(AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)
Mark your calendars, folks. May 11th, 2011 will be the best offensive production the San Diego Padres will post in 2011. I hope I’m wrong, I really do. But what we saw from the Padres on Wednesday was just unreal. It was nothing like the Padres we’ve seen all season. First, The Norf led off the game with a home run. Then, they tacked onto the lead and just like that… we were up 5-0. We don’t score 5 runs in games. Not unless they are double or triple headers. Kick your feet up, right? Our pitching staff is nails…we can hold a 5 run lead. Stage right: Enter scoreboard from the 6th inning: Brewers 6, Padres 5. Sunuva… we just can’t catch a break.
Going into that 6th inning, the Padres had already topped their season high in hits and they were now losing. 8th inning, Padres are still losing. Must be Game Over, the ghost of Tony Gwynn, Jr. wins. Not so fast. Stage left: Enter scoreboard from the 8th inning: Brewers 6, Padres 13. BOOM! An 8 run 8th.
(AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)
The Padres finished the game season-high 23 hits and 13 runs, raising their team batting average from an abysmal .219 to a less abysmal .230. Ryan Ludwick, who was on a solid 0-21 streak coming into the game… went 3 for 6 with a 3-run jack. (That 3 for 6, btw, still couldn’t put him over the Mendoza Line for the season… still sitting at a .195 BA.) The Norf was 3 for 4, raising his season average to a cool .370… why isn’t he playing full time again? I mean, at least until he drops under .300? Jason Bartlett and Cam Maybin were both 4 for 6. Hell, Tim freakin’ Stauffer was 2 for 3. The boys’ bats were en fuego… how very 1927 Yankees of them.
The 23 hits, btw, are the best of any team in Major League Baseball this year, and 1 hit shy of an all-time Padres team record. Not too shabby for a team that was putting up these jaw dropping stats just last week. Quote of the day was from Buddy Black, “I said going in, If I get 23 hits, 13 runs, I’ll take our chances…” Oh Bud, you jokester, you.
A giant snake with Kameron Loe in his pre-Brewers days with the Rangers
Before I go, I do want to give a shoutout to Brewers relief pitcher Kameron Loe for three reasons…one, the dude loves snakes and I’m into that… two, his name is the Men’s Warehouse version of Cameron Crowe… and two, he pitched 1/3 of an inning in this game and finished with a 108.00 ERA. No, that wasn’t a typo. Cheers to you, Kam.
-bp