Raise the banner
- 09-28-2005
- By Tom Shanahan, San Diego Hall of Champions
On the night of the 158th game of the second season at Petco Park, the roar downtown sounded a lot like the roars of 1984, 1996 and 1998 in Mission Valley. Championship roars.
When the Padres scored their first run, a balloon of crowd noise erupted over Petco. Same with the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth runs as the Padres built a 6-0 lead behind Pedro Astacio en route to a 9-1 win Wednesday night over the San Francisco Giants that clinched the National League West title before 33,992 fans.
When Astacio, a midseason acquisition who revitalized his career and helped save the Padres’ season, finally gave way in the top of the seventh inning with a 6-0 lead, he received more than usual polite golf-clap for his effort.
The roar was heartfelt appreciation. The fans know where the injury-riddled Padres might be this year without his 4-2 record and 3.35 ERA that includes the Padres winning seven of his 10 starts. Just five days earlier Astacio won his third game, the only game the Padres took in a three-game series at Arizona that jeopardized their NL West lead.
Who cares if the Padres are only 79-79 in 158 games? The franchise is raising its fourth NL West title and first since Petco opened with four more regular-season games to play this year.
In a champagne-soaked Padres clubhouse, manager Bruce Bochy and players alike dismissed the record, saying all that counts is the title.
“The record doesn’t matter – all the titles are sweet,” said Bochy, a backup catcher in 1984 and the manager for the other three titles. “It doesn’t matter if you win 100 games or you have our record. All the teams go to spring training hoping to win a division title. All the teams in our division had injuries, but we overcame them.”
What? You’d rather be a fan of the Oakland A’s – our California neighbor with an 86-72 record but no place to play in the postseason despite beating the American League West champion Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on Wednesday night.
Or would you prefer being a fan of the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox or the Cleveland Indians? Those four American League clubs have all won more than 90 games, but one of them is staying home without a playoff berth.
“Lots of teams have won 100 games and then gone into the playoffs and lost in the first round,” said Padres leftfielder Ryan Klesko. “What matters is we’re playing good ball going into the playoffs. We got our bats going the last two nights.”
The Padres lost the opener to the Giants on Monday night, trimming their division lead to four games, but they rallied with a 9-6 win Tuesday. The 9-1 win Wednesday featured 15 hits from eight players. Second baseman Mark Loretta and rightfielder Ben Johnson both had three-hit nights.
“After all we’ve been through this year, this makes it that much sweeter,” said Loretta, who missed two months of the season with a thumb injury. “We had a lot of ups and downs, but we managed to get through the tough times. I think it will make us a stronger team for the playoffs.”
There hasn’t been so much reason to celebrate a .500 season since 1978, the first year the Padres finished with a .500 or better record (84-78) in what was the franchise’s 10th season.
Or if you don’t want to celebrate a 79-79 NL West title season – with four more games to play in the regular season -- maybe you’d prefer the 89-73 season in 1989 when the Padres finished three games out of first place and home for the playoffs. Or how about the 64-98 season that bored us in 2003?
The crowd roars throughout the night continued when the seventh, eighth and ninth runs scored on separate RBI singles by Johnson, Robert Fick and Loretta in the bottom of the seventh inning. The anticipation of a celebration was palpable.
A “Let’s go Padres!” chant broke out with the bases loaded and no outs.
Why not? We’ve haven’ had many nights likes this one in San Diego, even if the Padres are only a .500 club.
Tom Shanahan can be contacted at 619-699-2334 or toms@sdhoc.com.
