Solo Shots and a Sac Fly: Padres 4, Phillies 3

I had a hunch that my first recap here at TGP would be that of a win.

It was the perfect storm. The Padres rolled into town with a not-so-hot 14-27 road record while the Phils owned a probably-better-than-you’d-think 15-23 home record. The game also began 1980s Retro Weekend at Citizens Bank Park, and the Phils, their grounds crew, and, of course, the Phanatic were decked out in 80s-style unis.

Add all of that on top of the extreme unlikeliness that the Phillies would dare to be so selfish and lose for my first recap and you get the aforementioned perfect storm*.

*: disregard everything said about said perfect storm

After needing 13 pitches to retire Wil Myers and Manuel Margot for the first two outs in the 1st inning, Nick Pivetta surrendered a mammoth home run on a 2-2 pitch to Padres center fielder Jose Pirela. It hit off the facing of the second deck in left field and was tracked at an estimated 450 ft., so that’s fun.

Pivetta then worked a rather quick 2nd inning, throwing just 11 pitches to retire the Padres in order. But then he went out in the 3rd and met Austin Hedges who poked his 12th home run of the season just over the wall in left to put San Diego up 2-0.

Clayton Richard started for San Diego. He entered this game with a 4.85 ERA, so it would only make sense that the Phillies made him look like an All-Star. Richard allowed just one run on six hits in a rain-shortened outing of six innings. The only run he surrendered was on an opposite-field solo shot by Tommy Joseph in the bottom of the 4th which brought the Phils to within one.

Hedges was then welcomed back to the dish by Pivetta in the top of the 5th and he put another solo home run out of the park, this one to right field.

The Phillies and Padres then traded blows of mediocrity back and forth until the rain came in between the top and bottom of the 7th inning. The Armageddon-looking storm rolled over Philly and caused a rain delay of about an hour and a half. I usually hate rain delays; however, this delay prevented Richard from continuing his dominance over the Phillies’ hitters — besides Tommy Joseph, of course, who went 2 for 2 with a double, home run, and walk against Richard.

When the rain finally settled it was Phil Maton who took over on the hill for the Padres in the 7th inning. Maton threw all of nine pitches while recording two outs and surrendering two hits and a run - a Cameron Rupp single, Nick Williams double, and Daniel Nava RBI groundout. Brad Hand then trotted in and allowed the inherited Williams to score on a Freddy Galvis single to left which tied the game at 3.

Fast forward to the 9th and enter the recently rejuvenated Hector Neris who, prior to this outing, hadn’t allowed a hit or a run since June 21 against the Cardinals. The key phrase in the previous sentence is ‘prior to this outing,’ because Neris would go on to give up two hits and a run in the top of the 9th which gave the Padres a 4-3 lead and ultimately a 4-3 win.

A few things to take away from this ballgame:

• Nick Pivetta goes 7 innings for the third time in a row. His final line was 7 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 0 BB, 9 K, 99 pitches (75 strikes).
• The Phillies went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position because, as usual, why score them if they’re in position?
• DON’T SIT NICK WILLIAMS TWO NIGHTS IN A ROW.
• Everything sucks so here is the video of Gary Matthews’ 3-run shot in the ‘83 NCLS while wearing the same uniform that the Phils wore tonight