Magic Moment Alert: Jorge Alfaro's walk-off HR
Let's stop and appreciate the magic of this San Diego Padres before moving onto the next series.
There’s a lot going on around the San Diego Padres and…maybe we’ll get to that later. I didn’t want to try and cover everything and take away attention from where it should be, which is squarely on Jorge Alfaro’s walk-off 3-run home run.
Yesterday afternoon, down 2-0 to the Miami Marlins and having gone about 20 innings without scoring a run, the Padres seemed like they were finished. Hell, I took the dog for a walk and didn’t even throw the radio broadcast on my phone. I figured it was over.
But, and I will keep saying this no matter how stupid it makes me look later, I love this team. It has a magic about it. And maybe nothing has proven that in a single game better than what happened in the bottom of the 9th.
Nola (who is quietly about to be hitting under .200) strikes out. Makes sense.
Then Profar, who is batting .111 (including this hit!) in the last two weeks, gets a single. Cool.
Then the team gets lucky. A throwing error turns an easy out into first and second with….nevermind, Profar ran into an out at third. Two outs, nobody in scoring position.
Up comes C.J. Abrams, who has hit .182 over the last week and for the season. That’s just what he is right now, a .182 hitter that is now splitting time with a .071 hitter in RF until Wil Myers comes back.
We’ll probably talk more about this terrible offense at some point but let’s not forget about the magic. Abrams finds a way to get an opposite-field single and keep the inning alive.
Then Jorge Alfaro pinch hits for Jose Azocar. Now, Azocar isn’t a terrible hitter. He has the 5th highest OBP on the Padres. The chances of him getting on base were probably better than Alfaro but, trailing by 2 with two outs in the 9th, the Padres didn’t have time to play the numbers. They needed a HR. And what a HR they got:
Alfaro got a hanging something and decided it looked better in the outfield seats. He absolutely destroyed that ball. I believe I saw that it was the highest exit velocity and the furthest HR of any Padres hit this season. I believe it.
Also, Alfaro played his role perfectly. Not only did he hit a bomb, he knew he hit a bomb and didn’t even bother to watch it. Instead, he pumped his team up.
Not even bothering to look at your HR while you start your walk around the bases is way cooler than staring at your HR.
Anyway, shoutout to Jorge Alfaro. This is why he’s here. The man will swing at literally any pitch and will someday break a record with his K-rate (he’d break the actual strikeout record if he were a starter), but when he makes contact the ball goes far and gets there fast. He was the perfect guy for the moment.
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