Padres Eye Series Win After Renfroe Slams Dodgers In Opener: Pads vs Dodgers 9/28
By Friar Wire
By Bob Scanlan
Hunter Renfroe was a one-man wrecking crew last night as he carried the Padres to a 7–1 victory over the Dodgers in the opener of the final series between the division rivals. The rookie right fielder drove in all seven of the Padres runs showing off his power with a 3-run shot to left field in the first inning, and topping that with a bases loaded blast over the wall in dead center for his first career grand slam to ice it for the Friars. Paul Clemens threw five innings of 1-run ball with five relievers combining for the final four shutout frames to seal the victory.
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The young Friars will look to repeat their performance of last night, and lock down a series win against their foes from L.A.. For them to do it keep an eye on…
- The Padres ability to be selective on the high heater — The Padres faced Jose De Leon in
- his MLB debut two weeks ago and were struck out 9 times. Many of the swings and misses came on elevated fastballs. They are so tempting to hitters because they see the pitch coming in so well closer to eye level. You think you can catch up to it, but then the next thing you know it’s by you. That’s what happens when the ball comes in letter high. That’s a lot different than what happens when it comes in six inches lower than that and becomes a just above belt crushable fastball that can be deposited over the fence. De Leon was fairly effective elevating the fastball high enough where he wanted last time, but he has also allowed 4 home runs in his 14 2/3 innings of work which means he’s also missed with some of those as well. The key for the Friars will be to anticipate seeing fastballs up, but be selective in jumping on the fastball above the belt while not going after the one that is high enough around the letters to get by them.
- The Dodgers approach to Renfroe — Last night the Dodgers scouting report to attack Renfroe
- appeared to be to start him away, show one token fastball in, then go back away. Two home runs and seven RBIs later I think they might try something different tonight. Who knows, maybe they think that they simply didn’t execute their game plan and will try it again tonight. If that’s the case then good luck, because if they make one mistake out over the plate like they did twice last night, there is a good chance that the ball will end up in the stands again. I’m not spilling the beans on how I’d approach him tonight, but I am curious to see how the Dodgers and the young De Leon try to go after last night’s masher in tonight’s contest.
- The Dodgers over staffed bullpen — Call me crazy but in my experiences working out of
- bullpens over my 20-year playing career, the one thing that can foul things up is uncertainty. When is the phone going to ring, and when it does who is getting the call? When you have seven or eight guys during the regular season, and a manger that can handle a bullpen, everyone can pretty much anticipate when that phone will ring and who will be asked to get hot. As situations in the game develop each guy knows how to pace himself mentally for what is about to happen when the dugout picks up that phone. Rarely is a pitcher caught off guard. It’s a lot different when you have 15 guys all waiting down there simmering in uncertain anticipation. Sure, your closer and 8th inning guys are likely to be on their normal alert status, but everyone else is up in the air. If this game comes down to the bullpens don’t be surprised to see Dave Roberts doing what he did last night in going to his ‘pen early and often to get the righty and lefty matchups, understandably using the resources available to him. However, also don’t be surprised to see some guys coming in those middle innings, if necessary, looking uncomfortable and unable to execute as expected.
