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Padres win on Rodriguez's pinch-hit
Infielder drives in go-ahead run in ninth inning to beat Rox
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By Owen Perkins / Special to MLB.com
04/29/09 1:50 AM ET
DENVER -- The Padres found their footing Tuesday night, winning a taut nail-biter with solid, fundamental baseball. San Diego evened its series with Colorado with a 4-3 victory at Coors Field that was the result of quality pitching, clutch hits and a game-winner that was a model of situational hitting.Entering the top of the ninth with the game tied at 3, Nick Hundley led off with a triple into the right-field corner. After Chris Burke grounded to third on a ball that froze Hundley and cost an out, Luis Rodriguez entered the game as a pinch-hitter, sporting a .116 career average (5-for-43) off the bench, and drove a ground-ball single into right past a diving Todd Helton for the go-ahead run.
"I'm ready to hit a fastball, that's my pitch," Rodriguez said of his at-bat against Rockies closer Manuel Corpas. "Once I got two strikes and first base is open, I said, 'He doesn't want to throw me a fastball right down the middle. He's going to throw something slow, because he knows he's got first base open. With one out, maybe he wants to work on the other guy to get a ground-ball double play.'"
After working the count full, Corpas threw a slider and Rodriguez connected with a hard grounder that left Helton flat on the dirt as the ball bounded into right field and Hundley crossed home with the winning run.
Rodriguez is the Padres' regular shortstop, but he missed a pair of games and lost a few pounds over the weekend after an allergic reaction to some ceviche he ate last Friday. He was back in the lineup for Monday's series opener and extended his hitting streak to five games with his pinch-hit in the ninth Tuesday.
"I know a little bit about how the pitchers want to throw to you in those situations," Rodriguez said, "It's nice, because last night I made the last out, and I felt so bad. Today was another story. I'm the winner today."
Manager Bud Black was faced with a choice of using Rodriguez or Edgar Gonzalez to hit for the pitcher in the ninth, and to hear him tell it, the circumstances made for an easy decision.
"Luis is a contact hitter," Black said. "He has a knack of being able to situational hit. I can remember numerous sacrifice flies and other ground balls that got a guy in from third. Maybe his pinch-hitting record isn't that great, but with a man on third, Luis is going to make contact in that situation. It's what we needed."
In order to have a chance in the ninth, the Padres needed a solid outing from a spot starter making his foray into a rotation that has seen three of five starters head to the disabled list. Making his first big league appearance in nearly a year, Chad Gaudin gave the Padres the sterling start they needed to get their game on track. Gaudin threw five scoreless innings, striking out five, walking four and surrendering three hits.
"I would have liked to pitch deeper in terms of my pitch count," Gaudin said. "Early on, I kind of labored a little bit. I fell behind on a lot of hitters. I could have been more efficient early on. But I made some good pitches, and it swung my way today."
Though all four of his walks came in the first three innings, he didn't give up a hit until Garrett Atkins beat out an infield single in the fourth. As Black saw the Rockies find more success putting balls in play in Gaudin's last two innings, and as Gaudin approached his 90-100 pitch target for the evening, Black decided to turn the game over to the bullpen.
"He was at 88 pitches, and I just thought he was nearing his limit," Black said. "He had a pretty good fifth inning, but I just thought that at that point it was best to give [Edward] Mujica a clean inning. In case there was a baserunner or two in the sixth and I felt as though I had to go get Chad, I didn't want to throw that on a reliever at that point. Mujica was fresh. Give him a clean inning. And Chad can walk away from this one feeling pretty good about his outing."
Scott Hairston's two-run shot that just cleared the left-field fence gave the Padres a lead in the third inning, but the Rockies narrowed the gap in the sixth when Seth Smith drove Mujica's 1-1 offering into the right-field seats for a two-out solo shot.
Luke Gregerson took the mound for the Padres in the seventh and gave up a pair of runs and the lead on four consecutive singles to Troy Tulowitzki, Dexter Fowler, Ryan Spilborghs and Helton.
San Diego fought back in the eighth, sparked by a David Eckstein double down the left-field line to lead off the inning. Veteran left-hander Alan Embree nearly escaped the threat, retiring Brian Giles and Adrian Gonzalez before yielding a game-tying single to right by Chase Headley.
Duaner Sanchez came on to hold the lead in the ninth and got into trouble with a leadoff walk to Ian Stewart. After Sanchez got Smith on a fly ball to left, pinch-hitter Omar Quintanilla dinked a shallow fly into right-center, advancing Stewart to third. Sanchez hit Yorvit Torrealba to load the bases, but induced Tulowitzki to ground to short for an inning-ending double play.
"There was clutch hitting by a couple guys on both sides late in the game," Black said. "Chase Headley got a big hit to tie the game in the eighth. Nick got a leadoff triple there in the ninth, and Luis waited for a pitch from Corpas that he could put a good swing on. In games like this, there's a lot of subplots of guys doing a nice job, and that's how it was tonight."
Owen Perkins is a contributor to MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
