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Padres Ride Back-to-Back Barnburners Into the NLCS
By Dennis Miller
Well, the San Diego Padres didn’t just beat the Miami Marlins — they pulled the baseball equivalent of Houdini escaping the Chinese Water Torture Cell. Two straight games, two straight 7–6 comebacks. If you scripted this in Hollywood, the producer would roll his eyes and say, “Too implausible, pal. Let’s make it a 5–3 snoozer instead.”
But no, this was real. Friday at Petco Park looked like the Padres were auditioning for a remake of Catch Me If You Can — every time the Marlins thought they had ’em trapped, San Diego slipped right through the net.
The MVP? Enrique Moreno. The guy hit like he was trying to singlehandedly break into Cooperstown this weekend. Two home runs, three RBIs, crossing the plate like it was the finish line at the Boston Marathon. He’s hitting .429 for the series — which, for those scoring at home, is about as rare these days as a Blockbuster Video open past 9 PM.
And let’s not ignore the cosmic comedy here: Miami outhit the Padres 12 to 8, left a small army on base, and still watched it all dissolve in the late innings like cotton candy in a rainstorm. That eighth inning? Three Padres runs, capped by a Manny Williams home run that sent the crowd into cardiac arrest. It’s like the Marlins were reading from the manual titled How to Lose a Playoff Game in Ten Easy Steps.
San Diego now packs its bags for the NLCS against the St. Louis Cardinals, who got to put their feet up and sip martinis with a bye while the Padres were busy re-enacting The Great Escape. The Cards are rested, sure — but the Padres? They’re on the kind of adrenaline high you usually only get after outrunning airport security in a Jason Bourne flick.
Bottom line: two wild 7–6 wins, the Padres proving resilience beats reason, and Miami going home to spend the winter trying to figure out how they became extras in San Diego’s feel-good montage.
I don’t want to get off on a rant here, but if the Padres keep pulling rabbits out of their hat like this, Tony Gwynn might have to come back from the afterlife just to make sure we’re not watching a fever dream.
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