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The Padres have a long September
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By Joe Posnanski
September 2, 2010
Phoenix, AZ — This is the Padres’ moment. This is exactly why they are here, in first place, having the most startling season in what has been a pretty startling season all around in baseball. This is why they are here — up 2-1 on Wednesday afternoon against the last-place Arizona Diamondbacks, seventh inning, their great defense and dominant bullpen about to put an end to this speed bump of a six-game losing streak.
Moments like this are why, until the last few days, the Padres had been slump-proof. Do you know their longest losing streak up to this one? Three games. That’s all. And it only happened once… they have not lost more than two in a row since mid-May. And this is the reason, because of situations like this, because all year long they have wrenched and jerked 1-0 and 2-1 and 3-2 victories away from the other guys. They have won 24 games when scoring three runs or fewer — no other team in baseball has won more than 18. This is their den. This is their show. How do you lead the National League West by four games when you are 12th — TWELFTH — in the league in runs? Right. You win these games you are leading 2-1 in the seventh inning.
“I think we have the best bullpen in the National League,” Padres manager Bud Black will say at the end of this one. That was his response to why he pulled his pitcher, Mat Latos, after only six innings and 99 pitches. Latos, as has become his custom this year, was electrifying. He won’t even turn 23 until December, and he has a 2.29 ERA, he leads the league in WHIP, he’s allowing barely more than six hits per nine innings. Whew. And in this game, he was ON — he struck out a career-high 10*, he allowed only four hits, he made only one real mistake, and it wasn’t exactly a mistake. In the seventh, with the count 3-1, he decided not to give in, he decided to challenge Chris Young with a 95-mph fastball up. Young accepted the challenge and blasted the ball off the left-field foul pole for the Diamondbacks’ first run.
*Though striking out 10 Diamondbacks isn’t exactly breaking news… this was the 56th time it has happened this year. That ties the D-Backs for the all-time record, held by the 2001 Milwaukee Brewers. A lot more on this to come in a post soon.
In any case, it was 1-1 in the seventh, and there were two outs, and there was a man on first, and Latos’ spot came up in the order. Black pinch-hit Matt Stairs. Why? Well, hey, his team is 12th in the league in runs scored. His guys had lost six in a row… and had not scored more than five runs in any of those games. For this team, a man on first with two outs is a potential RALLY, and you never turn your nose up at a potential rally. Black put Stairs in and Stairs obliged with a hard single to right. Will Venable singled up the middle, and that scored the run, and now the Padres were exactly where they love being, up 2-1 in the seventh.
In comes Luke Gregerson, who has been ridiculously great — the league is hitting .160 against him. The plan is in place and everybody who follows the Padres knows it by heart. Gregerson will throw his scoreless inning, Mike Adams will shut down the eighth inning, Heath Bell will ring ‘em up in the ninth, and it will be another 2-1 victory, sixth of the year, looking good…
…only Gregerson walks Mark Reynolds. There’s a conference on the mound.
…only Miguel Montero hits a double-play ground ball to second, which Everth Cabrera throws a bit too hard to shortstop, and Miguel Tejada drops the ball. Everybody’s save.
…only Gerardo Parra hits a hard ground ball to second — another potential double play — and Cabrera cannot quite glove it. And the bases are loaded, nobody out.
• MLB News Archive Index:
2010, 2009
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