Mow them down

Our season ticket package included tonight's game, and needless to say it portended to be a doozy.  Ubaldo Jimenez, you may have read, is pretty good; something about 5-0, 0.79 ERA, and a no-hitter coming into the game.  Kevin Correia has won his last 4 starts after losing his first in Colorado.  AND, I have both on my NL-only Rotisserie team.  Oh, goody.  Except that life intervened, and we couldn't make the game.  Luckily I had an inkling this might happen, and set the TIVO to record it, which I watched on fast forward (always an interesting way to watch a game).

It's one thing to watch Yovani Gallardo strike out 11 Padres with a large assist from the home plate Umpire.  It's quite another to watch someone strikeout 13 by completely overpowering the Padres.  Ubaldo overpowered the Padres.  Joe Posnanski famously predicted Ubaldo Jimenez would win the NL Cy Young.  Seeing as he's started 6-0 this season, it's easy to see why, and agree with him.

As dominant at Jimenez was, the Padres had their chances.  First and third, two out in the first (Venable strikes out swinging - albeit strike 2 and 3 were check-swing strikes courtesy of the appeal to third)  Hairston left at third in the second (he made it there with one out).  Torrealba left at second in the third.  Gwynn Jr left at third in the fourth.  After Gwynn was stranded, however, Rockie pitchers retired 12 in a row; by then, there were two out in the ninth and the Padres trailed 5-1.

You can't win them all.  Had we been there, we would have seen the Padres lose for the second time this season; they've lost 4 times at home all year.  So apparently, I should be allowed in the building for all Home Openers (having seen the Padres score 10 or more runs in an inning on Opening Day twice), and not for any other game (I'm 1-2 in the other 3 games, the Padres are 9-4 at home since the Opening Day blowout).

Today's interesting tidbit (and thanks for reading this far).  Last night marked the 84th time at least 14 Padres have struck out in a game.  They've also struck out 29 times combined in two separate games over a span of three days or less several times in their history (courtesy of the team batting game finder feature at Baseball Reference):

• June 17 and 19, 2008 (Yankees)
• May 23 and 25, 2008 (Reds - San Diego actually won the game on the 25th, 12-9, although they struck out 19 times in that game)
• 14/15 May, 2008 (Cubs) (BOY that 2008 team struck out a lot)
• 21/22 Apr 2006 (Mets - won the 21 Apr game 2-1)
• 6 and 8 July, 1995 (Astros)