Saving the Padres season
On "San Diego's Reopening Day", the Padres pulled victory from the jaws of defeat and showed that they are still a good offense. It felt like a turning point.
If you’ve been diligently reading and listening to everything that I’ve been putting out about the Padres for the last few weeks, you’ve probably noticed that I haven’t lost faith in the Padres turning things around. However, my opinion on what would turn them around has changed.
First, I thought a day off might help their tired bodies. Nope. It just wasn’t enough.
Then I assumed playing the lowly Rockies in Colorado would be enough to wake up the bats. The offense was better, but it wasn’t enough.
Finally, I wrote this yesterday:
We, as fans, can pack those seats and cheer loudly. It’s about the only thing we can do and it’s about the only option that’s left for the team. They need to rely on us, the fans, to give them energy (or adrenaline) for the next few games.
A big, loud cheering crowd can make tired legs feel fresh and sore bodies feel healthy. And that’s what the Padres need now. As the token optimist of the June portion of this season, I believe the baseball team will look different over the next few days as these guys get carried by the screaming fans of Petco Park.
Well, a sold-out Petco Park was very loud and it carried the team’s offense last night.
I mean, not for the first five innings when they were being no-hit by Wade Miley, but definitely after that!
Turning the power back on
After I wrote about the team lacking power yesterday, they scored 6 runs on four home runs to win the game. There wasn’t a single run that scored on anything but a home run.
Let’s relive them! For fun!
Here’s Fernando Tatis Jr. ending the no-hitter in the loudest way possible:
That really got everyone going and got Petco Park rocking. Manny Machado wanted in on that action:
A quick break for a tweet I got following those HRs that I feel like captured the moment well:
With a 2-0 lead, thanks to brilliant pitching by Musgrove (and Pagan!), the Padres handed the game over to Mark Melancon who quickly and thoroughly shit the bed.
That is how you turn an easy 2-0 lead into a 4-2 nightmare loss. Twitter and Discord were filled with fear and despair. You could hear a pin drop at Petco Park.
We had hoped for a new start, a fresh start. Forget the last three weeks, the fans are here. It felt different and therefore it would be different, right?
Right.
I was so focused on how the crowd might help those who are hurt or tired, but I forgot to mention that some players just play better in front of crowds. It’s a mental thing.
Eric Hosmer stinks. There’s really no debating that. And he can’t be counted on to be clutch either, few people can. But you can tell that the crowd gave him a little extra motivation last night when he stepped up with a chance to tie the game in the bottom of the 9th.
But the Padres weren’t done. With the crowd still buzzing from Hosmer’s home run, Jake Cronenworth hit a single to center. And then Victor Caratini stepped to the plate, ready to send everyone home.
I love this shot, specifically, because the team needed a moment exactly like this. They didn’t just need a win, they needed a walk-off win where they could all hug each other and scream like animals. They needed to stare heartbreaking defeat in the face and then overcome it. And they needed to remember what it feels like to turn 40,000 bad nights into 40,000 good nights and hear the appreciation rain down on them.
Now they can put everything they’ve been fighting through behind them. They are victors. They have the undying support of an entire city. They can do this. They can turn this whole thing around and back in the right direction. They maybe already have.