Padres v Mets at Petco Stadium, San Diego

San Diego Padres played New York Mets in the 4th and final game of the series this afternoon. Mets were 2-1 up after 3 games and looked to be heading for a third win mid way through the 8th inning with a 2-0 lead.

To our surprise and delight the Padres hit 2 runs at the bottom of the 8th, Robert Suarez closed out the Mets final inning with Jackson Merrill striking a homer after one out in their 9th inning to win the game, tie the series, stay in the hunt for a wildcard place in the World Series and send the capacity crowd home ecstatic style.

I don’t pretend to know very much about baseball. I learned much about the strategy and throughly enjoyed the win, as did the vast majority of the crowd.

In my experience ball games are huge social events, based on eating and drinking extremely expensive stuff while a game goes on in the background. A pint cost $18!

Somehow, everyone is following the game, responds to exhortations to make more noise and interact with the organist who fills in the space between inning and in various other gaps in play.

Like any sport there is a whole vocabulary associated with the game and a bewildering array of statistics about any aspect you care to mention. The Padres used 6 pitchers which seemed high, saving the best til last.

The closing pitcher is employed solely to pitch the last inning to prevent the opposing team scoring any runs. Probably pitching around 12 times and earning an enormous wage. Suarez was worth his money today.

Another gloriously sunny day in Southern California. Our seats were in the west stand which meant we were in the shade all game. It must have been very warm elsewhere.

We parked out at Old Town catching the Trolley into the city walking along the bayside past endless rows of super yachts, a few of which can be seen in the extra.

In the advice of blippers I amended the gibberish in yesterday’s first paragraph. In my defence I kept falling asleep while trying write the entry. I may even have been tip tapping while asleep. We did have quite a drop of beer, albeit spread over 5 or 6 hours.