Friars come within inches of a great comeback

Tonight's game had some good and some bad. The bad was that the Padres were trailing by quite a lot for most of the game. Cesar Vargas had one of his roughest games yet, and the Friars had a lot of ground to catch up on. The good was that the Pads did catch up on almost all of that ground. The worst of it is that the Pads were closed out with RISP.

Vargas has shown that he can pitch a full start, and do a damn good job through 6-7 innings. Except for one start against the Cubs, Vargas has been almost entirely on point for his entire first season thus far. But tonight was another blip, and it was a big blip. Cesar unfortunately didn't last more than 2 innings, and in a bad 1st and ugly 2nd, he left with nothing to show but 7 runs and 1 strikeout.

Ouch.

The San Diegan offense had a lot of work to do tonight. Matt Kemp immediately rolled up his sleeves in the first inning and smacked another HR, his 12th of the season. Zack Greinke then locked things down until the 6th inning. That was, until Jon Jay and Yangervis Solarte popped off an RBI-double each. Melvin Upton Jr. capped off the inning with a sacrifice fly, and the game was cut in half at 4-8.

Then, in the ninth, Derek Norris managed to make it to second on an errant throw which helped add another run. Hector Sanchez showed up for a pinch hit opportunity and delivered, smacking a 2-run RBI-single.

The Alexi Amarista grounded into a double play. Padres 7, Diamondbacks 8. Game over.

Drew Pomeranz will get the chance to shut out another team, and get the Pads the series win tomorrow for a Sunday 1PM game.