DANG! Almost another dramatic come from behind win for the Padres tonight but instead they ended up losing to the Marlins 5-2 in a harsh reversal walk off. Although they came up short tonight you still get the sense that this team believes it is never out of it.
For James Shields it was deja vu all over again as he had an almost identical outing as he did just five days ago in New York. In that contest he went up against Noah Syndergaard, allowed two early runs and then matched zeros the rest of the way while his offense was held in check. Today it was the same story as he allowed two runs in the first then went zero for zero with Miami’s Jose Fernandez through the 6th. Like Syndergaard, Fernandez was absolutely overpoweringly dominant.
The only bright side was that Fernandez burned up a lot of pitches and the Friars would get a shot to get back in it trailing 2-0 against the bullpen with the second worst save percentage in the N.L. More good luck came the Pads way when their most dominant set up man, Capps (who should be required to keep his foot from gliding almost two feet closer to the plate!), had to leave the game mid-batter with elbow tightness. Never wish injury on a player, so I hope he’s all right, but it was fortuitous for the Friars.
They couldn’t exploit the opportunity, however, and eventually the 2-0 lead was handed over to their closer, Ramos, in the 9th. You remember Ramos…he was the 11th inning victim the Pads scored four on in the 11th to take game one. Would he show his closers metal by forgetting that last painful outing and rebounding strong? Nope! Norris would single off him to bring the tying run to the plate and then the newly discovered Padres magic mojo would kick in once again. This time it channeled itself through Alexi Amarista who jumped on a fastball and launched it over the right field wall for a game tying 2-run bomb. Ninja Nation erupted!
The Fathers were once again poised to snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat. This time, however, it simply wasn’t meant to be. In the bottom of the 9th with two runners on base Hechavarria was given a slider up and he did not miss it. The ball carried over the left-center field wall striking the base of the home run sculpture for a 3-run walk off home run. The sculpture lit up with it’s marlins rotating and water shooting out of the side signaling the Marlins had a walk off win denying the Pads the series sweep.
You can’t win ’em all, but the Friars quite frankly need to try to jus that against these sub.500 teams as they have a lot of ground to cover if they want to play October baseball.
They’ll resume their effort to put together a dominant road trip with Ross going to the bump for the Pads in game one of the four game set with the Brewers. First pitch will be delivered at 5:10 (PDT), and Ted Leitner and I would be honored to have you join usfor the call on the Mighty 1090!
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