Ian Kennedy joined this weekend's parade of Padres pitchers dominating the Giants. In 6.2 innings on the mound, Kennedy picked up his 200th strikeout of the season and held the opposition to just 2 runs on 5 hits and a walk. For the first four innings, San Francisco pitching was looking equally potent. And then our bats dropped 8 runs on their heads.
The score doesn't tell the entire story here. The first half of the game was a tense pitchers' duel, with IPK holding the Giants hitless for 3.2 innings. Ryan Vogelsong held onto his no-no for even longer, with the Padres not picking up a hit until Seth Smith led off the fifth with a double. The difference between Kennedy and Vogelson? Kennedy didn't fall apart after allowing a hit. Rene Rivera followed Smith with a single, putting runners at the corners with nobody out. Alexi Amarista continued his Giant-slaying ways and brought Smith home with a sac fly.
The Padres bats really lit up in the sixth. Yangervis Solarte and Will Venable led off with a pair of single to put runners at the corners with nobody out. Jedd Gyorko followed that with a grounder to third. Pablo Sandoval tried to tag Venable returning to third and faiiled. Then he tried to throw Gyorko out and failed. With the bases loaded, Vogelsong was pulled and replaced with the not much better Javier Lopez. Yasmani Grandal hit an RBI sac fly off Lopez, and and then Smith drew a walk to reload the bases. That got Lopez replaced with George Kontos. Kontos, like Lopez, got the first batter he faced out, but allowed a run doing so. Rivera smashed a grounder to third, but Sandoval smothered it, getting Rivera at first and only allowing one run instead of two or three. Kontos intentionally walked Amarista to get to Cameron Maybin, who hit a two RBI single to put the Padres up 5-0.
The Giants finally got on the board in the top of the seventh. After getting the first two batters to strike out, Kennedy gave up a single to Brandon Crawford. Chris Dominguez followed that up with his first career homer, a bomb that ended up over by the Western Metal Building. That was it for Kennedy, who would be replaced by Frank Garces.
The Padres got those runs back and then some in the bottom of the seventh. Venable singled and Gyorko walked, leading up to a two run double from Grandal. Rivera would follow that up with a single to put the Friars up 8-2. Garces was joined by Nick Vencent and Joaquin Benoit to shut down the Giants and wrap up the sweep.
Eric Stults opens the final home series against the Rockies tomorrow at 7:10 PM.
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| Total comments | 85 |
| Total commenters | 9 |
| Commenter list | B Cres, CurbEnthusiasm, Darklighter, Friar Fever, abara, athletics68, daveysapien, hashtagtroll, jodes0405 |
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abara led today's thread with 39 comments, and shared the rec title with daveysapien at 3 each.