San Diego Drops Final Two Games, Losing Series to L.A.

The Padres red hot play of August and early September has seemed to cool down as they lost their second straight series, dropping the final two against the Dodgers at Petco Park.

The Padres squeezed out a close win on Tuesday only to be blown out by six runs on Wednesday’s matinee. They were unable to come back in Thursday night’s rubber match after again spotting the Dodgers six unanswered runs before ultimately losing the game and the series.

The Padres were officially eliminated from wild-card during the series but the Dodgers still trail the Cardinals by three games with six to go.

San Diego will start their final home series Friday night as the take on the San Francisco Giants before hitting the road to Milwaukee for the final three games of the year.

Below is a recap of the Padres final confrontation with the hated Dodgers in 2012.

 

Tuesday, September 25^th, 2012

Padres 2, Dodgers 1

WP Edinson Volquez (11-11) 7IP 6H 0R 0ER 2BB 4K 0HR

LP Josh Beckett (6-14) 5.2IP 5H 2R 1ER 2BB 7K 0HR

S Huston Street (23) 7IP 6H 0R 0ER 2BB 4K 0HR

Edinson Volquez got back to .500 hundred with seven shutout innings and Huston Street converted his 23^rd save in as many tries as the Padres beat the rival Dodgers, 2-1.

Volquez was masterful through seven innings, allowing only six hits while walking two. He struck out four in his 11^th win of 2012. The Padres scored just enough runs for him starting with Yasmani Grandal’s groundout to the pitcher, scoring Logan Forsythe who was running on contact.

The Padres would get another run in the fifth on a two-out bunt single by Everth Cabrera with a runner on second. Josh Beckett would throw the ball past first base Adrian Gonzalez, allowing Will Venable to come in and give the Padres a 2-0 lead.

Huston Street came into the game in the ninth for just his second appearance since returning from the disabled list and Nick Punto then sacrificed pinch-runner Dee Gordon to third for the first out.

Mark Ellis then would draw a walk that got Nick Vincent warming up in the bullpen. But Street came back and struck out Andre Ethier before getting Matt Kemp to fly out to get the win and his 23^rd save in as many tries.

 

Wednesday, September 26^th, 2012

Dodgers 8, Padres 2

WP Aaron Harang (10-10) 5.1IP 4H 0R 0ER 4BB 3K 0HR

LP Clayton Richard (14-13) 3.2IP 10H 6R 4ER 0BB 2K 1HR

Aaron Harang dominate the Padres through five before getting to a little trouble in sixth, but got more than enough run support to get his 10^th victory of the year.

The Dodgers scored eight unanswered en route to their 8-2 victory starting with two runs in the first on a pair of RBI singles by Adrian Gonzalez and Hanley Ramirez. Gonzalez would add another run by lining one softly to left as he did so many times for the home team to make it 3-0 Dodgers in the third.

Juan Rivera‘s solo Homer in the fourth made it 5-0 until Matt Kemp doubled in two more to give the Dodgers a six-run lead. Kemp then hit a two-out, two-run homer to make it 8-0, Los Angeles. His 20^th homer of the year was his ninth against San Diego pitching in 2012.

The Padres broke the shutout with two runs in the seventh starting with Chase Headley's double to center, scoring Logan Forsythe. Yasmani Grandal then singled to bring in Headley for the Padres final run in an 8-2 loss.

 

Thursday, September 27^th, 2012

Padres 8, Dodgers 4

WP Chris Capuano (12-11) 5.1IP 5H 1R 1ER 4BB 2K 0HR

LP Casey Kelly (2-3) 4.2IP 6H 5R 5ER 2BB 6K 0HR

Chris Capuano held the San Diego lineup in check for five innings before he left in the sixth with a 6-0 lead. Capuano only surrendered five hits but walked four and was charged with a run when Carlos Quentin was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to break up the shutout.

Casey Kelly picked up the loss when he surrendered five runs starting with a RBI single by A.J. Ellis in the fourth. With two out in the ninth he gave up a double to Matt Kemp, prompting Bud Black to choose to intentionally walk Adrian Gonzalez to get the force back into play.

But Kelly hit Hanley Ramirez to load the bases and then Hit Shane Victorino to make it 2-0 Dodgers. Nick Vincent then came in and gave up back to back singles, allowing three runs to score to give the Dodgers a 5-0 lead,

Gonzalez added another run with a RBI single on a line drive to center, bringing home Kemp for their sixth run. The Padres would break up the shutout when Quentin was plunked with the bags full to cut the lead to five in the bottom half of the sixth.

Alexi Amarista’s fielding error in the eighth brought in another run in the form of Elian Herrera to push the lead back to six.

But Yonder Alonso would hit a one-out double in the eighth to get in scoring position. After Everth Cabrera walked, Mark Kotsay would hit a fly ball over the head of Kemp in center to score them both. Two batters later Will Venable then singled in Kotsay to cut the lead to 7-4.

But the Padres would give up another run after Cory Burns threw a wild pitch with a runner on third and two outs to give the Dodgers a four run lead that they held onto for an 8-4 series clinching win.