The Padres took round 1 Friday night in San Francisco. I still marvel at the fact that a team given no chance in March is fighting for a playoff berth come the season’s final weekend. Whatever the outcome, 2010 has been an unqualified success for the Padres. Anyone who says otherwise is rewriting history.
Update: I inadvertently stole my headline from Twitter. Credit where it’s due…
Game 160 was a microcosm of the entire season. The Padres jumped out to an early lead, then hung on for dear life and hoped to catch a break.
You Can’t Raze the Cubs, but You Can Raze Cain
The lead (6-0 at midpoint) came courtesy of home runs from Ryan Ludwick, Adrian Gonzalez, and Matt Stairs. This may surprise some folks, but Stairs’ qualitative numbers in 2010 are solid by Padres standards. Here are the top five hitters as measured by OPS+:
- Adrian Gonzalez, 152
- Matt Stairs, 116
- Chris Denorfia, 111
- Aaron Cunningham, 109
- Miguel Tejada/Will Venable, 106
The club also managed to do their damage against Matt Cain, who as you know is pretty darned good. He entered the contest with a 13-10 record and 2.95 ERA. That’s a tad better than the entire Chicago Cubs pitching staff (4.26 ERA as of this writing), and yet, as demonstrated by their most recent respective performances against the Padres, baseball is a funny game:
IP H R ER HR BB K Cubs 35.0 17 5 5 1 16 30 Cain 4.0 9 6 6 3 1 4
Worst Analogy Ever
Hanging on for dear life came in the form of staving off a furious attack from the Giants in the sixth. With one out, Clayton Richard served up a double to Pat Burrell and a homer to pinch-hitter Aaron Rowand.
Richard yielded to right-hander Ryan Webb, who walked Juan Uribe (no easy feat) on five pitches. Uribe ended up scoring to cut the lead to 6-4. Luke Gregerson eventually came on to quell the threat by inducing Freddy Sanchez to fly out to center.
The Padres had a great chance to pad their lead in the ninth. The first three batters reached base, but thanks to the first (Aaron Cunningham) getting caught stealing, no runs scored.
For as much as we’ve seen that sort of thing this year, one never really gets used to it. I would chastise the offense for squandering opportunities, but I might as well rebuke volcanoes for spewing lava:
“Stop that, we don’t like it.”
“Well, it’s what I do.”
And yes, I compared the Padres offense to a talking volcano. I don’t get it either, just roll with me.
Help Us, Freddy Sanchez; You’re Our Only Hope
Where were we… ah, catching the break. That came courtesy of Sanchez, who drew a leadoff walk in the ninth (bonus points for jumping “out of the way” of two fastballs that almost caught plate). Aubrey Huff then hit a sharp line drive to right. Sanchez, running on contact, went flying around second and was doubled up after Will Venable made the catch on the warning track. The ball was well struck (Huff flipped his bat like he got it; maybe that confused Sanchez?) but right at Venable.
Whatever Sanchez may have been thinking, there are many people in San Diego who appreciate his kind gesture. In their current situation, the Padres and their fans will gladly take assistance from any source willing to provide it. (They also got some help from the Phillies, who trounced Atlanta, 11-5.)
Another Day, Another Must-Win
With two games remaining on the schedule (assuming no nightmare scenario), the Padres find themselves 2 games back of San Francisco in the National League West and 1 game back of Atlanta in the Wild Card.
Saturday’s matchups:
- SD @ SF, Tim Stauffer vs Barry Zito, 1:10 p.m. PT
- Phi @ Atl, Vance Worley (?!?) vs Tommy Hanson, 1:10 p.m. PT
Go Padres, go Phillies!
I was hoping Bud would let Adams pitch the 9th … sneak in a day of rest for Bell, who pitched for 4 outs last night … wonder if he considered it?
Why does Heath insist on brining the go-ahead run to the plate?
The Padres need to make sure they overpay Tim Stauffer on his next contract … he just earned back every penny they saved when they signed him after he admitted his injury! YAY for Tim Stauffer!
Stauffer is terrific. This man just earned his first-round pick bonus today.
BTW, ESPN is saying that if we win tomorrow and the Braves lose, there’s a playoff for the division championship. Untrue. If that happens, we win the West by virtue of the head-to-head record and the Giants get the wild card.
For what it’s worth, if the Braves lose early tomorrow, the Giants will no longer be playing for their lives. Obviously they’d rather win and not have to face the Phillies in the first round, but the “win-or-go-home” impetus won’t be there.
Stauffer has been so very good for this team.
We were jumping up and down like crazy when Tejada completed that double play to end the game. One hopes that tomorrow when needed, Bell won’t be available coz he didn’t look sharp at all. Not at all. What was Gonzalez doing all the way out there? Let Venable catch the damn ball.
Curiosity got the better of me and I checked the RS/RA by months for the two teams:
Wow, those September numbers are so out of whack.
The Giants gave up only 50 runs in 26 games, the next fewest runs allowed was 82 by the LAnaheim Angels. Their DIFF was +47, one fewer than the Phillies (best in Sept), who scored 142 runs in 27 games. So, the Giants scored their fewest runs for the season by month in September but also allowed the fewest runs by ANY team by month for the season. They also own the next lowest in April.
Meanwhile, the Padres decided to have their worst offensive output AND worst run prevention in the same month of September, thus setting up the most dramatic series of the season between the two. Wow.
Go Padres! Let’s get to the 163rd game.
Yeah, Scott, make that happen.
http://joeposnanski.blogspot.com/2010/10/padres-don-stop-believin.html
BTW, the Padres won 2 and have lost the last 3 games started by Latos against the Giants in 5 games this season.
Let’s hope the good Latos shows up tomorrow with a short leash and the Padres score plenty of runs off Sanchez (who is also 2-3 v. the Padres), and the bullpen holds up once again.
Woo-hoo!
Also, checking the tweet world, it seems that a lot of people will be rooting for the Padres tomorrow… wait for it… and the Braves… just so there’ll be the 3-way tie and game 163 and 164.
I’m good with just the first half of that happening. Of course, the second half of that statement will be in the decision process before the first starts tomorrow.
Just win, Padres! Just win tomorrow.
Reasonable people can disagree over qualified versus unqualified success, but no one can say the Padres are quitters.
Bell should currently be in a medically induced coma inside a hyperbaric chamber, recuperating as much as he can.
I think Venable makes that play if he doesn’t suffer a mild heart attack from seeing Gonzalez out there. That’s like a pilot flying out of a cloud and seeing a mountain goat.
It’s great to have Poz all but openly rooting for us.
@TW: You said it… Gonzalez = mountain goat? LOL. Somehow, a mountain goat would have scored that run before Hairston got thrown out…
Oh, and yeah, Joe is in SF watching this. I can’t wait to read what he writes tomorrow about it.