A continuing rocky road for Odrisamer and an incredibly play from a certain little ninja set the Padres up for an awesome ten-inning victory.
Some serious competition was in the air after ten innings of baseball featuring five lead changes from two teams facing similar middle-of-the-line records. For almost five straight innings a struggling Odrisamer Despaigne somehow managed to escape inning after inning only giving up four runs. He scraped by just enough to keep the Padres in the running to snatch a victory and split a two-game series.
Things didn't start off too great. Despaigne gave up a hit and a HR in the first, putting the Twinz up 2-0. The following four innings weren't gracious for either side. In his 5.2 innings pitched, Odrisamer gave up 8 hits and 3 walks, only striking out 5. Somehow the Minnesotawins only went 3 for 16 with RISP and the Padres pitching left 14 Twinsies stranded. Lots of weaseling out of innings today, but by the 6th inning Despaigne had given up an RBI single to Eduardo Escobar and another to the pesky Trevor Plouffe.
"Probably one of the most embarrassing things that can happen to an athlete on the field" - Mark Grant
It was in the 4th inning that Jedd Gyorko would smack a pretty pitch into the opposite field for an RBI double getting the Padres back into things 2-1, showing a lot of favoritism to oppo hitting. The Escobar RBI single in the 5th would keep Minnesota up 3-1, until a cute combination of a Seth Smith RBI-double and Tommy Medica RBI, tying things 3-3.
Gyorkstore is stocked with dubbles!
The exact same inning, an annoying Plouffe-bag would push the Twhins into the lead 4-3. Things looked dark for the next three innings. In the top of the 9th, a baseball player that looks eerily simliar to a former 1B of the San Diego Padres (Yonder Alonso) whacked a double and was put into scoring position by a Little Ninja bunt. With one out, Everth Cabrera worked a deep sac fly and tied the game back up to an even 4-4.
What would happen in the 9th is nothing short of magical. With runners on first and second, an 0-2 count and two outs, Eduardo Escobar drilled a low pitch into deep center. It had all the makings of a walk-off blast. Extra onions. Until:
The Ninja kept things alive. With Alexi Amarista covering at least a mile of center field, the Padres were taken into extras. So Seth Smith had a brilliant idea that he has had 12 times this season already. What he ended up doing was destroying some poor baseball by smashing it into the outfield seats and putting the Friars up 5-4 with a solo HR.
"Uh oh."
This gave the Kevin Quackenbush all he needed to mop up the flooding tears of the remaining attendance of Target Field. That's all it took. A hard-fought back-and-forth early victory inching the Pads closer and closer to that .500 record.
Here was what our win expectancy looked throughout the morning:
Source: FanGraphs
Enjoy the win and the day off! Friday we head into my second favorite ballpark to take on the Pirates.
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| Commenter list | Axion, B Cres, C Callahan, CurbEnthusiasm, Darklighter, EvilSammy, Friar Fever, Hormel, OtherLisa, TheThinGwynn, Wonko, abara, athletics68, daveysapien, hashtagtroll, jodes0405, podpeople, raw_toast |
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Plenty of GLB'rs showed up bright and early. Wonko gathered 4 recs and jodes had 4 as well. C Callahan might be an alcoholic, hashtagroll is an OJaholic from all that OJahol.