Facing the Giants, again

Unbelievable, but true- Monday night was my first visit to Petco Park this season, and the first time I have seen the Padres play the Giants. Boy, was I ever not disappointed. First of all, do the Giants ever bring out the best and the worst in the Padres fans? Jeesh. It was nice to see the stadium come alive, and simply electric when Trevor came out to close up the deal. Secondly, my first visit to Petco of each season is always the most exciting. The sights, the smells, the sounds- the fly ball landing 3 feet away from me (I admittedly can't catch, am always happy to let someone else get the ball, and keep it away from my head). The long wait from October to April is finally over, and I can settle in to many fantastic months of baseball.

Fittingly, Young was given a nice contract after helping the Padres to a glorious 1-0 victory Monday night. With an attendance at over 31,000 for a worknight, it was a fun crowd for celebrating a hard-earned victory.

Last night's game, the Padres doubly impressed me, despite their 6-5 loss to the Giants. Instead of giving up when they were down 6-0, they rallied their precious little hearts out to darn near win the thing. (But, near is not near enough!) I was happy to see Heath Bell (recall, my new favorite Padre, see here...) pitch last night for the first time this season.

Maddux leads off tonight's game to close out the series. As the linked article mentions, we sure are playing a lot of NL West teams this month- we've got 23 games in April vs. our rivals.  So, if it seems we're seeing a lot of the Dodgers or the Giants, you're not just imagining things. Hoping the Pads bring it on tonight!

To close things out today, here is a photo of me after the win Monday night (I know, I need to invest in a good Padres sweatshirt, or the jacket. I'm having trouble deciding)