Maybe this is what it took. A sick ace. A spot starter. An all-hands-on-deck situation.
With Mat Latos scratched due to the stomach flu, Tim Stauffer stepped in and worked four strong innings, and the Padres’ offense scratched together enough bloops and choppers to make a collective pitching effort stand up for a 4 – 2 win, snapping San Diego’s 10-game losing streak.
Entering the night knowing the Giants and Rockies had already won earlier on Labor Day, the Padres managed to hang on to their one-game lead over San Francisco in the National League West. The Rockies are 4 1/2 games off the pace.
“I think there was a big exhale,” said manager Bud Black, “but at the same time these guys know we’ve got another game to play in 20 hours.”
And you never know what might happen from one day to the next.
Stauffer was given the ball less than four hours before game time, after Latos spent the night and morning suffering through the stomach flu. Latos said he had recovered enough to pitch on Monday night, but Black pushed him back a day and put the team’s trust in their long reliever with the 1.68 ERA.
He was rewarded with four innings of one run ball, as Stauffer allowed four hits, walking one and striking out one. He threw 62 pitches.
“I was just glad to be able to keep us close,” said Stauffer, “the guys after me did great, and we had a Padre win right there. That’s the way things have gone this year.”
619 Sports postgame locker room video: Tim Stauffer/Mike Adams/Heath Bell
“I saw some fastballs at 95 miles an hour,” said Black, “haven’t seen that before out of Stauff. He pitched really well.”
Nick Hundley got the Padres’ offense started with a third inning first-pitch homer against Dodgers starter Vicente Padilla (6-5). After LA answered back in the fourth on an Andre Ethier RBI single, San Diego fashioned the type of rally that’s been the trademark of their improbable 2010 campaign.
Read more, and hear from Will Venable on his key at-bat, plus Bud Black talks about Stauffer’s chances of making another start:
With one out, Adrian Gonzalez rolled a slow grounder up the middle for a single. Miguel Tejada then got jammed but fisted a flare over Ryan Theriot’s head at second base for a bloop single. Chase Headley walked to load the bases, bringing up Will Venable.
Padilla thought he had made the pitch to get out of the inning, as Venable hit a chopper to the right side. First baseman James Loney cut off the ball and threw to second for a force, but Padilla was slow getting to the bag for the relay, and Venable just beat out the return throw for an RBI fielder’s choice and a 2-1 lead.
Will Venable talks about his key at-bat, and the Padres’ team win (:45)
Hundley followed with a chopper high off the plate, which Rafael Furcal could do nothing but helplessly wait for at shortstop. He had no play and Hundley beat out the infield single to give the Padres a 3-1 edge.
From there, Black rode his bullpen to victory, using six relievers to record 15 outs. Edward Mujica and Joe Thatcher combined to strand two in the fifth and Ryan Webb worked around two singles in the sixth.
Luke Gregerson’s recent struggles continued in the seventh, as he allowed a homer to light-hitting Scott Podsednik, cutting the lead to 3-2, and a line single to Furcal. Mike Adams was called in for the second straight day one inning early, and worked around a walk to Casey Blake, striking out Ethier to end the inning.
The Padres got the run right back in the bottom of the 7th against banished Dodgers closer Jonathan Broxton, who is trying to work out his struggles in middle relief. Defensive replacement Aaron Cunningham led off with a double into the right-field corner, and classic San Diego execution brought him around to score. Chris Denorfia grounded a two-strike pitch to the right side, advancing Cunningham to third, where he scored on David Eckstein’s sac fly to make it 4-2.
Adams came back to work a perfect 8th, including an acrobatic tumbling backhand catch of a Matt Kemp grounder and two strikeouts. As a result of his 1 2/3’s innings of superb relief, Adams (3-1) was deemed by official scorer Bill Zavastovsky as being the most effective reliever, so he was awarded the win.
“Those were probably the five biggest outs of my career so far to this point, just because of the way things have been going for us the past ten days,” said Adams, exhaling in relief, “Hopefully we get on a roll now, we’ve got that little monkey off our back, but man! It was good.”
All that was left was for Heath Bell to make his first appearance since August 27th, the day the streak began. With a small but hardy crowd of 23,574 in full throat, Bell recorded his 38th save in his first opportunity since August 19th, striking out two before getting Furcal on a grounder to third to end the game.
“I knew if we were going to break the streak, it was going to be a game like this,” said Bell.
Stauffer’s good work has earned him consideration for more starts down the stretch, says Bud Black (embedded soundbyte, :25):
The Dodgers were all but eliminated from playoff contention with the loss, falling nine games off the pace. More importantly for the Padres, they prevented San Francisco from erasing a 6 1/2 game lead in 12 days.
The Padres now get to use a hardier Mat Latos on Tuesday night against Los Angeles ace Clayton Kershaw, a 7:05 first pitch.
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