SD9, STL5: Gyorko, Padres Strike Down Birdies

Lightning struck just outside of Busch stadium (right after Gyorko struck inside) to give the Padres a second-half victory on the third game of the four-game series against the Birds of a red persuasion.

Coming off of two straight losses after a hot little four game streak is a little deflating. A heartbreaking loss on Thursday, followed by a dragged-out loss on Friday, today's game took the responsibility of being a very important bounce-back win for our Padres and for our hearts.

For that, Jesse Hahn at first started off well. But despite a quick one-two-three first inning, the pace started to grind a little too early in the following inning. Giving up a single, three RBI-doubles, and hitting a guy on his body with the baseball, Hahn started to shake allowing the Cards an early 4-0 lead.

Since the All-Star break, the Padres have adopted a policy of backing up their stellar pitching staff - good performance or bad (though usually good) - and tonight they were ready to do just that. Once into the top of the third Abraham Almonte and Seth Smith started things off with back-to-back singles. Jedd Gyorko, who has been Mr. Hot Buns since coming off his DL-stint, knocked Almonte in with a single of his own, introducing the Padres 4-1.

Gyorko pops one into right field with runners on the corner. Still only hitting .193 for the season, since August he has been hitting .260.

Rymer Liriano would then draw his first of three walks for the night, loading the bases for a lil' Jake Goebbert. In five pitches, Jake caught a 94MPH fastball low and zipped it down the first baseline, clearing the bags and starting the score over at 4-4. In spite of the effort, though, the Cards unbalanced things the very next chance they got, retaliating with their own RBI-triple and unbalancing things at 5-4.

Goebbert is showing some serious pop in this pull down the line, showing signs of being a good lefty bat off-the-bench, approaching a fairly average OPS.

After three innings of stagnant offense for the Padres, the inning was once again initiated by the back-to-back efforts of Almonte and Smith. With Yasmani Grandal drawing a walk this time, a nice little one-out bases-loaded scenario was presented for the Gyrk, and with that he caught every little bit of another low 94MPH fastball.

It's hard to say what cleared out the stadium more, a granny from Gyorko or the ugly St. Louis weather. This home run only being his 8th of the season, which is way below pace to hit the 23 he did last year, Gyorko has still been bouncing back hard since his return.

Giving the Padres a much-needed 9-5 lead, and with the rain already pouring before Jedd's at-bat, a delay would push the game back for a while. Fortunately for us, the game was continued and the grand slam was legitimized after the inning was finished. The Padres continued the night effectively and efficiently, not budging an inch until the Kevin Quackenbush could enter the game and show how a real bird gets things done.

Gyorko's HR plants him just past Mark Loretta in Padres history.

With his grand slam in the 7th inning, @JGyorko05 now has 31 career home runs, a new Padres franchise record for home runs by a 2nd baseman!

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) August 17, 2014

And with that granny, Gyorko boosted our win expectancy as hard as one could:

Source: FanGraphs

We now have the opportunity to split the series against the Birdos. Giving the ball to Odrisamer Despaigne, he'll be facing the ever-difficult Adam Wainwright.  His last outing against Miami lasted him 7 innings, only giving up 3 runs and striking out 4. Compared to Odrisamer's 7 in Colorado giving up a typical Coors 5ER, it's going to be a tough one. But the Padres aren't due for any breaks any time soon, and that's the way we're going to have to like it.

While it was rainy in St. Louie, GLB'rs enjoyed warm air and sunny skies. The thread picked up slowly, but once things got kickin' thanks to abara (4 recs) and podpeople (5 recs) we started to win. Hey, Dex even showed up at the worst time possible!