-place lead this week. It was almost unbelievable. We’d been hanging out there ever since April 19th, and then we finally gave it up to the Dodgers. Which is really, really sad.
I thoroughly enjoyed being in first place for all that time and I refuse to give it up now. It was soo cool to see my boys up there for such a long time because everyone said that the Padres would be far far away from there, like in the NL West cellar. Thankfully, the Diamondbacks took our place down there and we were able to stay on top.
Now that run seems to be over, but like I said, we just can’t give up hope. Come on, we gave up our lead to the Dodgers. The Dodgers! We have to get it back from them ASAP!!!
Now we won our first game today, another gem by Mat Latos, so that brings us back to only half a game behind the Dodgers. If we can win our second game tonight, I think we’ll be in good shape. Then all we have to do is win the next oh, say, 60 series. (I don’t even know how many series we have left)
Latos threw an amazing game today. He went six innings, allowing two hits, two runs, one walk, and struck out eight batters. Whew. I am so in love with our pitching staff right now. They are sooo good!
Speaking of pitching, how ’bout that outing by Stephen Strasburg? I was super excited to get to watch part of that game because he’s a San Diego boy. I never did get to see him pitch when he was here, but I really really hope that someday he’ll be able to play for the hometown team.
I love you Strassy!!!!
My boy Lance Zawadzki has not been doing too great in the last week. Seems like he’s only been given pinch-hitting opportunities, but he’s gotten his average up to .231. You can do it Lance! Maybe he’ll get to start tonight…
I just wanted to mention something that a couple people have been discussing in the comments of my entry a couple days ago: why do the Padres have such low attendance? Listen to what padres2050 pointed out: “Waiting to see how long a team is good, just to start going to games, is very weak. All around the league there are teams that had much worse starts than ours did, and their teams’ fans didn’t wait around, they showed up from day 1. Now I will agree all around the Majors, because of the economy, the attendance is down a bit. But not to 15K a game in most places. Our city is I believe 7th ranked in population in the country. It takes playing the Dodgers and the Cubs and having their fans come in to pack the park to sell out? That’s just sad. Other teams’ fans will travel from all over the country to Petco. Our fans won’t even come from San Diego. It must be disheartening for our players to see the empty stands or worse, to hear the visiting fans make it sound like it’s their home and not ours. I will go on record that I admire fans who come from afar when their team is not even in 1st place. I gotta respect that and wish our fans would do the same. Being a fan is not about winning or losing, it’s about supporting your team whether they are in first or last place. It’s about loyalty and showing up no matter what. Truthfully, I think a lot of San Diegans are weak in the excuses they use. It doesn’t help our reputation nationwide. We complain we don’t get enough national media attention. Why should they pay attention when the impression that’s given, with all the empty seats, is that we don’t care, ourselves? The Padres have done a lot of things, lowered ticket prices in a lot of areas, etc., they understand the economy is bad. They must really be flustered.”
I agree completely. We really have no excuse, and I really hope that the attendance will get up ASAP. We should be cheering for these boys no matter what, and even harder now that they’ve lost their first-place lead. They’ll spring back. They always do. But we need to get out there and support them already!
Looking forward to this game tonight. It’s been a really long time since we’ve had a double header. Go Jon Garland! Padres dominate.
GO SOON-TO-BE-IN-FIRST-PLACE PADRES!!
Grand Slam Domination
Last night’s game was crazy amazing.
Let me start off by saying that it’s not very often that we completely dominate like this. And I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The thing that got it all started was Jerry Hairston Jr’s grand slam in the bottom of the second. That was amazing! First grand slam of the year for the Padres. The inning started off with three straight singles by Nick Hundley, Chris Denorfia, and Oscar Salazar. Jerry came up two outs later and got the ball just fair down the left field corner. It was so cool. Lately, we’ve been leaving a lot of runners on base, especially when they get there with no outs. It was really, really good that we were able to take full advantage of that situation.
In the bottom of the third, Adrian and Chase led off the inning with singles. Nick Hundley, who’s been amazingly hot lately, hit a double to drive both of those guys in.
We didn’t score in the bottom of the fourth, but we got four runs in the bottom of the fifth. Adrian and Chase led off with singles again, and then Nick Hundley walked. After that, Chris Denorfia and Oscar Salazar each walked in a run. I was so loving the Mets pitching at that moment.
After a pitching change, Luis Durango drove in his first two runs of his major league career. At the end of that inning, we were winning 10-4.
On the other side, Kevin Correia was having a fairly good game. He ended up going six innings, allowing six runs on seven hits. Not the best, but thankfully, his offense was well-ahead of him.
The bottom of the sixth was our biggest inning of the night. Adrian and Chase led off the inning again, but this time Adrian was walked and Chase got his third hit of the night. Nick Hundley singled, Denorfia doubled, and we scored two more runs. Oscar Salazar walked. Luis Durango grounded into a force out that got Nick thrown out at home. But then Will Venable singled in three. J-Hair singled, and Eck sac-flied him in. It was a great inning.
In the bottom of the seventh, Chase Headley got his fourth hit of the night with a solo homer. That brought us to 17-6. The Petco Park record for most runs scored by the Padres was 17 runs. We set that on Opening Day here. Thus, our 18th run, scored in the bottom of the eighth, set another record.
I would like to mention that Lance Zawadzki was the one who drove in that run because I think I’m finally finding a new favorite player. At the beginning of the year I decided that Scott and Jerry Hairston would be my new favorites, but that’s not really gone through. Obviously, I love all of these guys, but I think a player becomes your favorite instead of you deciding that he will be. And I do have to say, this kid is absolutely adorable. Whew.
After K-Cor left, the bullpen did great. Ryan Webb, Sean Gallagher, and Joe Thatcher held on to that lead (haha) and didn’t allow any runs.
This game was soo much fun to follow. Let’s look at some of these guys’ nights:
Jerry Hairston, leading off, had two hits, including the grand slam. Before this homestand started, Jerry had zero home runs for the season. Now he has three.
David Eckstein was the only one who didn’t get into the party. He went 0-for-4, but he did drive in a run.
Adrian Gonzalez had two hits, two walks, and scored three runs.
Chase Headley had four hits and scored four runs.
Nick Hundley had three hits, drove in two runs, and scored two. Let me tell you, he has been hot. Over the weekend he was absolutely essential to our two wins in the series against the Nationals. He hit a three-run homer on Saturday and then a walk-off single in the bottom of the 11th on Sunday. It’s great to see him heating up like this.
Chris Denorfia had three hits, drove in three runs and scored three runs. Great night for him.
Absolutely amazing 18-6 win. I enjoyed it soooo much. What a great night!!
This team is proving itself to me over and over again. I really truly believe in them. I saw something on MLB.com today that took my breath away: we’re one of the current playoff teams. If the season ended today, we would be the National League West champions. I know that we’ve still got a lot of season left, and anything could happen. But these boys have been winning consistently for a long time. We’ve held onto our first-place lead for a very long time. These guys are for real. They have my support 100%.
GO FIRST-PLACE PADRES!!
Unfinished Business 