Wow! It was another nail-biter last night between the Padres and Rockies. It was definitely a pitching duel, with Padres pitcher Tim Stauffer going up against the Rockies' rookie pitcher Esmil Rogers, in Rogers' major league debut. Rogers, who used to be a shortstop with the Rockies organization, faltered through his first two innings, allowing two San Diego runs, but went on to pitch three scoreless frames showing an ability to handle himself well. Stauffer had another strong outing, carrying a shutout into the sixth inning before Troy Tulowitzki hammered a solo home run to get the Rockies on the board.
Top of the ninth, the score is 2-1 Padres - enter Heath Bell. Brad Hawpe reached base on a jam shot and then that dang Torrealba struck again, hitting a ground ball up the middle to tie the game. Second blown save in as many nights for Bell, after being perfect in all 19 chances at home before this. Heading to extra innings, Jim Tracy decides to send in the big guns, Rockies' closer Franklin Morales, in an effort to hold the Padres. Will Venable hit a single off Morales and Luis Rodriguez followed with a sacrifice bunt to move Venable into scoring position. Morales then walked the next two batters - one intentionally - to quickly load the bases. Coming off the bench to pinch hit was Nick Hundley, who showed great patience at the plate, which still seems to be hard for this young catcher to do sometimes. But he hung in there, didn't try too hard to be the hero, and managed to pull off the walk-off walk to win the game for the Padres, putting the Colorado Rockies three games back from the first place Dodgers. Just keep on spoilin' Padres!
Keywords: San Diego PadresColorado Rockies
