Padres Lose a Strange One

Rays win on an odd night in Tampa

The best way to describe what happened in the Padres' 6-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays is, it was just strange.

Or perhaps weird. Or odd. Or wacky. Or nutty.

Am I leaving anything out here?

Here's a good indication of what went down. In the 3rd inning, the Padres led 2-0 (Will Venable and Carlos Quentin hit solo home runs in the first inning). Venable struck out swinging at an Alex Cobb pitch, but the ball got by Rays catcher Sam Fuld, so Venable was safe at first.

Will stole second. Then Chase Headley struck out. Then Venable stole third. Then Quentin struck out. Then Venable scored on a balk by Cobb. Then Yonder Alonso struck out. So, the Padres struck out four times in the inning, did not even put a ball in play, and managed to score a run.

Cobb actually ended up putting himself in the MLB record books. He struck out 13 hitters, but threw so many pitches (117) Rays manager Joe Maddon pulled him with two outs in the 5th, making Cobb the first player in baseball history to strike out 13 while throwing fewer than five innings. Padres hitters struck out 18 times on the night.

On the mound for San Diego, Edinson Volquez put in another quality start. He tossed six innings, allowing just two runs on three hits. He left in line for the win, but Dale Thayer had a rare bad outing.

The righty with the epic beard had only allowed three runs on six hits for the entire season. He gave up four runs on three hits in the 7th inning alone, without recording an out, to take his second loss of the year.

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