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Gonzalez go yard in must-win game
   

10/01/10

   

SAN FRANCISCO -- It's probably not important that Bud Black and Randy Ready had differing opinions on the sounds of survival the Padres managed to produce Friday at AT&T Park.
Black, the manager of the Padres, found comfort in the sounds of silence that followed the long home runs Adrian Gonzalez, Ryan Ludwick and Matt Stairs hit that made the difference in the Padres' 6-4 victory over the Giants.
"I like how quiet it got after those," Black said, referring to the hush of the crowd.
Ready, the Padres' hitting coach, said he preferred the loud thump of ball meeting lumber, especially when Gonzalez jumped on a Matt Cain pitch in the second inning for a three-run home run that did more than rescue a scuffling offense.
"It was loud," Ready said. "Those balls were well struck. It's a different sound."
What Black and Ready could probably agree upon was the importance those three home runs held, as the Padres kept alive their flickering hopes of tying the Giants atop the National League West this weekend.
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As things have been for the Padres the last five weeks, it wasn't easy.
"It's a situation where every out is important," Black said. "We felt this was a game that we needed to have."
They all are now.
The Padres still have their work cut out for them if they're to advance to the postseason for the first time since 2006, though their win over the Giants, combined with a Phillies victory over the Braves, gave them a much-needed reprieve on two fronts.
The Giants, who have already clinched a tie for the National League West title, lead the Padres by two games with two to play. Better yet for the Padres, they shaved a game off the Braves' lead in the Wild Card race, trimming it to one.
"Every win counts. We need to go out there and do exactly what we did today tomorrow. The Giants are still the best team in the National League West," Ludwick said. "We need to go out and beat the best team in the National League West tomorrow."
The three home runs, a welcome sight for a team that hit .229 during September, as well as 3 2/3 innings of solid relief from the bullpen allowed the Padres (89-71) to take a first step forward in what could develop into a wild weekend against the Giants (91-69).
"It's great for today, but we've still got to do it again tomorrow," Gonzalez said. "Just one game doesn't do anything for us right now. We came here looking for three, and we've got a third of it now, but we've still got a long way to go."
To get to the postseason, all agree, will take more pitching and defense, the calling card of this team. It will take offense, and that's what the Padres had plenty of against Matt Cain (13-11), who allowed six runs in four innings.
In a recently completed seven-game homestand, the Padres scored two or fewer runs on four occasions and were shut out twice. Gonzalez and Ludwick? They were a combined 5-for-49 with one RBI and 15 strikeouts.
"These guys got to come through for us," Ready said. "And they know that they have to contribute. It's really just the cycle of a hitter; there's peaks and valleys. We've just got to keep plugging away."
The beneficiary of this unusual outpouring of runs, of course, was Padres starting pitcher Clayton Richard, who eclipsed the 200-inning mark for the first time in his career Friday.
From a wear-and-tear standpoint, Richard looked perfectly fine. But from a fraught-with-peril perspective, Richard walked a tightrope at times.
Richard walked two in the first inning and had to deal with baserunners in five of his six innings he worked. The left-hander lost his shutout in the fifth inning and then, with the Padres leading 6-0, allowed a two-run home run to pinch-hitter Aaron Rowand when he left a changeup out over the plate in the sixth inning.
The pitch to Rowand was the last Richard (14-9) would throw, as Black ended up going to the bullpen three times in the inning, first for Ryan Webb, who allowed a hit and a walk, and then to situational lefty Joe Thatcher, who got Andres Torres to tap a ball about 20 feet down the left-field line for an RBI to make it 6-3.
Black then went and got Luke Gregerson to face Freddy Sanchez. Sanchez looked like he got just out in front of a slider, flying out to center fielder Will Venable for the final out.
The seventh inning wouldn't hold nearly as much drama for the Padres or Gregerson, as he needed just nine pitches to get three outs, striking out Aubrey Huff before getting two ground-ball outs from Buster Posey and Pat Burrell.
Finally, in the ninth inning, Heath Bell, on his way to a four-out save, allowed a leadoff walk to Sanchez, who was then inexplicably doubled up when right fielder Venable -- he moved defensively later in the game -- ran down Huff's hard-hit ball in the corner as Sanchez kept running.
One out later, the game was over, allowing Black, Ready and Richard to enjoy the sound of victory, clearly their biggest of the season.
"They've done so well consistently in these types of situations that we have nothing but confidence in what they do," Richard said of the bullpen. "As a starting pitcher, you never really want to leave in the sixth, but that being said, I had nothing but confidence in what they do."
Adrian Gonzalez