All winning streaks end eventually, but the Padres know how to wrap them up in spectacularly painful fashion. The offense picked up three runs tonight thanks to some clutch hitting. In games where they've scored that much, the team has been 31-10. And with almost everything in their favor, the best bullpen in baseball laid an egg. Homers allowed by Huston Street and Dale Thayer were the team's downfall, though they weren't helped by poor performances from Alex Torres and Kevin Quackenbush. The only reliever that performed to his usual standards tonight was Joaquin Benoit.
Unlike the bullpen, tonight's starter was masterful. Odrisamer Despaigne is now 3 for 3 when it comes to putting up quality starts. In six innings, he only allowed two hits. One was an infield single in the first that Hunter Pence legged out. The other was one of three home runs by the Giants. Henry Blanco took Odie to the Jack Deck in the second inning. The Friars' offense got their man off the hook in the bottom of the sixth, when a pair of singles from Brooks Conrad (we know that guy!) and Alexi Amarista put runners on first and third with no outs. Although Tommy Medica struck out looking, Seth Smith came through with a sacrifice fly to knot the game at one.
Looking to keep things tight, Torres took the mound in the seventh. He promptly walked Gregor Blanco. Blanco would take second easily when Torres threw a wild pitch to Brandon Crawford. Not that it mattered, since Crawford eventually got a free pass himself. That was enough lousy pitching for Buddy Black, who quickly called Quackenbush to get things under control. Quack retired the next three batters in order, which would have been great had he not started his outing with a balk. That turned what should have been a regular fly out by Joe Panik into an RBI sac fly.
Behind again, the offense mustered another rally after the stretch. Yasmani Grandal's one-out triple was followed immediately by a triple off the bat of Jake Goebbert. Cameron Maybin polished off the rally with a sacrifice fly to bring Goebbert home and give the Padres their first lead of the evening. With a one-run lead after 7, Black turned to eighth-inning specialist Benoit, who turned in a perfect inning. Three outs away from a six game winning streak, Street came in to pick up another save... and immediately blew it, serving a meatball up to Mike Morse, who crushed it into the left field seats.
The offense tried to summon one final rally in the bottom of the ninth. Chase Headley got things going with a leadoff double. Grandal hit a grounder to short, putting the winning run on third with just one out. The Giants didn't give Goebbert the chance to pick up another RBI, opting instead to put him on and let Maybin try his hand. The move paid off, with Maybin popping out to shortstop. With the pitcher's spot up, Carlos Quentin came to the plate. He struck out, and the game went into extras. Thayer wasn't wild about staying at work late, giving up a two-run shot to Brandon Belt in the top of the tenth. Santiago Casilla took over for the Giants, and though he walked Amarista to start the inning, he retired the next three batters in order, snapping the Padres' longest winning streak of the year.
Jesse Hahn will try to get a new streak going when he takes the mound at 1:10 PM tomorrow.
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| Total comments | 111 |
| Total commenters | 11 |
| Commenter list | DCas, Friar Fever, Hormel, TheThinGwynn, abara, dannyfinn21, daveysapien, hashtagtroll, jodes0405, staceyaugmon4HOF, walkoff59 |
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abara led the comments, but daveysapien scored 4 recs with this gem of a comment (it has 5 now, because I thought it deserved to be green).