The Padres have grown all too familiar with extra innings affairs. Not one or two extra innings, more like nine or ten. After playing 18 and 22 innings games already this year, winning in nine innings is a nice break for the Padres. Jody Gerut stepped up and erased the through of bonus baseball from anyone’s minds.
Gerut was called on to pinch hit in the eight inning with two runners on and one out. He did not disappoint, sending a ball deep into the outfield seats and putting the game out of reach. The blast broke a 2-2 tie and set the Padres up for a 5-2 win.
The blast followed an earlier shot by Kevin Kouzmanhoff that was brought back into play by Ryan Langerhans making a leaping catch at the wall to take away a homer.
Wil Ledezma was strong on the hill for the Padres. In just five innings he rung up seven Nationals batters. He allowed just two hits and only one run.
Nationals starter John Lannan gave up just two runs to the Padres on five hits. He struck out five in six innings. Both starters took no decisions.
Reliever Saul Rivera took the loss for the Nationals. Two of the runners that scored on Gerut’s homer belonged to him. Charlie Manning came in for him and gave up the homer.
The Nationals had four stolen bases in the game. Lastings Milledge had two of them, taking second and then third immediately after it.
Trevor Hoffman picked up his 11th save of the year. Michael Barrett was the only player in the game to have two hits.