April 8, 2012
It was a pitchers duel early, with both Aaron Harang and Tim Stauffer baffling opposing hitters. After 6 innings, it was a 0-0 tie with only 4 hits being recorded all game (Harang had allowed 1, Stauffer had allowed 3). That all changed in the top of the 7th inning when Matt Kemp singled and Andre Ethier doubled to give the Dodgers runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs. Stauffer almost escaped, striking out James Loney and Juan Uribe. But then ex-Padre Josh Bard came to the plate and hit a 2-1 pitch 386 feet into the right field bleachers, knocking Stauffer out of the game.
Aaron Harang was brilliant, pitching a 2-hit shutout while striking out 7. The only Padres to reach base were Orland Hudson and Josh Guzman. He only faced 29 batters, 2 above the minimum number of batters that a pitcher can face in the game. It was his first shutout since the 2009 season, when he was with Cincinnati and he only needed 96 pitches to do it, making the feat even more impressive.
We caught up with Padres Manager Bud Black after the game and he gave us his thoughts on Harang's performance, "Aaron is a very good pitcher, it's unfortunate that we didn't hang onto him because if we had, the roles would've been reversed today." Black, of course, was referring to Harang's success with San Diego last season where he went 14-7 with a 3.64 ERA. The Padres had the opportunity to give him a new contract but ultimately decided that they could not afford to pay him a salary of $17,000,000 over 3 seasons which is what the Dodgers offered him.
Tomorrow, the Padres will try to salvage this series as they send out LHP Clayton Richard (5-9, 3.88 ERA last season) to face Dodgers LHP Chris Capuano (11-12, 4.55 ERA with the Mets last season). Hopefully for the Padres sake, they can improve on their .144 batting average (tied for 15th in the NL) and get back to a .500 record.