Padres Lose Low Scoring Game at Coors

Tyson Ross put the team on his back, but somehow the Padres' insatiable craving to score as few runs as possible followed us up a mile high.

This is not the type of score you usually see from a night in Denver, Colorado. Being 1,600 meters above sea level with low air density has gained Coors Field a reputation for high scoring games. Going into the series the Padres are touting a top five pitching staff (a collective 3.21 ERA), and the Rockies holding a top five hitting club (.280 AVG); a cliche unstoppable force-immovable object dilemma.

For the Rockies, it didn't take much to prove that any hitting at all is better than no hitting. In a stadium with the highest run factor (1.382) and the fourth highest HR factor (1.237), and despite getting more hits than the Rockies (8 to 7) the Friars left 9 men on base and went 0-8 with runners in scoring position. Tyson Ross went six solid innings striking out 6, giving up 6 hits and only two earned runs.

Hear that? That's the sound of Ross hitting the 15-day DL due to back pain.

Not to be the one to let our boy down, Chris Denorfia, although in vain, went 3-for-5 today. Hitting leadoff and accounting for at least a third of the team's hits; Denosaur started off with a double, followed with a single,and peppered in another single before recording the final line-drive out of the game. Rene Rivera also tried to claw the Padres back into the game by utterly abusing a baseball into the left field stands.

One is the loneliest number. But at least Rene looked damn good.

The Friars are going to try to not do that again tomorrow. With Eric Stults taking the mound against Jair "Jar Jar" Jurrjens. Jair (is that really his name?) barely went 4 innings against the Dodgers, giving up 12 hits, 8 earned runs, and two home runs. His current ERA is sitting at 15.43, so let's hope that leads to another run-happy game for San Diego in the mile-high stadium.

You guys really came out in full force for this nail-biter of a game. I was at work, what were your excuses? usapadres got 2 recs comparing today's game to the nightmare that Brazil dealt with today.7-1, holy bajeezus.