Tagged: scott hairston
Get It Going, Guys!!
There’s just a couple of things I’d like to touch on about the game last night.
First of all, Luke Gregerson. The guy has been absolutely amazing for us this year. Last night he came in to pitch in the top of the 10th and did not do well at all. I know that these guys can’t be perfect all year, so I guess it was okay that he had a bad outing, but it was still tough. He walked two batters in a row, which is unheard of for Luke. It was seriously disturbing to listen to. Luke’s been so amazingly solid this season, it was just shocking to see him do anything different than domination.
He’s only walked six batters all season. It was definitely disappointing that he allowed those three runs in the top of the tenth to lose the game, but it’s okay…as long as we win the next three games in this series.
The other thing was that Scott Hairston got ejected in the bottom of the eighth. As the umpire called him out on strikes, Scotty flipped his bat. When he picked it up, the umpire started having words with him. Scott responded, and the ump threw him out almost instantly. I’m not sure what Scotty said that warranted him getting thrown out, but I was really pleased with him. Good for him to get in the ump’s face and get fired up. I think it’s good for the team to see some fire like that.
The Padres have not been doing that great this week, and that worries me a little. Hopefully we will be able to pick things up for our last couple series until the All-Star break.
Speaking of the All-Star break, look where we are right now. We’re on top of the NL West, and we have been for a really long time. We’ve almost reached the halfway mark of the season. I think we’re going to make it. If we can go a whole first half winning consistently and holding onto our first-place lead, I think we can do it for the second half too.
Can you believe the season is almost half over already? It just amazes me how fast the time’s been going. Incredible.
I know we’ve got a lot of season left. It’s going to be great.
Okay, we’ve got a couple of aces going up against together tonight. Roy Oswalt vs. Mat Latos. I am counting on Mat to have a great outing tonight. We need a solid outing from him, a bunch of offense from the guys, and some great defense. Bottom line, we need to win this game. We’ve got to get back up and get going. We NEED this series!!
GO FIRST-PLACE PADRES!!!
A Loss is a Loss
I do have to say, last night’s game was CRAZY!!! First of all, I had no doubt that my boys would be able to get a few hits and a bunch of runs off of Ubaldo Jimenez. I just didn’t account for the fact that the Rockies would get a few hits and a bunch of runs off of Kevin Correia.
Kevin Correia is a great pitcher. At least he was last year. But I was looking at some of his numbers yesterday and I realized that he isn’t doing as well as I thought he was. Last year he was a complete surprise and could have even been called our ace. But now, I’m started to get worried about him. Once I get over my anger, then I’ll really start to get worried about him.
Here’s where he’s at right now: his record is 5-6 with an ERA of 5.49. In 15 games started, he’s given up 49 earned runs, with 11 home runs. Not good. Not good at all. In fact, I think he’s the worst pitcher on the club, numbers wise. Tsk tsk.
And last night’s game was awful for him!! Before I could blink we were down 4-0. And then 6-0. And then 8-0. It was horrible!! He only went five innings, giving up six runs on seven hits. He walked six and struck out three. He gave up two home runs! I am very upset that he lost the game like that, but more than that, I’m worried! This pitching staff has been practically invincible! We can’t have guys going out there and giving up six runs. I’m sorry. It’s just not acceptable.
So what’s going wrong for Kevin Correia?
I’m not a pitching coach, and I don’t get to study the players on TV like I’d love to, so I can’t tell you what’s wrong. I don’t know if he’s made a change in his mechanics, if he’s going through something that just won’t get off his mind, if it was just the night, the batters, the team that he was facing. I don’t know what it is, but I know that the Padres have an excellent pitching coach(s) that will find out what’s wrong and will fix it.
Okay, now to the good news. The bad news is that we lost 10-6, which is an atrocious amount of runs for our pitching staff to give up. But the good news is that we did get six runs. But the bad news is that we had the tying run at the plate and we didn’t come through.
I’ll talk about the good news a little. First off, I was super not happy because we were no-hit through five innings. Before the game, I refused to believe that the best pitcher in the majors would be able to hold down my Padres. And we did get to him, eventually, but it was super hard waiting through all those innings just dying for one hitter, any hitter, to do his job and get a hit.
Finally, in the bottom of the sixth, T. Gwynn led off the inning with a walk. Eck singled (finally), and an out later, Chase Headley drove in our first run of the game. Scott Hairston then hit a three-run homer to make it a ballgame, 8-4. It was soooo exciting!!
Then in the seventh, Adrian Gonzalez drove in one with two outs. Chase was batting next, and Adrian got to go to second because of a balk. Then Chase singled, which sent Adrian to third, setting up the stage for Scott Hairston again.
Here’s where the turning point of the game was. Scotty hit a line drive right down the left field line. If it was just a tiny bit higher, it would have been a three-run-game-tying homer. Now, this would be a moot point if the Padres had been able to get those two runs in. We only got one run on Scotty’s double, so Chase and Scotty were still there on base with two outs. We were not able to come through.
It was not a good game. I mean, I guess part of it was good because we did come back slightly. But the pitching stunk, the hitting wasn’t enough, and we didn’t get a win. Blech.
But I figured that if we didn’t get last night’s game, it was okay because we could always get tonight’s and tomorrow’s. Our first-place lead is safe. We can spare one game, but only one, per series. Preferably none at all, but you know, you win some and you lose some.
Tonight, let’s win some. We’ve got Wade LeBlanc going out there against Jason Hammel. We can do this!!
GO FIRST-PLACE PADRES!!!
Gem of a Performance
I was a little frustrated with my boys after that series against the Rockies, but it was nice to have an off-day and then get back out there on the field against the Astros. Last night’s game was incredible.
First of all, Mat Latos. This kid is a stud. He’s just amazing, and I have a feeling that he’s going to do great things for this organization in the future. He’s definitely got the makeup to be a number one starter someday soon. Last night, he threw eight innings, only allowing two hits. No runs, no walks, no nothing. He also struck out nine batters. If my memory is correct, I think that outing was the longest any of our starters have gone so far. Absolutely amazing.
And on top of that, he hit two doubles and drove in a run. He was on his game last night. Stunning performance by Mat Latos.
But Mat didn’t do everything himself. He had a lot of help from the rest of the lineup. Scott Hairston was in the leadoff spot for the first time, and guess what he did? He hit two home runs!! I love Scotty. He’s so valuable to this club, not just this year, but in 2007 and 2008 too.
Chase Headley also hit a big two-run homer. Ryan Webb pitched the ninth, and we won the game 7-0.
We now have our first-place lead back, if only by half a game. But we’ll be okay. This team has proved to me over and over again that they are very capable of winning consistently. One bad game is not going to change that.
I’m so excited about these boys. They’re good. They’re solid. They’re winning and they’re going to keep doing that. I can’t wait to see what else this season holds.
GO FIRST-PLACE PADRES!!!
Spring Training Countdown: 9 Days!!!!
NINE DAYS PEOPLE!!!! Nine days until our boys are finally, finally back in action!!!
So last night I was trying to think of something that I could talk about that had to do with the number nine for this entry. For some reason, the fact that there are nine players on the baseball field and the ninth player is the right fielder got into my head. Yes, I must have been half asleep. But whatever. Today I’m going to talk about the ninth player on the field, the right fielder.
This year’s whole outfield situation is going to be interesting this year. And so is the right field situation. Right now, I would say that Will Venable is our right fielder. Or Kyle Blanks.
The outfield looks like Tony Gwynn, Scott Hairston, Will, and Kyle right now. Argh. I’m so mad that Chase is at third. Anyways, Buddy Black said something interesting last week. He said that the outfield situation is more of a shuffling/sharing situation than platooning. I think he meant that all the outfielders are going an equal amount of playing time.
So it’s going to be very interesting to see how that works out. It’s going to be interesting to see how this whole team works out!
One thing I’m really thankful for about this team this year is that we have a very good idea of what the team is going to look like. We don’t have the bullpen or rotation uncertainties that we had in Spring Training last year. We know what our infield and outfield are going to look like. The bench isn’t completely settled, but we have an idea. The only thing we really have to worry about is what this team is going to do this season.
My expectations for this team are very low. I’m not saying that I expect them to do badly, but that I’m not having any expectations at all. I’m just going to wait and see how things work out. Last year was up and down. I certainly didn’t expect that we would do as well as we did. I’m going to let the boys surprise me. And whatever happens, it’s baseball.
GO PADRES!!! ONLY NINE DAYS!!!!
New Padres Crushes :)
So at FanFest last Saturday, Hyun Young and I were talking about our baseball crushes with jbox from Gaslamp Ball. jbox asked me who my new Padres crush would be now that Kouz is gone and gave me some suggestions. I wasn’t really sure who I wanted to make my new crush, but I’ve finally realized who they are going to be! I can’t believe I didn’t think of them before, but let me present to you, my new Padres crushes!
I LOVE THESE GUYS!!!! LIKE CRAZY!!!! I guess just through chasing after them all day at FanFest, I really fell in love with them. I’ve always really liked Scotty, especially with how well he did for us, but I had Kouz then. It’s really ironic that we got Scotty for Kouz. I was so sad about losing Kouz that I couldn’t be too happy about getting Scotty in return. But now that we’ve got Jerry, I’m doing a lot better with it. Now, I’m super excited about having both the brothers here.
They are so adorable!!!
I’ve always loved the brother combinations: the GilesBros, the GonzoBros. Neither of those worked out that great, but I’ve got a feeling that the HairBros are going to be AMAZING together.
You have no idea how much more excited about this team I am now that I’ve got two guys who I’m a little more attached to than the others. Don’t get me wrong, I would still be very excited about this team even if I didn’t have the HairBros, but it just helps to keep excitement in the team.
It’s still going to be an adjustment to get used to not having Kouz around, though. Every spring, padres.com interviews a bunch of players and usually put a video up every day of the interview and then players working out. For the last two years, I was super excited about watching those videos because I couldn’t wait to see Kouz out there. It was so cool to be able to see him batting and running around and get ready for the season. This year, I won’t get to do that. And that’s pretty sad. But I will be able to look for the HairBros.
Argh it’s going to be weird not to have Kouz here. But you know what? I’m still his biggest fan. He’s still my all-time-forever FAVORITE player in all of baseball ever. And when I say ALL of baseball, I mean ALL of baseball: any Little League, high school, college, Major League, anything. He’s my favorite player out of ANY baseball. There’s no way he can stop being my favorite, no matter where he’s playing. So I’m still cheering for him like crazy up in Oakland. Believe me, I’m going to be following him, every game. I don’t think I’ll become a A’s fan, but I’ll sure be following their games like one!
Love you, Kouz.
I can’t wait for a real baseball game to start!!!!! It’s been waaaay too long.
So did you see that we signed Josh Barfield to a minor league contract? Crazy! That’s the guy we traded to the Indians to get Kouz in the first place! Hmm. It would be very interesting if he made the roster.
GO PADRES!!!
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No Place Like Home
Saturday’s Padres FanFest was incredible. Oh my goodness. I had a BLAST!!
I got to the ballpark with my mom and three younger siblings just before 10 in the morning. We parking in one of the FREE parking lots, which was so cool. We’ve always parked in the convention center underground parking so it was a really neat experience to settle down in the VIP section 😉
We walked the short distance to the ballpark and then walked and walked and walked to try to find the end of the line. It started at Home Plate gate and went all the way around almost to the Padres store area on the left field side. Whoo.
We met up with Hyun Young and checked out the schedule and stuff and discussed what we wanted to do. We decided that we wanted to go for the Hairston Brothers autograph session which was from 12:30-1:30.
Once the line got moving, it didn’t take long at all to get inside. Once we did, I realized that it might be a little challenging to get our tickets for the autograph session. I didn’t agree with the way they distributed those at all. Basically, I think they had to run out of the first few sessions before they put up new ones. So we had no idea of knowing when the Hairston session would become available, and there’s no way we were just going to sit there and wait for it. So, we decided to jump on the clubhouse tour right away and come back to try to get the Hairstons later.
I think we were in the first round of people of the day for the clubhouse tour, which was really nice because it wasn’t too crowded at all. We walked down the long hallway that was flanked by doors on each side. Some of them were labeled, like the family room and x-ray room, but a lot of them were left to the imagination. We went into the weight room, which is so impressive. Some of that stuff is massive! It would be so cool to have access to that kind of equiptment all the time.
Then we went into the hall that led to the main attraction: the clubhouse itself, the home of our San Diego Padres!
I’d been in there before, but it was so cool to see it again! I was shocked and thrilled to see an empty locker on one side of the room that had a nameplate saying “Hoffman 51” on it. That’s so cool!!! I thought that was a great tribute to our guy who needs to come back now. I heard a lady say, “They’d better never take that down.” I agree completely.
We spent a lot of time in the clubhouse, taking pictures. There was some very interesting stuff in Everth Cabrera’s locker: an “I Heart Nicaragua” sticker and a picture of Kouz. Hmmm.
Something that made me laugh was peeking into the bathroom that was across the room and seeing this:
And we thought it was women who were so worried about their appearance!
I don’t know if you can see it, but there’s actually an Adrian Gonzalez toothbrush holder in there. LOL!!
After we were done drinking in the clubhouse, we headed out to the dugout, which is so cool. I love it so much! It’s kind of hard to imagine being a baseball player with so many people around, but it was amazing just the same. We then walked the bases, which was very cool. There were a lot of people playing catch in the outfield, which was very neat. I hadn’t brought my glove but that’s something I would love to do someday. When we got to third base, I kind of was sad. I miss Kouz 😦
We walked down the third base line and decided to get out pictures taken at home plate. As we stood in line, Ted Leitner walked right past us! I didn’t get a chance to say hi, but that was very cool.
I’m a little mixed up on the order of how we did things at this point, but hopefully I’m mostly accurate 🙂
I believe that we went to check for the HairBros session again, but it wasn’t there. We decided to grab a ticket for an Everth Cabrera signing, just so that we were sure to get an autograph if the HairBros didn’t work out. After we got that, we went to the Padres Garage Sale.
Earlier, we had seen a lady looking at a Kevin Kouzmanoff banner thingy while we were walking on the concourse. I was like, ahhh I have to go get that! So once we got into the Garage Sale, I went straight for that front porch thingy to look for it. My sister found it for me. So epic! I’m so glad I was able to get it, but it was filthy! Not the best thing to be carrying around while wearing a white jersey.
This is a picture that I took at a game last year:
And this is the actual one that I bought. Who knows? This might have been the one hanging there!
I also bought a reusable “green” bag that said “Padres Foundation” on it because I never have a big enough bag for all my stuff. Especially when I go to Petco Park. But the selection of stuff this year wasn’t as good as last years, I thought.
While we were “shopping” we bumped into John from The Friar Faithful. It was really cool to meet him!
Next we decided to check out the Media Zone and met the guys from RJ’s Fro on the way over. They were super cool, and we said “I like BBQ” to them and they gave us these sweet posters signed by the RJ himself, Randy Jones! Thanks so much guys!!
We all decided to go talk to Corey Brock, so we hung out around there for a long time and met the guys from Gaslamp Ball. Now that was seriously cool. It was like a mini-Padres-bloggers meetup, in the media zone, no less! Wow. Anyways, all those guys are very cool and I had a lot of fun talking with them. Man I love Padres bloggers.
Hyun Young and I decided to go try for the HairBros again, but I think we got distracted by taking pictures of players who were in other autograph sessions. Mat Latos and Sean Gallagher cracked me up. They switched nameplates and looked like they were having a lot of fun. I love Mat Latos, and I think he’s my new favorite pitcher. Can’t wait to see him pitch a whole season!
I think we walked down to the field again (I don’t remember why) and then we came back up and spent some time at the 4SD area. Hyun Young got her picture taken with Mark Neely and I got a Cox keychain. At least it wasn’t the sunscreen.
It was kind of cool because Adrian and his wife Betsy walked right by and went in the middle of a crowded concourse. I mean, that’s not something you see everyday: the face of the organization walking among the fans. I thought that was pretty cool.
So then I got a lemonade and we went to the Everth line to wait for our autographs. It wasn’t that long of a wait at all. There was this mom behind us who was telling her little son about who’s autograph they were going to get. Then Everth walked by, and the little kid was like, who’s that? His mom went, he’s Everth Cabrera, we’re going to get his autograph. And the kid goes, “Him? I HATE him!!” I was cracking up. Haha it was great!
We got Carlos Hernandez and Everth Cabrera’s autographs, which was pretty cool. Everth was pretty shy, but he’s adorable.
We took more pictures of players who were signing, but we just missed taking pictures of the HairBros at their session. Sigh. But then we decided to go watch their Q&A session, and I thought that I would FINALLY be able to see them!
The front office session was just ending when we got there, and we met Steve from the Friarhood and talked with him for a while. That was so cool! He loved my jersey and picture of Kouz.
We settled down for the Q&A session. And then my phone rang. My mom said that we needed to meet her at the stairs at 2, which was when the session was supposed to start. Sigh.
So, in the end, I never got to see the Hairstons in person. I was chasing after them all day, but never quite caught up. Oh well. I’m sure that there will be other opportunities to meet them later 🙂
As we walked out, I passed right by Mat Latos! I couldn’t really see who it was at first because I was walking into the sun, and then suddenly I saw that tattoos on his arm, and I was like, it’s Mat Latos! He was probably like five inches away. I didn’t have time to react to say anything, but it was still pretty cool.
What a great event. Petco really felt like home that day. I felt so comfortable and like I belonged there. I loved how open the place was. I mean, we could go almost anywhere in the park! I know that place so well and I’m just so comfortable there that it felt like home. I love that place like crazy.
So here’s the famous picture I wore on my sleeve the whole day as a tribute to Kouz:
I’ve got a big announcement to make, but I think I’ll wait a few days 🙂 Build up the suspense a little. Hehehe I can’t wait to tell you guys!!
My inner Padres fan was really renewed by hanging out at the ballpark and interacting with other fans. It’s like the baseball side of me has officially been awakened. I seriously can’t wait to hear some Padres baseball already!!!! WHOOO HOOOO!!!!!
FanFest was incredible. Great job, Padres.
GO PADRES!!!
Catching Up…
First of, I would like to respond to a comment made by padres2050 a few days ago on my entry Baseball Q and A. The first question was, why do I think that we are improved enough to make the postseason this year? I think that we’ll make the postseason this year because of what we saw in the second half of the season last year. If we had played like that all year, we would have either been in the postseason or very, very close. Now, things are going to be a little different than they were last year, with the addition of the Hairston brothers and the subtraction of Kevin Kouzmanoff, but I still think that we’re going to be very good this year.
Plus, these are tough times for a San Diego sports fan. The Chargers have failed us for 50 years, and the Padres have failed us for 40. Thankfully, the Little League kids were finally able to do something big for San Diego, but I think we’re all getting just a little frustrated with the Chargers and Padres. We need to have some kind of hope and something’s gotta give here. Really soon.
Buddy Black is a great manager, and I personally think that he is one of the very best. I believe that it’s not his fault that we did so terribly the past two season, but that the stupid front office didn’t give him the pieces that he needed to make this team good. I know that in some cases you can blame the state of the team on the manager, but I don’t believe that that’s applicable in this situation. I love Buddy because he doesn’t yell at his players, he’s got a great relationship with them, and he plays smart baseball. He knows when to get fired up if he has to, but most of the time he just stays quiet. I think that a good quality of a manager is to keep the attention and focus on his players, and not on his fiery temper.
Number 1, I am a Padres fan. My loyalties go to the Padres first before anything. But I also am a huge fan of the game of baseball. It’s so amazing! Unfortunately, my family does not believe in watching TV of any sort, so the only way for me to follow sports is to listen to the games or check things out on the internet. Believe me, if I was able to, I would have to MLB Network and be watching it 24/7!!
I read many, many blogs here as much as possible. The blogosphere has been growing so much that it’s getting hard to read all of them! In terms of Padres blogs, Perpetual Padres Saga, Gaslamp Ball, RJ’s Fro, and The Friar Faithful are essential daily reading.
I can’t thank you guys enough for all your support!!!
So Kouz settled his contract with the A’s yesterday. He’s getting $3.1 million for the year!
Last year with the Padres, he made $432,000.
Jeff Moorad said that trading him had nothing to do with money, but I don’t believe it. There is absolutely no way the Padres would have given him that much money this year. Oh well.
I guess I should talk a little about the Hairston Brothers! We got Scotty Hairston back when we traded Kouz, which was kind of weird for me. I absolutely love Scotty. He was one of the best players in ’07 and ’08. I’ll never forget his walk-off homers after we got him in the middle of 2007 from the Diamondbacks. That was definitely a mistake on Arizona’s part. Because of him, we almost overtook them for the NL West!
Anyways, he is just a really amazing player. I always got so excited when he came up to bat late in a game with the score really close. I was pretty sad when we traded him to the A’s last season.
Now, I’m glad that we have him back, but you know, I lost Kouz. It’s just not as exciting as it would have been if the circumstances were different.
So then the next day we find out that we signed Jerry Hairston Jr.!! The Padres are kind of like the team of family reunions. We’ve had a lot of brother combinations on this team, most recently including Brian and Marcus Giles and Adrian and Edgar Gonzalez.
The GilesBros. only lasted a year. The GonzoBros. only lasted a year too. Let’s see how long the HairBros. last.
It’s going to be pretty cool to see them together, though. I’m really excited. I’m huge HairBros. fans, so it’s going to be so sweet to see them on the same team. Those guys are adorable.
I can’t believe the stupid Chargers!! It’s so crazy how they had the 11 game winning streak and it’s our year and all that and then they go a lose the very first playoff game. So stupid!!!!! Argh. I am just so frustrated about that. Not cool at all. San Diego needs some major help, that’s for sure. Goodness.
Well, I think that’s all I have for today. Miss you, Kouz 😦
GO PADRES!!! GO KOUZ!!!!!
One-Hitter
On Saturday, my Padres came up with a great win. Kevin Correia pitched like the ace he is. He threw seven innings, allowing three runs with nine strikeouts. He was gooood.
The offense backed him up really well, so there wasn’t much pressure. In the second, we got three runs on five hits, including doubles by David Eckstein and Kyle Blanks.
It was a great, great game. We had a season-high 16 hits. Eckstein, Blanks, Blanco, and Cabrera each had two hits. Kouz and Chase Headley each had three. Scott Hairston was the only one who didn’t have a hit, but he made some spectacular catches in center field. He was robbing out there!
Edward Mujica and Mike Adams were great out of the bullpen. It was overall just a great, well-played game.
But what a game we got on Sunday. Even better than Saturday’s. It was clean, simple, quick, but boy was it good.
Chad Gaudin allowed a hit with one out in the bottom of the first…and then he didn’t allow a thing for the rest of the game. He had nine strikeouts in eight innings. He was so good, it’s incredible. This pitcher is not the same pitcher we saw earlier in the year. Man, what a great pitching performance by Gaudin!!
I mean, he threw a ONE hitter!! Man, that was great.
On the offensive side, it was all Scott Hairston. I bet he was pretty upset about not getting any hits on Saturday, so he got them on Sunday. He went 3-for-4 with a single, double, and home run. He drove in our only two runs.
Goodness, that is a REALLY funny picture!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Kouz: High five? Scotty: People to see, places to go…
Anyways, Chase Headley and Kyle Blanks each had two hits. I’ve been really pleased with Blanks. He’s really getting into a groove.
Heath Bell came in the ninth, walking a batter, but turned a 1-4-3 double play to win the game, 2-0.
It was a great, great game. The pitching was incredible. We did leave quite a few runners on, but we got just enough.
And so, we won a series for the first time since May 25-27 against the Diamonbacks. Yeah, it had been a while. And now we’re done with interleague!!! WHOOO HOOOO!!!! That is so exciting. We were 5-10 in interleague play. We didn’t really survive, but we’re done with it. Whew.
Tonight we are going to be back home. YES!!!! That’s huge. Anyways, we’re playing the Astros for three, then the Dodgers and the return of the Manny.
Where on earth did Mariano Rivera come from?? I mean, he got his 500th save last night. What’s up with that?? Ahem, Trevor Hoffman is the all-time saves leader, and I mean ALL-TIME. I don’t think anyone should overtake him or I will be quite upset. Goodness. You’d better get pumping, Trevor, ’cause you’ve got a guy right on your heels!!
I would like to share a few pictures that my sister took of a baseball. Believe me, they’re amazing. She has a really cheap camera, but she’s really got a talent with that photography thing.
That’s Trevor Hoffman’s autograph. Good job sista!!!
Well, it’s Josh Geer vs. Roy Oswalt tonight. I really hope we can extend the two-game winning streak!!
Isn’t it amazing what your team does when you threaten to boycott them? 🙂
GO PADRES!!!
Padres Split Series!
I guess my Padres didn’t want to travel to Houston in a school bus.
Chris Young started the game, going six innings, allowing three runs on five hits with four walks and six strikeouts. He had a great outing, he was battling hard.
On the other side, Dan Haren was doing a great job as well. He went six innings, giving up eight hits and three runs with two walks on four strikeouts.
In the third, the Diamondbacks struck first. After a single from Chris Snyder, Dan Haren of all people hit a double to help his own cause. He got to third on an error, and touched the plate on a sacrifice fly.
In the fifth, the Padres found a crack in Haren’s armor and were actually able to take advantage of it!
With two outs, Chris Young walked, Brian Giles singled, and Edgar Gonzalez drove in CY for our first run. Scott Hairston came to the plate and check-swinged on a pitch. Except the ball hit the bat and went into right field to drive in Giles. It was pretty bizarre!
In the sixth, the Diamondbacks added a run to take the lead. But in the bottom of the inning, we got that run right back.
With one out, my boy Kouz hit a single. Nick Hundley then doubled, and Kouz ran all the way home. I love this dude, but he’s really slow. It’s almost painfully to watch. He’s not as bad as say, Henry Blanco the Galapagos tortoise, but he’s still slow. So he almost got thrown out at the plate. But he scored safely, so that’s all that matters.
The game stayed tied for a long time. The Padres bullpen was able to hold the game, though. Barely.
Edwin Moreno came into the seventh, and got a few runners on with no outs, including two walks. I’m telling you, this guy is going to be on the bus to Triple-A very soon unless he stops walking people like he does. We just can’t have that, especially when he walks the first batter in a tie game. No no no.
Thankfully, Luke Gregerson came in and cleaned up Moreno’s mess, keeping the game tied. He also pitched a scoreless eighth.
Heath Bell took the ninth, allowing nothing and striking out one. Man, he’s sharp!
In the bottom of the ninth, Scott Hairston singled, but Adrian Gonzalez grounded into a double play.
Onto extra innings for the second time this week!
Cla Meredith pitched the top of the tenth, throwing five pitches to get three outs. He was sharp!
In the bottom of the tenth, it was time to close this thing down. Jody Gerut started it with a strikeout, but then Kouz doubled. Nick Hundley walked, and Chris Burke came to the plate.
Burke had a great at-bat. He fouled off six pitches, keeping the count full for a long time. He made the pitcher throw ten pitches before finally taking ball four to load the bases. That at-bat was crucial to winning the game.
Next, Hyun Young’s boy David Eckstein came to the plate. He only needed to take a strike and a ball before lining a single past the first baseman to score my boy Kouz.
We win!!
It was such a great game! We did leave 13 runners on base, which was very frustrating, but we were able to get some clutch hits and win the game.
I was very pleased with our pitching, especially the bullpen. They didn’t give up a run, which is so rare!
My boy Kouz had THREE hits, two singles and a double. He’s definitley been scuffling, so it’s great that he was able to have a good game like that.
We had 13 hits total, which we haven’t had in a long time. I am so glad that we were hitting!
It was a great win for the Padres and their fans, but apparently the Diamondbacks aren’t too happy with their 12-17 record. Arizona fired manager Bob Melvin today. They’re replacing him with A.J. Hinch. Interesting…
Manny is a jerk. Unfortunately, the Padres are only going to play the Dodgers twice during his suspension.
“It would have been nice if this had happened in spring training,” pitching ace Jake Peavy said. “I wouldn’t have had to face him.”
The Dodgers finally lost last night. They built up a six run lead, but blew it and lost 11-9 against the Natinals. Of all teams. Wow.
Well, I can’t say I’m entirely disappointed that Manny was suspended or that the Dodgers lost. My Padres are now only 7.5 games behind, third place in the NL West!
Well boys, I hope you enjoyed your luxury flight to Houston!
Tonight Chad Gaudin is pitching against Wandy Rodriguez. It will be a very interesting game…
GO PADRES!!
(photo credits: Union-Tribune, flickr.com)
Elusive As The Win
Well, what can I say? I mean, really. We lost. Again. We needed that game so badly, and we lost. It’s the bullpen’s fault, as usual.
Kevin Correia started, but only went 3.1 innings, allowing five runs on eight hits. Not good. Correia’s pitch count went way up way early, but I think Buddy was fighting for this game. OK, Kevin can’t pitch tonight, so he’s coming out. Bring in the next guy, see what he can do.
In the bottom of the third, the Padres got three runs to make the score 5-3 Rockies. We got the runs on a error, and single by Scott Hairston, and a groundout.
Edward Mujica threw a solid inning, striking out three.
In the bottom of the fifth, we took our only lead of the game on Scott Hairston’s three run homer. It seemed like that was the momentum shifter to the Padres side, but unfortunately, it was not meant to be.
In the top of the seventh, Edwin Moreno got the bases loaded with one out. Cla Meredith came in, and promptly allowed a grand slam to Chris Iannetta. ARGH!!!!
And…that was essentially it. We died, going down 1-2-3 in the next three innings excepting Scott Hairston’s double in the eighth. Luke Gregerson and Arturo Lopez had scoreless innings.
We’re not hitting right now. Last night we got four hits. This makes me want to cry! Scott Hairston got three of them. Luis Rodriguez had the other one. We’re not hitting, we not pitching, it’s a miracle that we got six runs last night!!
Well, we needed that game. Now, the fans are giving up, and the players have got to be discouraged. We’ve lost our last six games. We’re 7.5 games behind.
We’re pathetic. I just don’t know what to do with this team.
Maybe some more restictions are in order…
9) No more luxury lockers.
10) 25% reduction in wages. The players aren’t doing anything, so why should the Padres be paying them?
11) None of the players can leave the stadium until we win, which means they will need to camp out.
Outside.
12) Hey, while they’re camping out on the field, they can have a campfire and burn the sand uniforms!
(not while they are still wearing them, of course)
And of course, there will be no s’mores allowed. Just Vegemite.
(thanks to Ash for restriction ideas!)
I wanted to give a quick shoutout to my mom, whose birthday is today. Happy birthday Mom! Thanks so much for everything 🙂
Tonight, we had better win…or else the Padres may find themselves without any showers at all! Josh Geer will go for the win against Aaron Cook. Oh great. Jen, cheer for my Padres. Cheer for them hard!!
Keeping the faith…
GO PADRES!!!
Unfinished Business 