This Date In Padre Baseball - October 10

                

THIS DATE IN PADRE BASEBALL

1998 SEASON

NLCS Game 3 - Padres 4 Braves 1

Sterling Hitchcock outpitches Greg Maddux and the Padres take a surprising 3-0 series lead against the favored Braves.

Hitchcock only tossed 5 innings, striking out 6, walking 5, and allowing only 3 hits. He faced one batter in the 6th, but was pulled after walking Andres Galarraga. The bullpen did it's part from there, with baton being passed from Donne Wall to Dan Miceli to Randy Myers, and finally to Trevor Hoffman for the final 4 outs.

Down 1-0 in the 5th to the mighty Greg Maddux, the Padres finally broke through. Hitchcock singled with one out, and advanced to second on a Quilvio Veras force out. With 2 outs, Steve Finley delivered a double to left, scoring Hitchcock to tie the game. Maddux would intentionally walk Tony Gwynn, to face Ken Caminiti. The move backfired, as Caminiti squeezed a ground ball through the infield, and the speedy Finley, running on contact, beat the throw at home to take a 2-1 lead.

Nursing a 2-1 lead, and the bullpen doing their job, the Padres added 2 insurance runs in the 8th, the way they have done so many times during the season - by taking advantage of mistakes. Wally Joyner would walk, and later score after a double by Carlos Hernandez, who would advance easily to third on a poorly advised throw home, far too late to catch Joyner. Then Hernandez would score on a passed ball.

That was all the runs that Hoffman would need, after striking out Javy Lopez with the bases loaded to end the 8th, he would work around an infield hit to secure the victory and put the Padres one game away from heading to their 2nd World Series.

MLB PLAYOFFS - 

Yankees 4 Indians 0 (Series tied 2-2)

Notable games of October 10

PADRES FRANCHISE RECORD ON THIS DATE = 2-0

1984 WORLD SERIES - GAME 2 - PADRES 5 TIGERS 3

The Padres rally for their first World Series win in franchise history. They needed to overcome a lousy first inning to do so.

Ed Whitson, a 14 game winner for the Padres during the season, was shaky from the jump, allowing 4 singles in the first 5 batters to allow 3 runs, and following yet another single, was yanked unceremoniously from the game by Dick Williams.

Williams turned to Andy Hawkins to stop the bleeding. The 24 year old Hawkins had made 22 starts during the season, but also had some experience from the pen, appearing 14 times as a reliever. Hawkins would get Chet Lemon to ground out with runners at the corner to end the inning.

Down 3 and facing 18 game winner Dan Petry, the Padres had some work to do. They wasted no time getting one run back. Playing small ball, Alan Wiggins would safely bunt his way on. Tony Gwynn would battle for a 7 pitch walk to bring up Steve Garvey. To the massive surprise of everyone in the park, and most obviously Petry, Garvey squared up to bunt, laying down a good one, sacrificing the runners over for Craig Nettles. Nettles would loft a fly to medium left field, not deep enough for most runners to score, but Wiggins is not most runners - and he scored easily to make it 3-1 Tigers.

With Hawkins setting down 9 Tigers in a row, the Padres kept the pressure on Petry, but couldn't break through for another run until the 4th. Kurt Bevacqua would score on a fielder's choice on Bobby Brown to reduce the Tiger lead to 1.

Again in the 5th, Hawkins would mow down the Tigers in order, making it 13 in a row. In the Padre half, Kurt Bevacqua came up huge with Nettles and Terry Kennedy aboard. Bevacqua would connect on the first Padre World Series home run to take the lead 5-3.

Craig Lefferts took over in the 7th, and cruised the rest of the way to earn the save and even the series at a game a piece.

Transactions of October 10

1995

Traded Ray Holbert to the Houston Astros. Received Pedro Martinez.

• SS/2B Holbert, selected by the Padres in the 3rd round of the 1988 draft, made his MLB debut as a Padre on May 2, 1994. Appeared in 68 games over 2 seasons, hitting .179 with 2 HR and 5 RBI.
• P Martinez, a former amatuer free agent signee by the Padres in 1986 and traded to the Houston Astros in 1994, was traded to the New York Mets on December 15, 1995, accumulating no additional stats for his Padre career. He had appeared in 80 games (1 start) over 2 seasons, posting a 6-3 record with a 2.73 ERA including 3 saves.

2008

Michael Barrett granted Free Agency.

• C Barrett, acquired from the Chicago Cubs via trade in 2007, appeared in 74 games over 2 season, hitting .216 with 2 HR and 21 RBI.

Selected Travis Denker off waivers from the San Francisco Giants.

• 2B/3B Denker would spend 2009 at AA San Antonio before be selected off waivers by the Boston Red Sox in April 2009.

2012

Ross Ohlendorf granted Free Agency.

• P Ohlendorf, signed as a free agent in June, appeared in 13 games (9 starts) during the 2012 season, posting a 4-4 record with a 7.77 ERA.

Matt Palmer granted Free Agency.

• P Palmer, signed as a free agent in 2011, appeared in 3 games during the 2012 season, posting no record and a 9.00 ERA

2018

Released Jose Torres.

• P Torres, acquired from the Oakland A's via trade in 2015, made his MLB debut as a Padre on September 22, 2016. He appeared in 66 games over 2 seasons, posting a 7-4 record with a 4.04 ERA including 1 save.