Another “Gregerson Assist” Hands Giants a 4-2 Victory Over Padres

This picture perfectly illustrates how effective Gregerson has been this year. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

The hits just keep on coming for the San Diego Padres.

By “hits” I of course mean late-game meltdowns, and the Friars’ 4-2 loss to the Giants was just another spectacularly pathetic one of those.

San Diego’s hitters actually built an early lead after they came out with hot bats in the bottom of the first.  A double by Carlos Quentin led to the Padres’ first run, while a Kyle Blanks ground out plated the other one later in the frame.

After their strong first inning though, the Padres’ hitters were completely shut down by Madison Bumgarner.  San Francisco’s left-hander really settled down after his first inning troubles as he allowed only two hits and struck out six during his final six innings.

Jason Marquis did not pitch terribly for the Friars this evening.  Unfortunately, he could not hold the 2-0 cushion that his lineup handed to him.

In the top of the fourth the Giants scored their first run when Pablo Sandoval hit a home run to the right-center field gap. San Francisco eventually tied the game in the top of the sixth when Kensuke Tanaka singled home Sandoval.  To his credit though, Marquis kept his team in the game over his 5.1 innings of work as he played damage control for most of the night.

When the Giants tied the game though, I knew the Friars had no shot of winning when I saw Luke Gregerson trotting out to the mound before the top of the eighth inning.  After Dale Thayer kept the Giants off of the scoreboard for 1.1 innings and recorded three important strikeouts, Gregerson proceeded to throw away another game for the fifth time in five weeks with his most recent showing of ineptness.

In typical “2013 Gregerson Fashion,” the meltdown began for the right-hander right after he allowed a leadoff single to Tanaka who led off the inning.  Brandon Crawford then advanced Tanaka to third on a ground out after the left fielder stole second base earlier in Crawford’s at-bat.

Gregerson then hit Tony Abreu, who pinch-hit for Bumgarner, and Gregor Blanco finally pushed the Giants ahead when he scored Tanaka on a ground-rule double.  San Diego’s reliever then put one final “cherry” on his “excrement laden sundae” of a performance when he served up an important insurance run after Buster Posey singled home Blanco later in the frame.

Final Thoughts

If I can be completely honest, I am downright sick of watching Gregerson serve up wins to the opposition.  Why he is receiving these big league reps while other more promising contributors to this team’s future languish on the bench or in Triple-A is a joke.  Moreover, how Bud Black can even think that Gregerson is a reliable option at this point to hold leads and ties for his team makes little to no sense to me.

At this point, I would rather see guys like Brad Brach, Miles Mikolas, Brad Boxberger, or even Kevin Quackenbush thrown into the fire and gain experience the hard way than see the same old game-blowing garbage from the likes of Gregerson.

Sadly, I guess that the rest of the Padres’ fans and I will have to suffer through watching more ridiculousness from the same pitchers in San Diego’s bullpen until further notice.

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