Back to back home runs give Padres the win
As a result of participating in this year’s SABR Conference, held in sunny San Diego, I got the opportunity to attend a game at Petco Park with a large group of other conference-goers. After sitting with them for a couple of innings in the 300’s, I made my way down to the Field Box seat that I purchased so that I could be a bit more involved in the action of the game.
With back-to-back home runs from Fernando Tatis Jr. and Eric Hosmer in the 6th, the Padres had all the scoring they would need to win the game. Tatis is having an epic rookie season, even though he missed over 30 games. With an average over .325, he is only the second rookie shortstop ever to have ten home runs and ten stolen bases in the first half.
The other standout this season for San Diego has been their closer Kirby Yates, a journeyman player who only seemed to figure out his game last season, at the age of 31. If Kirby can keep playing close to how did through the first half, he is on track to have a better than any Padres closer. That’s pretty impressive when you consider that the Padres have had closers like Craig Kimbrel, Goose Gossage, Rollie Fingers and Trevor Hoffman on their team.
The strangest thing that happened was that there was four overturned call thanks to umpire challenges, all at first base. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that happen before. I wouldn’t want to be Vic Carapazza today.
Congrats to the San Diego Padres who now find themselves at .500 for the first time since 2010!
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