 |
 |
|
|
Padres Lose Series To Dodgers
The Padres played a three-game series against their rival Dodgers over the holiday weekend.
The first game was terribly played by the Padres. Chad Gaudin allowed five runs in the first, and that was that. The Padres got three runs, but they lost 6-3.
But nobody cared about the score. It was the return of the Manny that really mattered. PETCO Park was sold out two days in a row, and on Friday night, the majority of the crowd was Dodgers fans. That was very frustrating to this Padres fan. This is PETCO Park, peoples, home of the PADRES. It was terrible that the Dodgers were getting more cheering than the Padres. Thankfully, Manny had a walk and that was it.
This whole Manny hype is utterly ridiculous. Seriously, besides all the Dodgers fans, WHO CARES? This guy’s cheated, and he's been treated like a hero. This is just wrong. The media attention was wrong, even that he's back is wrong. There's gotta be a more strict punishment for a guy who's cheating the game. And do you really believe that he's going to stop juicing? Yeah right!! He's got practically the whole world looking at him, a huge nation of fans thinking he's the savior. He has to keep up what he does best, Manny being Manny, and to do that he needs help. I hated all this media attention at PETCO. Sure, it got the Padres some attention, but who cared that the Padres lost? Who even cared that the Dodgers won?
A new day brings new hope, though. On the fourth of July, my Padres went out and played an excellent ballgame. The game was broadcast on FOX just because of the Manny, but it was the Padres who stole the show.
In the first inning, Manny got his moment to shine by hitting his first homer since getting back. Yeah, whatever.
In the second, Henry Blanco singled, but was hurt rounding first. Turns out that he strained a hamstring. Eliezar Alfonso came in to catch, and the backup catcher would have been Edgar Gonzalez. I think Kouz would have been the absolute emergency catcher :)
In the third, starting pitcher Josh Geer started the inning with a double, the first extra-base hit of his career. Wow.
Then, Everth Cabrera laid down a sac-bunt to move him to third. Next up was David Eckstein, and all Padres fans knew that he would get the job done. I mean, runner on third with one out, Eck's going to get him in. He's been doing it all year. And guess what? He did it! He hit a single to tie the game.
Things stayed scoreless until the seventh. Josh Geer threw 6.1 innings, giving up two runs and walking none. He was good. Randy Wolf on the other side was pretty good himself. He threw six innings, allowing one run and striking out eight. OK, he was a lot better than Josh!!
In the seventh, Greg Burke allowed the go-ahead run to score on a wild pitch. Oh boy. But the scoring in this game was nowhere near to being done.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Padres rallied to take the lead for good. Eliezar Alfonso walked, Tony Gwynn singled, and Kyle Blanks was hit by pitch. Then Everth Cabrera, the hero of the game, singled in two to give the Padres the lead.
Later in the inning, Adrian Gonzalez singled in Everth to give us a 4-2 lead.
In the top of the eighth, the Dodgers got another run to make the game very close.
In the bottom of the inning, Alfonso singled and Gwynn reached on an error (the Dodgers had three errors in the game!!). Heath Bell got the last out in the top of the eighth, so he was batting for himself. He hadn't had an at-bat since 2005, but he went out there and laid down a sac-bunt. Way to go Heath!
Everth Cabrera then hit a two-run single. David Eckstein drove in Everth, and the Padres had a 7-3 lead!
In the top of the ninth, Heath Bell was all over the place. Maybe it was because he was so excited about his bunt or whatever, but he was having a hard time throwing a strike. He allowed a walk, and a single to drive in a run before striking out three. Whew!! It was pretty stressing, but Heath made it, and the Padres won the game, 7-4!!
It was such an incredible game!! "Everything" Cabrera was definitely the star. He had two hits, driving in three runs. He also had that sac-bunt. He does what needs to get done.
Not to mention his defense. He had five excellent plays to rob players at shortstop, including two against the Manny. HA! Seriously, this guy has been just amazing, and he's only going to get better! AHHH!! He put on quite a show for the TV.
I am sooo excited about this guy!! It's going to be so much fun just to see him get better!
In the rubber game, things appeared like it would be an easy game for the Dodgers. But it ain't over 'til my Padres say it's over!!
Josh Banks was not that great. He allowed six runs in 4.1 innings, allowing three home runs. Ugh.
> MLB Center has partnered with DFN Sports to bring you a fantastic selection of San Diego Padres jerseys online!
In the fifth, the Padres finally broke through to Chad Billingsley. Kevin Kouzmanoff snapped a 0-for-17 streak with a solo homer.
So, we go on to the ninth. We're losing by five runs, rubber game. Billingsley was still pitching, which just goes to show how good he was. I was taking a nap, but woke up as the inning started.
Chase Headley started it off with a solo homer. Ok, getting closer... Tony Gwynn doubled, and Chad was done for the day. In comes Jonathan Broxton, of all people. This is the huge guy, almost 300 pounds and throw upwards to 100 mph. This guy is gooooood.
But the Padres have done it before. They have scored five runs off of Broxton in the ninth at PETCO Park to win a game. Will they do it again?
David Eckstein flew out for the first out. But then Scott Hairston walked. But then Adrian Gonzalez struck out. The Dodgers were this close to getting the game...
Will Veneble singled to drive in our third run. Edgar Gonzalez and Eliezar Alfonso walked, Alfonso's driving in a run. I was hanging on every pitch, by the way. It was so crazy!!
Next up was Everth Cabrera. Now, this was probably the most stressing at-bat of the whole inning. Oh man. He ran the count to full before finally hitting it. It went through the middle into center, and two runs scored to tie the game. But the center fielder threw to third and got the out there. So, the inning was over, but we had tied the game. It was great, but so sad. If the baserunner hadn't made that blunder, we would have had the winning run right there. That was really disappointing, but we did great. We got five runs. We did the improbable.
But things didn't go well from there. We had perfect opportunities to get the game won, but my boys were trying too hard. Finally, in the top of the 13th, James Loney hit a solo homer to put the Dodgers on top. I hate James Loney.
The Padres couldn't do anything in the bottom of the inning, despite leaving two runners on, and so we lost, 7-6.
Well, the Padres played pretty well, but the Dodgers are just better.
The Padres are now playing the Diamondbacks for three games in Arizona. Walter Silva will pitch against Jon Garland tonight.
GO PADRES!!
By Kaity Bergquist
MLBCenter.com San Diego Padres Correspondent
> View all of the MLB baseball news articles from ProBaseball-fans.com.
Advertisement