Venable's Amazing Catch And Other Extra Inning Magic Give Padres 3rd Place In NL West

There were some semi-goats in this game with all the runners left on base, but fortunately there were some heroes too. The first one was Edinson Volquez who pitch 4 very good innings, but did leave the Padres with a 3-1 deficit due to his one bad one. That original run was also partly his doing as he doubled and later scored on a Denorfia double. Mulit-hit games from Chris Denorfia, Chase Headley, Logan Forsythe and Pedro Ciriaco all contributed to the Padres eventually scrapping together 3 runs and tying the game to force extra innings. The bullpen efforts of Tim Stauffer, Joe Thatcher, Luke Gregerson, Dale Thayer and Nick Vincent all kept the Giants quiet from the 6th inning on allowing for a Padres extra innings victory.

There would be some more offensive frustrations in extras that would keep the game deadlocked into the 12th. The Padres had at least a runner on 2nd with less that 2 outs in the 9th, 11th and 12th, but failed to score. You can credit it to some solid Giants pitching, some generous umpiring or some Padres bats that failed in the clutch. Whatever the case it wouldn't matter in the end.

As if inspired after this amazing game saving diving grab by Will Venable:

The Padres would take the lead in the top of the 13th inning. Alexi Amarista started it off with a single, his first hit of the game after entering as a pinch hitter and staying in to play second base. Then Denorfia hit a hard shot that Giants second basemen Tony Abreu couldn't handle putting runners at 1st and 3rd and brought up the pitcher's spot. With no healthy position players left it was up to Andrew Cashner to pinch hit. He surprised everyone with a bunt single that scored Amarista and gave the Padres an extra inning lead.

Chase Headley would hit the ball hard next, but only for a line out to CF. Kyle Blanks then hit a blooper down the RF line that Hunter Pence failed to catch RIGHT AT THE LINE that was called fair, but only moved everyone up one base due to the runners freezing. A pitching change and and Jesus Guzman line out made it two outs and bases full of Padres for Yasmani Grandal. The young catcher would prove a tough at bat and ended up taking 4 balls to bring in an insurance run. Venable would pop out to end the inning.

The Padres would predictably bring in closer Huston Street to close out the game. He'd only need 4 batters (and thankfully no runs given up) to finish off the Giants. That would give Bud Black his 500th career victory as a manager. It would give the Padres their 7th win in a row. It put them in 3rd place in the NL. It left them only 1 game back of the 1st place Arizona Diamondbacks. It's a good time to be a Padres fan.

[Note by jodes0405, 06/18/13 12:56 AM PDT ]

ROLL CALL!

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