Hot hitting in the Arizona desert kept the Padres on top after some bites from the Diamondbacks.
Going into the final series against the Arizona Diamondbacks a few Padres have been showing a little shine to their game. One of those Padres is catcher Rene Rivera, who up until now hasn't exactly shown how shiny he can be. But this season has certainly been his shiniest.
And tonight was a shiny one as well, going 1 for 4 with a walk, a home run, and an RBI; Rivera took part in some exceptional hitting from the Friars. Yangervis Solarte, Jedd Gyorko, Yasmani Grandal, Cameron Maybin, and Alexi Amarista all had two hits a piece for a team-combined 11. Rene's 10th HR of this season topped it all off.
Though Padres pitching gave up a collective 10 hits, it was the Padres' 4 for 9 record with runners in scoring position that gave them the offensive edge tonight, just barely pushing past the Dbacks' hitting 3 for 6 with RISP.
Rene Rivera showed this slow, slow, slow 80MPH'r exactly where it needed to go.
What a started in the first inning, a double and RBI-single given up by Eric Stults, was quickly turned on its back as the Padres retaliated with 5 unanswered runs. It wasn't until the fifth inning that the Diamondbacks would retort with 4 runs of their owns, leaving the score settled at 6-5 in the Padres favor. Clutch bunting, solid singles, hard-hit doubles, a popped-off solo HR and even a legged-out triple from Daddy Longlegs highlighted the night.
The only evidence that Maybin ever rounded second base was the smoking-gun helmet he left behind.
Sprinkled on like a glorious bowl of San Diego Padres icecream was some stellar defense from Solarte at third and some amazing stops from the Ninja at short, Eric Stults (despite posting a 4.49 ERA tonight although only giving up 2 runs that were earned) found himself thoroughly backed up by his team both defensively and offensively. That's good news for the pitcher with the least amount of run support in the majors.
The Ninja roped and yanked this one back from heading into left field, almost completing the double play.
A good kickoff to the series against the Dbacks. We'll get to see Tyson Ross followed by Odrisamer Despaigne come in for the sweep. With less than 16 games left in the season and our last against the Snakes, a sweep would put us at least at 8-10 with Arizona for the season.
Things started going the Dbacks' way, but by the time the Padres struck back there was less and less they could have done to leave a meaningful impact. Some late-inning flashy leather snuffed out any chance at a lead change and notched a W for the Friars.
Source: FanGraphs
| Roll Call Info | |
|---|---|
| Total comments | 124 |
| Total commenters | 6 |
| Commenter list | Friar Fever, Hormel, TheThinGwynn, abara, daveysapien, hashtagtroll |
| Story URLs | |
NO RECS TONIGHT. NONE.