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Venable helps decide Friars' duel in Miami
Two-run homer in seventh enough to back Richard, Padres
By Corey Brock / MLB.com
06/25/10 11:24 PM ET
MIAMI -- There was no sense and, really, no time, for Will Venable to have any lingering issues and hard feelings about his baserunning miscue Thursday, which suited the Padres right fielder just fine.Moving on, Venable said, was his only option Friday.
"You don't have any choice," Venable said. "The staff here does a good job. They point out what we did wrong and how we can improve. ... That's the great thing about baseball is it presents an opportunity to do the right thing."
That opportunity presented itself to Venable in the seventh inning on Friday at Sun Life Stadium, and he greeted it with one fell swoop, as his two-run home run was the key blow in the Padres' 3-0 victory over the Marlins before a crowd of 16,718.
Venable's home run to right field, coupled with six shutout innings from pitcher Clayton Richard and three scoreless innings from the bullpen, helped San Diego to its 10th shutout of the season and its third victory on this six-game road trip with two games remaining.
For Venable, the home run, his seventh of the season, wasn't a stroke of pure redemption. That's because his gaffe on the bases in the seventh inning of a 5-3 loss to the Rays was already long gone from his mind.
In that game, with the Padres trailing, 4-3, and with Venable at second base, he got caught in no man's land on a ground ball to shortstop. Instead of immediately retreating toward the base, he was caught in a rundown and tagged out.
And because he didn't stay in the rundown long enough, Jerry Hairston Jr., who hit the ball in the first place, was thrown out trying to get to second base. On Friday, Venable was back in the lineup, geared toward trying to break open a scoreless game.
He did so with a clear head.
"That's sort of the beauty of our game," Padres manager Bud Black said. "There's a next at-bat that might be significant and a game the next day."
For Venable, those next days have been pretty good lately. Over his last six games, he's hitting .350 with three home runs and 10 RBIs. For a team starving for offense that can come from anyone other than Adrian Gonzalez, a resurgent Venable is welcomed.
"I had thrown him two changeups, and he just fouled one off. I was trying to get one in there, because he was leaning a little bit," said Florida pitcher Chris Volstad said. "It was one of those that came back over the plate. I didn't get it in there enough, and it kind of sunk back into his barrel."
Said Venable: "It's been getting better slowly. I've been getting some good pitches to hit lately."
On the other side, Richard (5-4) was working hard, perhaps harder than normal, to make sure the Marlins (35-38) didn't get many good pitches to hit.
"A game where if Torrey [catcher Yorvit Torrealba] and I weren't focused every pitch ... it could have gone the other way," Richard said. "It was one of those games where you just don't cruise through. [The Marlins] worked the count. We had to work for it."
Richard, who now has a 2.75 ERA for the Padres (43-30), allowed nine baserunners over six innings, but was bailed out by double-play balls that ended the third and sixth innings.
Richard walked four, allowed five hits and struck out five and impressed his manager by his ability to skirt trouble.
"There were a lot of foul balls, and that told me his stuff was good. The Marlins had some good at-bats," Black said. "When Clayton went deep in the count, he didn't give up a lot of hits. That's clutch pitching."
Luke Gregerson pitched a scoreless seventh inning, Mike Adams did the same one inning later before turning the ball over to Heath Bell, who struck out pinch-hitter Wes Helms to end the game, thus earning his 20th save.
"They're not the best in the Major Leagues by coincidence," said Marlins left fielder Chris Coghlan.
Corey Brock is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
