SD8, SF9: Friars go out of their way to break our hearts

In an absolute home-run parade the Padres come from behind on a harsh lead, only to concede it. Inch by agonizing inch.

There's four games left in this 2014 Padres season. Tonight was the first of our final season trip to AT&T, and boy, a trip it was. If you tuned into this game expecting some calming, bittersweet background noise to send you off on the Friars' regular season then, like me, you were not physically or mentally prepared.

For five straight innings, our love and joy of 2014 Andrew Cashner was absolutely rocked. One in the first, one in the second, two in the third, one in the fourth, and one more in the fifth. Last week's NL Player of the Week was not treated to a nice final season start. In his 5 innings he gave up 6 runs in 8 hits, two of them being home runs.

Scratch it though, because I guarantee Cashner was mad enough for all of us about his outing.Bouncing back off a first miserable 5, Will Venable came to the rescue with a two-run HR in the 6th to make things bearable. Following suit, Yasmani Grandal blasts a homer of his own, slicing the lead in half after pinging the baseball off the foul pole and putting things at 3-6.

That's not where Grandal was about to stop though. Remember: the guy's got power.

Taken to the 7th with bases loaded, Grandal needed to set a little career record. His first 2-HR game was earned off a grand-slam into the walkway shores of McCovey, and the game was tilted in the favor of the good guys at 7-6. Immediately afterwards, Rene Rivera felt like he needed a home run as well so he bonked one into the left field bleachers and the Padres were sitting pretty at 8-6.

If your heart can't stand to read this article, at the very least watch this gif over and over until the tears dry.

Until the Giants ruined everything. And I mean everything.

Started on a check-swing deflection off the first base umpire, the Giants quickly put runners in scoring position. Then came an RBI-single. Then came another: RBI-single. And with things now painfully tied up, the Giants lay down a Padres Bunt™ was used against us (but successfully). So in a game with six home runs, it would all be decided by a bunt and a gangly awkward man resembling a baseball player sliding into home plate.

I give this game a solid NOT COOL rating.

If watching the broadcast wasn't roller-coastery enough for you, the win expectancy graph will visually demonstrate it for you.

Source: FanGraphs

A dozen GLB'rs showed up for the final four of the GBL Padres gamethread season.

I guess I went a little banana sandwich tonight. I had the most comments (34) and recs (10). abara had the highest rec'd comment (3) and collected 4 total.