The Padre Post

SAN DIEGO — Arizona was hoping for a sweep of the last-place San Diego Padres Thursday in order to keep pace with the first-place San Francisco Giants.  Instead, the Diamondbacks ran into a Padres bullpen that shut them down after Mat Latos’s departure in the sixth for a 4-3 victory.

Arizona quickly jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second on Brandon Allen’s two-run homerun.  But in the bottom half of the inning, the Padres responded with a homerun of their own, a solo blast by Jesus Guzman to cut Arizona’s lead in half.

Cameron Maybin led-off the fourth with a single, advancing to second on Chase Headley’s groundout.  Once again, Guzman would display his reliability, this time with an RBI-single that just squeaked under Diamondback shortstop, Cody Ransom glove to tie the game at 2-all.

The sixth-inning was a beach-ball parade as both clubs complied for 15 at-bats in the inning.

With Latos still pitching for San Diego entering the sixth, it seemed in all likely hoods that Arizona would produce a big offensive inning en-route to a sweep of the Padres.

After Latos retired Gerardo Parra for the first out, he then proceeded to walk Justin Upton, surrender a single to Miguel Montero, and followed all that with another walk to Chris Young to load the bases for Arizona.  Despite a visit from pitching coach Darren Balsley, Latos would also walk Brandon Allen to walk in a run, and give Arizona a temporary 3-2 lead.

Luke Gregeron then came in relief for Latos and with the bases still loaded, retired both Cody Ransom and Ryan Roberts to end the inning and limit the damage.

In the bottom half of the inning though, what appeared would be a quick one-two-three inning, quickly turned into another lead-changing inning that would give San Diego both the lead and later victory they so needed to avoid another sweep.

With both Maybin and Headley quickly grounding out for two-outs in the inning, Guzman stepped up to the plate, taking his walk to keep the lineup going.  Guzman would steal second with Orlando Hudson batting, and upon Hudson’s single to center, would come home to score another run game-tying run.

The very next batter, Kyle Blanks, got hit by a pitch, allowing Hudson to move into scoring position.  Luis Martinez then came up with an RBI-single of his own to break the tie and give San Diego their 4-3 lead.

Now it was time for San Diego’s bullpen to preserve this lead, and so they did.  Josh Spence had a perfect seventh, striking out the side.  In the eighth, Mike Adams got leadoff man, Justin Upton to groundout, and after Montero’s single, Adams got Young to pop-out and Allen out on strikes.

With a one-run lead intact, there is nobody else the Padres would turn to other than their closer, Heath Bell, who may soon be dealt before Sunday’s trade deadline.  Ryan Roberts kept hope alive for Arizona with a single, but it would quickly not matter as Sean Burroughs would ground into the atrocious game-ending double-play.  San Diego takes it 4-3 to avoid a sweep of the pesky second-place Diamondbacks.

PHILADELPHIA — Roy Halladay, starter of the Philadelphia Phillies, struggled early in his second outing since the All-Star Game, but settled down to earn his 12^th win of the season as he shut down the San Diego Padres from the fifth-inning on.

The Padres used the old-school method when going up against a caliber pitcher like Halladay; run up his pitch-count early and fast.  San Diego did just that, hitting Halladay seven times for three-runs through four innings, shooting his pitch-count to 68.

But from the fifth-inning onwards, Doc Hal allowed just one-hit to get through the eighth-inning without any further damage.  To further recognize his dominance after the fourth, Halladay only needed 26-pitches to complete the sixth, seventh, and eighth-innings.  Reason enough why he sits at 12-4 with a 2.55 ERA.

San Diego’s eight-hits too would not be enough to equalize the Phillies eight-hits in run total.

Cameron Maybin hit the very first pitch he saw from Roy to center and later stole second, his 22^nd of the season, to put himself into scoring position.  Chase Headley then ran the count full against Doc before he singled home Maybin for the first run of the afternoon.

Tim Stauffer of San Diego became victim to what many pitchers around the league have had to encounter.  If you do not capitalize on getting through the Phillies lineup quickly they will hurt you.

Stauffer was able to get the first two batters out, but a walk to Chase Utley and single a by Ryan Howard allowed the first to keep rolling.  Shane Victorino followed by singling to center to bring Utley home.  Howard then scored from second-base on Raul Ibanez’s RBI-double to grab the lead for Philadelphia after an inning of play.

In the third, the Phillies would increase their lead further, taking a 5-1 lead.

Howard would double to lead-off the third and score on Ibanez’s single.  Domonic Brown also singled, advancing Ibanez to second.  Carlos Ruiz then knocked in two more runs with a shot into the left-field gap.

Although the Padres managed to put up two-runs in the fourth-inning, an Alberto Gonzalez RBI-single and a Stauffer sacrifice bunt, it would not have any impact as Halladay was in lookdown mode after the inning.

Already dropping the first three games of this series, the only positive that San Diego can make of their trip to Philly is a win Monday to prevent a four-game sweep and getting some Philly Steak sandwiches.

SAN DIEGO — The San Diego continued their losing ways in the month of July, losing for seventh straight time in a 6-1 loss to the Giants.  San Diego finds themselves 3-9 to start July and already struggling in the beginning days of the second-half.

Now that it is the second-half of the baseball season, it will be interesting to see the moves many teams will be taking to remain in contention or to help keep them in first place.  Heath Bell of San Diego has had his name already thrown around as a possible candidate to be traded by the trade deadline to a team that needs a strong and reliable save man.  Bell has proven to be just that and more over the last three seasons in San Diego.

The Padres blew a 1-0 game in the series opener, giving up the tying run in the ninth, and then surrendered five more in the twelfth on their way to a 6-2 loss.

But Friday night’s game was all about the Giants Andre Torres and Tim Lincecum who earned his eighth win of the season.  Lincecum threw six-innings of three-hit ball, striking out seven and finally getting his ERA below 3.00 (2.99).

Torres, the Giants centerfielder, was on a tear of the Padres pitching as he helped his pitcher by going three-for-four with three-runs and two-RBIs.

Torres was a battle for the Padres Dustin Moseley to start the game, as it took nine pitches before Torres finally singled.  Torres then took third on Mike Fontenot’s single and would score the first run of the game on Pablo Sandoval’s sacrifice fly.  The very next inning, Cody Ross homered to start the second to increase the Giants lead, 2-0.

San Diego was able to finally get on the board in the fourth due to six bad pitches by Lincecum.  Alberto Gonzalez was issued a walk to open the inning by Lincecum, but redeemed himself by striking out Ryan Ludwick.  But two wild pitches advanced Gonzalez to third with just one-out, and that one-out was vital as Orlando Hudson grounded out, but allowed Gonzalez to score and cut San Francisco’s lead in half, 2-1.  But right then and there is as close as the Giants would come in this game.

Andres Torres in the fifth got his first RBI of the day, singling a line-drive to right that scored Chris Stewart who doubled to start the inning.  With Andres Torres at third after Fontenot’s single, Torres scored the Giants fourth-run on a rundown as Fontenot attempted to steal second.

Back-to-back doubles by Aaron Rowand and Torres gave San Francisco a 5-1 lead.  Torres would score from third on a wild pitch by Padres relief pitcher, Ernesto Frieri, that would give the Giants a comfortable 6-1 lead and not have to worry about closer Brian Wilson entering this game.

LOS ANGELES — The last-place San Diego Padres almost had something special to look back on this less than satisfying 2011 season.  But two things went wrong throughout the game and at the very end of the game.

The San Diego Padres were just one-out away from throwing nine-innings of no-hit baseball against the Los Angeles Dodgers, but Juan Uribe prevented this team feat with a double to left with two-outs in the ninth.  This one gets a team effort because starter, Aaron Harang, did not pitch the whole game, lasting through six-innings as the Padres bullpen maintained the no-hitter till Uribe’s hit.

In addition though, this team effort also included the “offense”.  With the Padres pitchers no-hitting the Dodgers, the Dodgers pitching staff was shutting down the Padres bats too, allowing just one-hit.

San Diego, you cannot just get one-hit when your own teammate(s) are throwing a no-hitter for your club.  Rubby De La Rosa is not a starter to be scared of and definitely not someone to lose a possible no-hitter too.  This game has shed all the necessary light on this Padres season and the one that it will continue to have till the last out is recorded.

Please forgive my anger Padres fans.  I know the Padres are struggling, and it is not just because their record places them in last-place.  This team has lost close games, but it does not have the talent to matchup with the other high-powered teams.  But, I personally just see it as sign of disrespect to not even get one lousy run for your team that came within one-out of having a no-hitter on the season.  Even with a 3.25 team ERA, good for 6^th in the MLB, it is highly unlikely that the Padres will get another chance at a no-hitter; they do not just grow on trees ya know.

So, lets talk a little about the game, because there is very little to talk about.

As said earlier, the Padres were only able to give their pitchers one-hit.  That was a result of one-out single by Cameron Maybin in the fifth-inning.  Aside from that, the Padres only had four more base runners reach due to walks.

In the ninth, with the first two Dodger batters going down quickly, it appeared the game was heading into extras where maybe San Diego could get a run and get the next three batters out in a 10-inning no-hitter.

But Uribe had no plans of going extras as he doubled to break open the no-hitter and would later come around as the game winner on David Navarro’s game-winning RBI-single.

I hope that in the future, I do not have to write another blog like this one for both the fans sake and myself.  It is just painful to watch your team come so close to a no-hitter and then lose it on the last out (former Tiger, Armando Galarraga knows this one personally).  But in reality, the Padres were really in no contention of the no-hitter, as they never led.  Things cannot get any worse for San Diego, if they do I will be shocked because things seem to be at an all time low right now, and we are only half-way done with the season.

SEATTLE — Foes met again this weekend as the San Diego Padres visited the Seattle Mariners to close out their season Interleague series.  The first game saw the Mariners continue their winning streak against San Diego, winning 6-0.

Saturday evening though saw the Padres end their losing streak to Seattle, as they escaped with a 1-0 victory.

The only run of the night came in the fifth-inning.  Cameron Maybin got a one-out walk, later advancing to second on Anthony Rizzo’s groundout.  Alberto Gonzalez followed Rizzo by singling on a grounder that was deflected and ended up in left, easily allowing Maybin to score the only run of the evening.

Mariners starter, Doug Fister, sadly suffered the loss for Seattle despite pitching a complete game in which he struck out seven.  But his surrendered run in the fifth was enough to sack him with the loss.  He only allowed six-hits on the night.

Cory Luebke lasted just six-innings for San Diego, but got the win as his teammates came through to score while he was still active.  Luebke allowed just two-hits and those were the only hits Seattle got throughout the whole game as the next three relief pitchers threw three prefect innings; no hits or walks.

Mike Adams pitched the eighth as the setup man, and threw just eight pitches.  The Padres did not allow a base runner since the leadoff man got on in the fifth, retiring the next 15-batters

Heath Bell came in for his 24th-save opportunity in the ninth and sent the Mariners home in order, just needing ten total pitches to get San Diego the victory.

Heath Bell has been a tremendous closer replacement since the departure of Trevor Hoffman.  Since 2009 up till today, Bell has a total of 113 saves out of a total of 123 opportunities; this leads the majors.  With the save last night, Bell now has 24-saves in 2011, good for a tie with four other closers as the top saves leaders this season.