Pitchers duel at Petco helps Padres avoid sweep. Greg Maddux was vintage this evening working his was through seven innings on 69 pitches. Retiring the Cubs first nine batters in a row before allowing a hit in the 4th inning.
Ted Lilly had a solid showing allowing only two runs over 7 and 1/3 innings. Lilly was using the spacious outfield at Petco to his advantage. After allowing a solo HR to Scott Hairston (8) to lead off the game the Padres hit numerous deep drives that simply died in the outfield. The Padres wouldn’t regain the lead until the bottom of the eight off of reliever Carlos Marmol (run was charged to Lilly).
The Padres couldn’t seem to provide Maddux with enough run support again tonight. On three occasions men were left standing at third waiting for a clutch hit to drive them in.
Brian Giles reached base three times on this evening, hitting three deep drives to center, two which dropped in for doubles. Giles did lead off the 8th inning with one of those such drives. Adrian Gonzalez was able to hit a deep fly ball to left center that was flagged down by Alfonso Soriano; Giles was able to tag up from second to third. Kevin Kouzmanoff then hit a sacrifice fly to deep center scoring Giles from third and giving the Padres a 2-1 lead.
Trevor Hoffman came in to start off the 9th sending Mike Fontenot and Soriano down on strikes before allowing a base hit to Ryan Theriot. The go ahead run in Derrek Lee came up to bat however on this evening the Padres would not be denied as Trevor struck out Lee on that famous change up; giving Hoffman his 12th save of the year and snapping the Cubs win steak at 9.
Josh Banks will try to cool off a hot New York Mets team that has won seven of it’s last 10. The Padres will host the Mets in a four game series starting tonight.
The MLB 2008 First-Year player draft will take place in Florida this afternoon. The Padres will select 23rd in the first round. They also hold picks #42, #46, #69, #101 and #111 in the first three rounds.
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