Padres vs Dodgers Games 1 & 2, Ranking and Reviewing Every. Game. Of. The. Season.

I love projects that I start and then stop. I like to imagine that somewhere in the multiverse, there is a version of me that has completed all of these projects and is now prime minister of his own country, having written several novels that were later turned into a successful prestige television HBO series and then retconned into the Marvel cinematic universe timeline. That version of me would see almost any crazy project all the way through to the end and therefore forget why he has a collection of taxidermy lemurs dressed as old timey time baseball players, or why he sits on toilets straddle style, back to front.

But I digress.

One of my projects that I'm going to try and start up again is ranking every single Padres game over the course of this season. I may need some help, because the last time I tried to do this, it was really really tricky. But, start small as they say:

Here's your current ranking:

1. First win of the season. Rain delays deluge of runs. (Game 2: Game Thread and Recap)
2. Where the universe turns upside down and the Padres lose on Opening Day. (Game 1: Game Thread and Recap)

See, in the beginning, these things are really easy to do. It's very easy to look at those first two games and say, "Sure. That second game was better than that first game." But what happens when it's game 146 and you're being forced to determine where it should fit among Game 7, Game 83, and Game 111? Nobody knows. But this year we will.

Game 1 Review

So in case you're wondering, losing the first game of the season is bad, but I won't call that a bad loss. As losses go, it's tough to take away the fact that we're playing on the road against (who others tell me is) the best pitcher in baseball with a team that has a lot of expectations and pressure on them to perform. A bad loss would've cleared the bandwagon a bit (and indeed we lost a few followers on Twitter), but it wouldn't have seemed so far out of place. Instead, what we got was a lead going into our bullpen and the flu screwing with Bud Black's bullpen strategy and a loss late in the game. So fear not, True Believers! The next game will be right around the corner and there will be plenty to be excited about! Gaslamp Ballfork Score: 6.12

Game 2 Review

And lo and behold, Game 2 of the season comes around and it starts out strong with contributions from a lot of new faces, and then there's this really boring stuff in the middle and then it ends strong, not unlike the last two Game Of Thrones books. Throughout the game we realize that Tyson Ross, Justin Upton, Derek Norris and Matt Kemp are probably going to be the fan favorites we all thought they would be, but it's notably Baby Face Clint Barmes who comes in from the rain to spark this one to life a bite late in the game. Also Cory Spangenberg is fast. In case you're wondering, the nicknames I'm trying out for the previously mentioned players are (respectively): Germanic Son of the Peninsula, First Up, The Beareded One, Leather Backpack, Baby Face and Kid Flash. Gaslamp Ballfork Score: 8.8 (Best New Music)