SD 4, LAA 0: Despaigne shuts em out, Kemp keeps them down

Tonight the Padres hiked up their big boy pants and took the field to shake off the stinging walkoff Memorial Day loss to the Angels. After a great performance from Tyson Ross and a timely rally from Will Venable and Yangervis Solarte, the Friars were looking to lift the 13-13 lifetime record against the The Angels Angels of Anaheim.

Odrisamer Despaigne, the solid Brandon Morrow fill-in, took the mound today. After pinning the Cubs to 2 runs in his last start, Despaigne matched the Angels' Matt Shoemaker inning for inning. OD went 6 innings, giving up 5 hits, no runs, no walks, and struck out 5. 62 of his 97 pitches were strike-a-roonis.

Not much happened for a whole nine innings of baseball. The Padres blew it on a 1-out bases loaded situation, and Will Venable did that thing where he robs 2-run home runs from Mike Trout.

A few more innings went by and the Friars had another opportunity with RISP and Matt Kemp at bat. Kemp, who has been picked on by pitchers throwing low outside, took a ball low outside, but not according to human element. The human element decided that an inch off the plate is close enough to close down the inning and Matt looked like he just got dumped an hour before prom.

Close enough?

And enough to take things into extra innings. The Padres started free baseball off with a jerkin' Jedd Gyorko single. Abraham Almonte swapped Gyork on the basepath and Alexi Amarista laid down a bunt to put him over to second base. Back to back walks drawn from Solarte and Venable, then a tough strikeout from Justin Upton, put Matt Kemp at the plate, bases loaded and with vengeance in his heart.

If you've got your scorecards out, that's 3-0 Padres with a double for Kemp. Don't put them down though, because Derek Norris wanted in on the extra-inning fun and popped off an RBI-single to drive in Kemp. Cory Spangenberg chopped a ball to third, which means there was virtually no chance at getting him out, and Norris took advantage of the across-the-diamond throw and moved his way to third base. With runners on the corners Will Middlebrooks lifted a ball - into Mike Trout's glove.

Bud Black brought in Craig Kimbrel for the no-save situation. Somehow Kimbrel made it feel like a save situation, but notched 3 outs while stranding a runner on third. No big deal. Padres win 4-0.

Ooh, that's a good look. The Padres dipped that game in their favor harder than a Lost cliffhanger.

If you were listening to the broadcast today you could hear the Friar faithful representing up in Anaheim. In the game thread jthunder93 was staying loud, but I won the rec game.