After taking two out of three games at Chicago over the weekend, the San Diego Padres were in first place in the National League West, had the best record in the league and probably became a little more close-knit as a team.
A good fight will do that to a team.
Following a bench-clearing fight on Saturday, June 16, at Wrigley Field, the Padres were upset that anyone would think that starter Chris Young hit Chicago’s Derrek Lee with a pitch on purpose.
“Chris was just trying to throw a pitch inside to Derrek, that’s all,” Padres manager Bud Black said.
Sunday’s winner, Greg Maddux, has seen a lot of pitches that have gotten away in his long career.
“I know CY, he wasn’t throwing at him,” Maddux said. “I know that. It’s just one of those things. If we can throw it where we want to every time, we’d see a lot of real low ERA’s.”
Last Friday, the Padres were upset that the Cubs’ Alfonso Soriano performed a moonwalk after hitting a home run off David Wells.
Soriano slowly glided backwards out of the batter’s box with a smile on his face.
That didn’t sit well with Wells or teammate Jake Peavy. Peavy said that if he felt a player was showing him up, he’d “like the next guy to take one in the stinking ribs.”
After getting hit, Lee threw the first missed punch because of something Young said. Young swung back, also missing.
“I don’t know what exactly Young said to Lee, but whatever it was he didn’t like it very much,” Cubs manager Lou Piniella said.
Young denies it
Although the Cubs felt that Young intentionally threw at Lee, Young denied it after Saturday’s game.
“In the heat of the moment things happen,” Young said. “I’m really not going to talk about it. I’ll tell you this, I really didn’t throw at him. I didn’t try to hit him. It has nothing to do with anything in the past. I was trying to throw a pitch inside, it got away from me and it hit him.”
Young was suspended for five games on Monday but would miss just one start. Lee also was suspended for five games.
Cubs hitting coach Gerald Perry received three games off for his role in the brawl, and the Padres’ Peavy and Brian Giles were fined.
Pads take the next two
The sting of Friday’s 4-1 loss was soothed with a 1-0 victory on Saturday and an 11-3 blowout win on Sunday.
Sunday’s 11 runs matched a season-high for the Padres, and their five home runs were a team best for a single game this year.
San Diego hopes that Sunday’s outburst is a sign of good things to come for its offense, which ranked 21st in runs scored and 29th in hitting in the majors going into Tuesday’s game.
“We knew that we had some guys who were capable of big things offensively,” Black said. “We’ve got to carry these types of games over.”
Adrian Gonzalez and Mike Cameron didn’t waste any time getting the Friars on the board in the early innings on Sunday. Gonzalez, who had four extra base hits in the game, doubled in the first inning, which was followed by Cameron’s home run. The duo smashed back-to-back homers in the third as the Padres jumped out to a 5-1 lead. Khalil Greene’s three-run shot in the fifth made it 9-1.
Winning the series in Chicago gave the Padres a boost coming back home. They won four out of five entering a six-game home stand after dropping four straight.
“We’ve been on a roll pretty much all season, but it’s very important to continue it,” Gonzalez said. “We’re playing great baseball and we’ve got to keep riding it as long as we can. We feel we’re going to do it all year long. We believe in ourselves, we believe in what we’ve got and that’s the reason for our success.”
Breaking up the no-hitter
Marcus Giles broke up Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano’s no-hitter with an infield single in the eighth inning on Saturday.
Russell Branyan then stepped up to the plate in the ninth and hit a one-out homer to left field for the game-winner.
“I was actually thinking home run,” Branyan said. “The guy (Zambrano) was dominant all day and I was just hoping he could make a mistake.”
Headley’s debut
Lost in all of the commotion over the weekend was the major-league debut of the Padres third baseman Chase Headley, who played in his first major-league game on Friday. He got his first big-league hit on Sunday.
“It’s a dream come true,” Headley said. “It’s been something that I’ve worked for my entire life. A lot of people don’t even get this chance, so to get it early on is really something special and something that I’ll cherish the rest of my life.