Earlier today, TheThinGwynn detailed how Alexi Amarista and Will Venable are basically the same person this season, and it seems he was being a bit prophetic. Venable went 1 for 5 with 3 RBI, while Amarista went 2 for 3 with 2 RBI. Oh, and they both hit homers. Those were kind of important. And it wasn't just the offense that excelled tonight. In his first start since May, Robbie Erlin went 6 innings, allowing just one run on 5 hits while striking out 4.
The Little Ninja got the Padres on the board in the second inning, hitting a home run to the Jack Deck that was a near carbon copy of his go-ahead blast from Tuesday night. The Phillies briefly erased that lead in the fourth. With one out, Darin Ruf hit a double to left field. He advanced to third on a passed ball (the official scorer called it a wild pitch; the official scorer is wrong), though it didn't really matter. Domonic Brown's two-out single would have easily scored Ruf from second.
The Friars didn't let the game stay tied for long. Yasmani Grandal led off the inning with a walk. A pair of singles from Seth Smith and Tommy Medica loaded the bases for Amarista. He picked up his second RBI of the night with a sacrifice fly. Smith got caught trying to take third on the throw, which killed the rally, but he made up for it the very next inning. With two outs in the fifth, Jedd Gyorko singled. A walk to Grandal moved him into scoring position, and brought Smith to the plate to redeem himself. An RBI single is solid redemption. At this point, the whole one run thing was becoming a pattern. Cameron Maybin led off the sixth with a double down the right field line (and he looked like he really wanted to stretch it into a triple). Cory Spangenberg brought him home with a single.
But then Will Venable had to go and ruin the curve. After Amarista and Maybin started the eighth with back to back singles. Cesar Jimenez retired the next two batters, but America's Finest City's Sweetheart (are we still calling him that?) put the game away with a home run to dead center.
Tim Stauffer came in to finish things up in the ninth. He allowed a couple of runs, but with a lead like that, who cares?
The Giants come to town tomorrow night. Odrisamer Despaigne will remind them that we ruin everything at 7:10 PM.
| Roll Call Info | |
|---|---|
| Total comments | 42 |
| Total commenters | 7 |
| Commenter list | Friar Fever, FunkFootball, Hormel, Sam (sdsuaztec4), TheThinGwynn, abara, jodes0405 |
| Story URLs | |
abara led the comments with 24 and picked up the sole rec.