The Phillies West coast road trip started off pretty good in San Diego, they claimed a 5-4 victory in Game 1 of the series, but came up short last night, losing to the Padres 9-7 behind a 14-hit barrage by the Padres and despite them making 3 errors on the night.
Center fielder Travis Jankowski even performed a daring dash to home plate when the Phils became lackadaisical on the field (it wasn’t a steal) and Jankowski took advantage of it. What else did Travis do during this game? Well, he scored 4 runs and went 3-4 on the night.
Jake Thompson made his debut for the Phils, he gave up 6 ER on the night, on 7 H in 4.1 IP. A drastic difference than what he has been doing in AAA ball for the Phillies. We’ll see when he makes his next start if he can settle down and find a groove on the mound for the Phils.
The Phils mounted a late comeback, but it wasn’t enough on the night there in San Diego.
A humorous moment for the Phils later in the game, Freddy Galvis hit a ground rule double that ended up in the bullpen trashcan.
Ken Caminiti was inducted into the Padres “Hall of Fame” last night in San Diego – of course he was with the Astros as well during his career. Caminiti died back in 2004, he had tested positive for cocaine many times in Houston after his career ended on October 7, 2001 and later in 2001 was convicted and sentenced for a cocaine possession charge. A 2004 probation violation found that he had abused drugs again (at least the 4th time) and had been released from custody, he made his way to New York City to visit family and apparently associated himself again with the drug crowd there. Read out the last few hours of Caminiti’s life in this article from ESPN. Caminiti had also abused steroids during his career and made no secret of it, read about that side of him in this SI article which is one of the best stories in the history of magazine. It’s kind of hard to believe the Padres would hold his player in such regard, he brought shame to the game with his personal conduct and even though he did play well at times, the negatives far outweigh his positives.
The series wraps up this afternoon in San Diego, Jared Eickhoff vs. Jared Cosart in this game. Then the Phils head to LA on Monday to take on the Dodgers. Zack Eflin will make the first start in the series opener with the Dodgers. Eflin is a workhorse for the Phils, he already has 2 CG on the season for the team, the only other Phillies starter that has a Complete Game on the Phils is Vincent Velasquez, who earned a CG back on April 14th at home in Philly vs. the San Diego Padres.
