Padres hang on, beat Marlins 5-4

Another day, another win for the Padres. Ho-hum. This one wasn't as blowy-outy as the last two, but it counts just the same.

It definitely looked like the Padres were going to completely blow the doors off the Marlins yet again after they jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth. Will Venable put the first run on the board with a leadoff homer, his first home run of any sort this year. It remained a one-run game until the aforementioned fourth inning when San Diego peskily put four more runs on the board by means of four singles and a pair of walks.

While his teammates were busy boppin' on his behalf, Robbie Erlin kept his end of the bargain by striking out seven batters and allowing nary a run in his six-and-a-third innings. He allowed just five hits and no walks before Buddy gave Dale Thayer the call.

Fingernails all over the greater San Diego area got much shorter as the Marlins put up a four-run inning of their own to draw within one. Thayer allowed a solo homer and a single before giving way to Joaquin Benoit, who surrendered another single and a two-run triple before unleashing a wild pitch that allowed Miami's fourth run to score on a ground out.

Those fingernails were down to bloody nubs in the top of the ninth, when Huston Street loaded the bases on a single and two walks. However, he got out of it because that's what he does; he's now 11-for-11 in save chances this season.

Four Padres had two-hit games. Yonder Alonso got his batting average up to an even .200, while Will Venable is almost there at .194. Chris Denorfia's multi-hit game pushed him to the .300 mark where he joins teammate Seth Smith, whose two hits have him sitting at a rather Gwynnian .330.

The Padres have tomorrow off as they head to Cincinnati to take on the Reds for a three-game set starting Tuesday. It just might be the happiest flight they've taken all year.

Fairly quiet game thread; it's like people love their mothers or something. Abara dominated the comments, posting 33 to second-place Zen Blade's nine. There were two recs; Abara and I split 'em.