Padres vs. Tigers (Game 5)

League game #5 anyway. We lost a 9-5 exhibition game with the Cascade LL Rangers team on Wednesday. Some victories though in terms of getting some players additional game experience and keeping it close against a pretty good team. Also Jacob Hearne made what has to be the defensive play of the year thus far with his catch in the outfield and quickly getting it back in to 2B to double up the runner. And, Jalen came in and threw 1+ inning of really solid relief to give us a chance.

On Thursday though the Padres played by far their best game of the year. For a good part of the game we clung to a 2-1 lead with some fine pitching from Charlie and lots of good defensive plays. Our corner infielders, Austin and Jacob Collier were fantastic. The play that we got an out on their player attempting to score after getting him in a pickle really typified our effort. Not all was perfect, but we didn't compound errors - we came back and made up for them. And that I guess is perfect enough.

Lots of really good at-bats. I think we outscored them 11-4. One at bat that really stood out to me was in the 4th inning I believe. Their pitcher was pitching a pretty good game, but his pitch count was getting up there. I told all the boys to make him work and don't give him an easy low, pitch count inning. Zach came up in that inning worked the count full, fouled some pitches off, then broke their hearts after burning up all those pitches by ripping a base hit. I felt that one at bat was a huge turning point in the game, but there were many like it earlier. Some resulted in hits. Some didn't. However, all were quality at bats that got us to their relief pitcher and an opportunity to do what we do - hit the ball and score some runs.

Great job Padres. Next up the Giants and a chance to go through the first round of league games 4-2. That'd be sweet.