By the end of the third inning, Friday's game against the Padres didn't seem to promise much of a contest. The tally: 7-1 in favor of the visiting San Diegans after a barrage of extra basehits and two-out knocks. A
nthony Molina, who looked somewhat sharp in the 1st with two strikeouts with his four-seam, ran out of ideas in the 2nd and 3rd. He pressed hard on that fastball and the Padres bats welcomed it. Jackson Merrill bounced an outside fastball over the wall for a ground-rule double to start the 2nd. Molina retired the next two hitters he faced but couldn't find a way out of the frame cleanly. Dustin Harris deflected another elevated fastball to score Merrill. Freddy Fermin punched another 340 feet, easily scoring Harris from first.
Molina tried to adapt, shifting off his primary weapon his second time through the San Diego order, but nothing worked. Jake Cronenworth set the tone in the 3rd with a feisty 8-pitch scuffle that ended with a 107 MPH single off a change-up. Luis Campusano plated him by punishing a hanging slider. That double would be the first of four RBI extra base knocks in the inning. Seven Padres reached, five scored in all. Molina became less as a road-block and more as a facilitator, the operator of a fast food drive-thru, the In-N-Out at Tejon Ranch, taking each hitter's order, efficiently moving the high-volume of customers from window to window before sending them on their way with exactly what they asked for.
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As Molina's fortunes plummeted, San Diego starter, Robbie Ray, making his first start against the Giants since his trade, steadied himself after a prolonged 1st inning.
#molina #fastball #merrill #knocks
nthony Molina, who looked somewhat sharp in the 1st with two strikeouts with his four-seam, ran out of ideas in the 2nd and 3rd. He pressed hard on that fastball and the Padres bats welcomed it. Jackson Merrill bounced an outside fastball over the wall for a ground-rule double to start the 2nd. Molina retired the next two hitters he faced but couldn't find a way out of the frame cleanly. Dustin Harris deflected another elevated fastball to score Merrill. Freddy Fermin punched another 340 feet, easily scoring Harris from first.
Molina tried to adapt, shifting off his primary weapon his second time through the San Diego order, but nothing worked. Jake Cronenworth set the tone in the 3rd with a feisty 8-pitch scuffle that ended with a 107 MPH single off a change-up. Luis Campusano plated him by punishing a hanging slider. That double would be the first of four RBI extra base knocks in the inning. Seven Padres reached, five scored in all. Molina became less as a road-block and more as a facilitator, the operator of a fast food drive-thru, the In-N-Out at Tejon Ranch, taking each hitter's order, efficiently moving the high-volume of customers from window to window before sending them on their way with exactly what they asked for.
View Link
As Molina's fortunes plummeted, San Diego starter, Robbie Ray, making his first start against the Giants since his trade, steadied himself after a prolonged 1st inning.
#molina #fastball #merrill #knocks
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