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I don't know about you guys but I power down whenever the Padres play the Diamondbacks. They are my kryptonite and they suck all my energy from me. I don't passionately hate them like other teams and but there is absolutely nothing I like about them. I hate watching games on TV in their ballpark too because it echos like a dome or a racquetball court.
Anyway, the DBacks handed James Shields his first loss of the season. If he doesn't like it then he'll have to play better I suppose. That's accountability. He had no command of his pitches and not much juice on his ball either.
It started bad for Shields in the first, he threw 29 pitches. A.J pollock hit a ground-rule double by stuffing the baseball between the padding of the outfield wall in left field. Shields then threw a wild pitch that advanced Pollock to third. Paul Goldschmidt grounded out to second but drove the run on fielder's choice. Shields walked David Peralta next, then hit Yasany Tomas with a pitch and walked Aaron Hill all in a row. Finally he got out of the inning with a strikeout. Amazing that he didn't allow more runs.
In the top of the second Will Venable got on base with a ground ball single to right. Cory Spangenber singled to right next sending Venable to third. Alexi Amarista, or more than likely Pat Murphy, decided to go for a suicide squeeze with one out and instead got Venable in a pickle that resulted in an out and no runs. I guess the idea was that there was no way Amarista or Shields were going to drive in a run without bunting, so give it a shot.
In the Padres half of the third Yasmany Thomas made a catch that really didn't look that impressive. I'm almost sure that he didn't have to dive, but I admire his showmanship.
In the Snakes half of the third inning Aaron Hill doubled down the right field line to drive in David Peralta making the score 2-0 Snakes. This is when the wheels came off for Shields. Wellington Castillo then doubled to deep center. driving in Hill. Immediately after Nick Ahmed singled to drive in Castillo. It was 4-0 Snakes. Derek Norris did save a run in the inning though after a replay.
In the 5th Shields singled and scored which may or may not have helped him retire the Snakes in order. Regardless the Padres left the bases loaded.
Best inning for Shields so far tonight. Maybe base hit helped the command. Nice 1-2-3 to get DeLaRosa back on mound after long inning.
— Bob Scanlan (@heyscan) June 20, 2015
In the 8th Spangenberg hit a sac fly to score Upton making it 4-2
In the 9th the Padres showed some signs of life and Yonder Alonso walked and was advanced on a Justin Upton double. Matt Kemp grounded out to end the game which is kind of what we've come to expect from him, which sucks.