As far as last games of the season go, it was a pretty good one. If you're gonna take a loss, you at least hope for something interesting. Something to root for. I'm glad I got to see the game. I'm also glad that I wasn't sticking around into the ninth just to watch us get no-hit.
I'll admit, I had a bit of a freak out moment somewhere in the second inning. Before the game, I was a little annoyed that Woody Williams had taken over Adam's start for Saturday. Woody would have actually been my fourth choice for starter on Saturday. I liked the idea of going with Adam. My second choice, which I voiced somewheres before would have been Clay. My third choice: B-Law.
But Bochy's never been one to make sensible decisions and Woody got the start. I was a little bothered by Woody's lack of control in the first inning, and when he gave up the first hit to Molina in the second, I started grumbling that another pitcher needed to get going.
For those of you who say, "Why warm up a pitcher in the second inning?" I have two responses. The first: It's not like Woody's demonstrated that he can get himself out of these situations this season. The second: What the hell are you saving your other pitchers for?
I mean, I guess if you can say anything about Bochy, he never did hit that panic button. Even down to the very very very last game of the season, he was saving pitchers for ummmm... I dunno. I guess he wanted to make sure his guys were strong for Halloween.
Anyways, to let the game go to 3-0 in the second was one thing. My temper began stewing even more as I watched them intentionally walk Pujols and still not make a pitching change. Hitting Larry Walker with a pitch to load the bases was enough to start making me crazy. I stood up and started yelling, "WHAT THE HELL IS WOODY STILL DOING OUT THERE!!! GET ANOTHER PITCHER!!! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!!! THERE ARE NO MORE GAMES AFTER THIS!!!"
People stared.
Then came the double to put us down by 5 and I was completely flabbergasted. Jess went and bought me a Randy Jones BBQ sandwich so I'd have something in my mouth to keep from screaming.
Going into the fifth, I figured we may as well stick around to watch a no hitter get thrown. I'm glad the Padres were able to break it up. I'm also glad they were able to get some men on base. Our section cheered and chanted and got loud and psyched, but unfortunately the 10th man wasn't enough.
We had pretty regular "Let's go Padres" chants going. Plenty of clapping and high fiving and knuckle bumping when the Padres would do the rare good deed. We even had a guy who would lift his baby girl up so that everybody behind him would wave to her and she'd wave back and we'd cheer. She was our adopted Rally Baby.
In the end, we lost, but for me, the feeling was more of relief than anything else. There wasn't bitter disappointment. There wasn't even really anger. How can you get angry at a team when they've proved to be so consistent? I just hope that the team can learn from this and get back there next season.
Overall, it was a fun time. We got to hang out with PeavyRules and the Hude beforehand. We ran into the Bochy For Mayor posse. Even saw Steve Poltz. As Steve Poltz was walking by, jbox punched him in the arm and said, "Hey Poltz! Let's do this!"
I'm a little sad that Padres baseball is over for the year, but at least we're the NL West champs. We've got good young players for the coming season. A few changes here and there and we should have a pretty exciting ballclub for 2006. It hasn't always been pretty, but at least it's been interesting. For you readers who enjoy reading the writings of somebody who lives in agony over being a fan of a team that nobody in the country really thinks much about, I'm sure the season on Gaslamp Ball has been very very enjoyable.
Ahhhhhh... It feels good to not have to worry about them, doesn't it?
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