As soon as Will Venable hit his lead off home run yesterday, Dex leaned over to me and said "Venable's going to hit for the cycle today." Then a moment later when Kyle Blanks continued his tear by hitting a 2 run double Dex spoke again. "Blanks and Venable are going to hit for the cycle today!" It's sounds preposterous but with the magical pre-game retirement ceremony anything seemed possible.
Later in the 4th inning Cory Luebke served a fastball that Make Stanton lined out of Petco Park. It hit off one of the signs in second deck so hard that it ricocheted back onto the field. Dave Winfield tried to warn us about Staton's power, but we didn't listen. That's okay he doesn't listen when we ask him not use Yankee pictures as his twitter background.
I told you about Mike Stanton. Watch the line drive that was #30 today. Hang your clothes on that line!less than a minute ago via Twitter for BlackBerry® 
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Dave Winfield
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In the 8th the Padres had a 3-2 lead and Bud Black didn't want to let it slip away so he decided to do the one thing that always seems to let it slip away. He brought in his closer early. Heath Bell charged out of the bullpen to the sound of Breaking Benjamin's "Blow Me Away". With "Hell's Bells" playing earlier for Hoffman's ceremony it made it possible to compare entrance music of the two closers. Needless to say I wasn't blown away by Bell's. I know Breaking Benjamin gets Bell psyched and all, but maybe we could just get him some head phones he could wear while running onto the field.
I found myself standing behind home plate with other Gaslamp Ballers in the bottom of the 9th when Bell made his encore appearance after a flawless 8th. I thought the game was won because a local Math Teacher was trying to buy my retired numbers shirt off my back for 30 dollars. Her guilt trip about her students needing to know the numbers didn't work, but she did manage to make me miss Mike Cameron's game tying home run off of Bell. A few moments later Bell stopped the go ahead run with the bases loaded.
In the bottom of the 9th the Padres met their old nemesis and former teammate Edward Mujica. Nick Hundley promptly swatted a triple to the centerfield wall. It was Hundley's 4th triple in the last 9 games. Then Venable recorded his first walk off hit of his career, that finished a 4 game sweep of the Marlins.
Go Padres!