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Photo by Rich Campbell

Padres Hold On Following Hairston’s Blast

Scott Hairston smacked a two run homer to the second deck in left and gave the Padre pitching staff all the margin it needed to down the Astros 2-1 in the second game of 2008.

Chris Young didn’t have his best stuff but still managed to last five and two-thirds against Houston and pick up the win. The Padre bullpen, led by Heath Bell and Trevor Hoffman, protected a one run lead through the final three and a third. Brandon Backe pitched well for Houston, but one mistake was too many against a Friar squad that has started 2008 winning games with the same pitching and defense formula that sent them to the playoffs two of the last three years.

Backe had trouble in the fourth, giving up a single to Kevin Kouzmanoff before Adrian Gonzalez sent a long fly ball to center. However, as he had done the night before, Astro center fielder Michael Bourn made A-Gon’s powerful swing count for naught, leaving Kouz at first. Scott Hairston must have been paying attention. Instead of sending his 393 foot blast to center to die in Bourn’s glove, he directed it to left where even Petco couldn’t hold it. It ended up in the first row of the second deck, scoring the only two Padre runs. When Khalil Greene followed with a double off the left field wall, Backe appeared finished. But he settled down and got Josh Bard on a pop up to second and struck out Young to hold the Friars to a deuce.

The Astros halved the deficit in the sixth, leading off with two singles before a fine play by Josh Bard on a foul ball by Mark Loretta recorded the first out. When Young got Astro catcher J.R. Towles to fly out to left, it looked as though he would squeak through unscathed. But pinch hitter Jose Cruz Jr. walked and spelled the end of Young’s evening. Joe Thatcher then gave the Astros their only run (Charged to C.Y.) with four straight balls before retiring Hunter Pence. It was the last time the ‘Stros would threaten.

Cla Meredith, Heath Bell and Trevor Hoffman finished the evening, with Hoffy recording his first save of the year and the 525th of his Hall of Fame career. The longest tenured Padre looked slimmed down and lively, throwing fastballs that seemed to have a renewed jump and controlling the tempo. Heath Bell also looked impressive, retiring the side in eight pitches in the eighth inning.

Josh Bard and Khalil Greene both continued their strong starts to 2008 with multi-hit nights, while Adrian Gonzalez has twice seen long fly balls tracked down that would have left the yard if hit anywhere other than center field.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 at 1:20 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.