Jon and I went to last night's game. It was our 4th game of the Padres first home stand. There were moments of pure ecstasy where we thought we were about to witness the first walk off win of the 2011 season. On the flip side of the coin, there were brutal moments where we were eating really gross $13 steak sandwiches while the Padres struck out with the bases loaded and the Reds dropped 6 runs on us in the 11th inning.
- At the start of the game it didn't look as if Clayton Richard would last long. His first pitches were all lined hard into the outfield. Fortunately the Padres were able to escape from trouble only allowing one run. After that Richard settled in. The game was afoot.
- Have you noticed that Padres pitchers are having a tough time throwing the ball to bases. On Sunday Aaron Harang, with plenty of time, lobbed a ball about 10 feet over the head of Chase Headley. If you remember Richard had a butt load of trouble at the end of last season throwing to the bags as well. He almost threw another ball away again last night. Tom Krasovic goes into more detail about his yips on his blog.
- I think the most exciting moment of the game for me was when Alberto Gonzalez hit a triple and then tried to take home on a throwing error. We were seated on the third base side and I was swinging my arm and screaming "RUN YOU S.O.B. RUUUN!" Then he was thrown out by about 30 feet. I shouldn't be a third base coach.
- The most shocking moment of the game came when the Reds decided to intentionally walk Ryan Ludwick with runners on base. Has anybody in the history of baseball ever been intentionally walked when they are batting .097? Dusty Baker is crazy.
- Sure it's early, but I was thinking today about my gut feeling about Brad Hawpe when the Padres signed him earlier this year. Hoyer really doesn't want to rush Anthony Rizzo through the system, but as a counterpoint I don't want to watch Brad Hawpe hit.
- As I said, the game had moments where you thought the Padres might prevail because Cameron Maybin, Nick Hundley, Orlando Hudson and Alberto Gonzalez all had big hits, but the team made enough mistakes where none of that mattered.
- We met Pad Squad Erin for the 4th time last night. It was like the first time for her because she didn't remember us.
- We also ran into fellow Padres Blogger Kaybee from Unfinished Business. After the game she told us that she was fired up to write about "Cory" and she was going to "let him have it". We were like "Do it! Corey Brock deserves it."
- We tried the steak sandwich at the Food Network cart, behind Section 121, that came highly recommended by Gaslamp Ball's own matthewverygood.
"The Food Network steak sandwich is amazing" - matthewverygood
"13 bones but worth it." - matthewverygood
Jon and I both agreed it was kinda disgusting. In fact I made the bold claim that I'd pay someone $13 if they would have stopped me from eating it. I was going to get a picture of the sandwich but Friarhood Steve distracted me with his tales of blogging and I forgot. Let me paint you a picture with words instead. The sandwich is fried steak on a roll with a quart of blue cheese dressing poured on top of it. Just thinking about it now I had to take a few deep relaxing breaths so that I wouldn't gag. I tweeted matthewverygood that his sandwich didn't live up to the hype. His response:
@gaslampball I only said it was good. If anybody put it on a pedestal, it was you!less than a minute ago via Twitter for iPhone 
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Matt A.
matthewverygood
Yeah WE were the ones that put it on a pedestal matthewverygood, it was us.
Here's what Petco Park looks like after 11 innings of baseball and the home team is down by 6.
Tough one tonight back on the grind tomorrow peace and hair grease SD...less than a minute ago via Twitter for iPhone Favorite Retweet Reply
Cameron Maybin24
CamMaybin
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