Box Score

What an odd series. Jair Jurrjens was not particularly sharp, but led the entire way and picked up his tenth “win” of the season. The game was close until the eighth, when the Padres apparently ran out of good relievers they were willing to use.

With one out in the second, Heyward doubled to right field, and he came home on a single up the middle by Chipper. In the second, Uggla reached on a walk, and McLouth doubled to center, moving up and Uggla scoring when the ball went under Cameron Maybin’s glove. Freeman drove in Heyward after another double in the sixth.

Jurrjens seemed to be in trouble all night, but allowed just three hits, one a solo homer in the third. But he walked an unaccustomed four men, and had trouble with the strike zone all night. But after allowing the first two on in the sixth he got out of it, and that was the Padres’ last serious threat.

O’Flaherty pitched the seventh, allowing a single because Uggla sucks, but got a DP to get out of it. The key play in the eighth inning that put the game away was a bunt; not one of Fredi’s sacrifices, but Brian McCann, the best catcher in baseball, bunting for a hit against the stupid shift with one out. Freeman followed with a double off the wall, and against a drawn-in infield Uggla singled to make it 4-1. AAG squeezed to make it 5-1, then a McLouth double scored Uggla again to make it 6-1.

Venters pitched the eighth because he was already warmed up. He walked the leadoff man, got a GIDP, then struck out the third batter. Pretty typical. Schafer led off the ninth with a triple, then after a Heyward strikeout scored on a Chipper double. McCann was walked, Freeman flew out, and then Uggla, since the game was out of hand, hit a three-run homer. Linebrink pitched the ninth, getting them 1-2-3.