It was home run derby day at Petco with both teams slugging 3 long balls each in this afternoon’s series finale. The only problem was the Diamondbacks’ bombs drove in 6 runs while the Pads round trippers plated only 4 and that was the final, 6-4 Snakes to avoid the sweep at the hands of the Friars.
Kemp started the bomb fest with a lead off HR in the Pads half the 1st. It was his 6th of the season, and the second time in his career to hit a homer in his first AB as the leadoff man.
Despagine made it through the first inning unscathed, but gave up two deep fly ball outs which would be the harbinger of things to come. The second inning started out with an infield error followed by a line drive single. The first out of the inning was a hard hit liner to right field, so OD was playing with fire with some dangerous pitches in the zone. It caught up to him against Castillo who hit a curve ball in the middle of the plate into the left field bleachers for a 3-run HR to give AZ a 3-1 lead.
He was tagged for a long ball again in the 3rd on another breaking ball mistake in the zone, this time to Peralta to put the Pads behind 4-1.
The Friars responded in the 4th with their second tater of the day when Norris hit a fastball out over the plate into the left field bleachers to score Alonso who had walked. It was 4-3 at that point and the makings of another Padres comeback were brewing.
Odrisamer posted zeros in the 4th and 5th and retired the first two to start the 6th. He then hit Tomas prompting Murph to go out and get him. He brought in Garces for the lefty-lefty matchup against Lamb, but it didn’t go quite as planned. After getting ahead with curveballs Garces tried to sneak a fastball by Lamb but he left it right in the middle of the plate and you know what happens to those mistakes…yep, the third homer of the day for the D’Backs to give them a 6-3 lead.
Norrisaurusrex was on a rampage today taking full advantage of the warm weather conditions for the Petco day game. After his 2-run blast in the 4th, he jumped ship again in the 6th, this time a solo shot on a curveball in the zone to cut the Padres deficit to 6-4. It was his 11th HR of the season to set a new career high for him.
Unfortunately that was as close as the Friars would get. They brought the tying run to the plate in the 9th in the person of pinch hitter Brett Wallace but he went down swinging for the final out.
The Pads did a lot of things well today, but ultimately the error, and too many mistakes in the zone cost them the chance to complete their second sweep of the season.
The boys get a day off tomorrow to prepare for a quick two game set agains the Mariners, and then a tough 10 day road trip to St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Texas to finish out the first half.
Kennedy will go for the Friars on Tuesday with the first pitch crossing home plate at 7:10. It will be Jesse Agler and myself bringing you all the action on the Mighty 1090, and we’ll look forward to having you with us.
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