Padres manager Bud Black likes to say quite often that his team simply “plays the schedule”, focusing only on the task at hand.
They have now reached a big spot in the schedule.
San Diego took care of business on Throwback Thursday at Petco Park, sweeping aside the hapless Pittsburgh Pirates 3-0 in front of a crowd of 25,897. The Padres won all six games from the Pirates, sweeping the season series for the first time in franchise history, and have beaten the Bucs nine straight times dating back to last year.
“I’d say it was about great pitching,” said outfielder Ryan Ludwick, who provided the power with his 14th home run of the season, “what a pitching staff. All along I thought they were the best bullpen in the National League.”
The sweep allows the Padres to maintain a 2 1/2 game lead in the NL West heading into their longest road trip of the year, a ten-game swing through San Francisco, Chicago and Milwaukee. Naturally, the focus is on the opening series, where the Giants are lurking in wait, hoping to upset San Diego’s season-long hold on first place.
The Padres’ focus against poor teams has been one of the key facets of their playoff pursuit. Thursday’s win capped their seventh series sweep of the season. Two of the seven sweeps came early in the season against the Giants, the other five are against .500 or below teams (Florida, Pittsburgh twice, Arizona twice).
Thursday’s game was a blast from the past, with both the Pirates and Padres wearing their 1978 uniforms. While the yellow and black pinstripes and yellow “pillbox” hats conjured memories of the “We Are Family” teams from the Pirates’ glory days, Dave Parker and Willie Stargell were notably absent from the 2010 version.
Instead, with raw talents like Pedro Alvarez and Jose Tabata dotting their lineup, the Pirates were easy pickings for Jon Garland (11-8) and the Padres pitching staff. Garland worked around four walks and a hit batsmen, allowing just one single over six shutout innings.
The Padres’ offense broke through against Pirates’ veteran left-hander Zach Duke in the third inning. Garland helped his cause with a leadoff single up the middle, and was sacrificed to second base by Jerry Hairston Jr. Miguel Tejada lined Duke’s next pitch into the left-field corner for an RBI double, putting San Diego ahead for good.
Tejada rose to the occasion on defense as well, making his best defensive play as a Padre in the fourth inning. With two on and two out, Tejada went several steps to his left to stop a ground ball up the middle off the bat of Duke, spinning to nip the pitcher at first base by half a step.
“It just keeps me pushing and pushing to keep doing better,” said Tejada of his great defense.
Poor Pirates defense combined with pure Padre power to help San Diego extend their lead in the sixth. Adrian Gonzalez led off with a routine grounder up the middle to rookie shortsop Argenis Diaz, but his low throw was boxed at first base by Garrett Jones for an error. Ryan Ludwick followed by taking a low and outside Duke fastball and powering it over the center-field fence for his 14th home run of the year and third as a Padre.
The Padres “PEN-itentiary” took it from there, with Luke Gregerson, Joe Thatcher and Heath Bell blanking the Bucs over the final three frames. Bell earned his majors-leading 34th save of the season.
Things get tougher now for San Diego, as the team with the NL’s best road record (31-24) gets ten straight away from Petco Park, starting with three against the second-place but hard charging Giants. Clayton Richard will take on Jonathan Sanchez in Friday’s series opener. Sanchez predicted a three-game Giants sweep earlier this week.
“I think it will put more pressure on him to pitch well,” said Padres closer Heath Bell.
This story will be updated with postgame video later tonight.
Craig Elsten -
Chainsaw -
