Myers homered Aaron Burbridge Jersey , doubled and drove in three runs, and rookie Joey Lucchesi threw five scoreless innings to lead San Diego to a 4-3 victory against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday night.
The Padres had to hang on after Hand got himself into trouble in the ninth and then got out of it to earn his 23rd save, thanks to some help from right fielder Hunter Renfroe.
Hand gave up two quick runs on doubles by Elias Diaz and Austin Meadows, and a triple by Gregory Polanco. The reliever got Jordy Mercer to fly out to Renfroe in shallow right field. Renfroe then caught pinch-hitter Jose Osuna’s foul ball near the seats and made a strong throw to hold Polanco at third. Hand struck out Starling Marte to end it.
”I don’t think he lacks for confidence,” Padres manager Andy Green said of Hand, San Diego’s only All-Star last year. ”He’s got those situations where he’s just got to finish his pitches better than he did tonight. He doesn’t rattle. You’ve got one of the faster runners in the game on third base with nobody out and a one-run game, and there’s not many pitchers that are getting out of that. He managed to get out of that.”
Said Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle: ”It’s a life of a closer. If you look at the numbers against him all year, he’s tough to hit. He’s been very successful. … I thought some breaking balls got left over the plate.”
Myers, limited to 19 games this season due to injuries, homered to right off Trevor Williams (6-6) with one out in the third, his second. Myers then chased the San Diegan with a two-run double to left to give the Padres a 4-0 lead with two outs in the fifth.
Myers returned June 21 after missing 47 games with a strained muscle in his side.
”He’s getting closer and closer and is looking more like himself,” Green said.
The manager was impressed with Myers using all fields.
”I feel good,” Myers said. ”It’s just one of those things where you constantly work on your approach.”
San Diego won for just the third time in 13 games.
Williams, a 2010 graduate of Rancho Bernardo High, was trying to become the second straight local product to beat his hometown Padres. On Friday night Jerry Hughes Jersey , Joe Musgrove, a 2011 graduate of Grossmont High in suburban El Cajon, threw seven scoreless innings in a 6-3 victory.
But Williams gave up four runs and four hits in 4 2/3 innings, with four strikeouts and two walks. He also allowed an RBI grounder by Freddy Galvis in the second that brought in Christian Villanueva, who doubled and advanced on Jose Pirela’s single.
Williams walked Austin Hedges and pinch-hitter Matt Szczur with one out in the fifth. They advanced on Travis Jankowski’s sacrifice bunt ahead of Myers’ big double.
”I kind of lost my fastball command in that fifth inning, and I had to rely on my off-speed pitches,” Williams said. ”I kind of put myself in bad situations. Two walks in a row are tough. You can’t really defend walks. Wil Myers is a good hitter and he guessed right on a heater up, and did well.”
Lucchesi (4-3) won for the first time since April 28. He was making his third start since missing five weeks with a strained right hip. The left-hander allowed one hit while striking out five and walking four.
San Diego’s Matt Strahm yielded a run and two hits in the sixth.
UP NEXT
Pirates: RHP Jameson Taillon (5-6, 3.96 ERA) is 1-0 with a 1.26 ERA in two career starts against San Diego.
Padres: RHP Tyson Ross (5-5, 3.32) is scheduled for the Padres, who have won seven of his last nine starts.
Coaching runs deep in Mike Pettine’s family.Vacations to the Jersey shore as a child gave the Green Bay Packers‘ defensive coordinator a glimpse of the life. His father, a high school football coach in suburban Philadelphia, took a briefcase to the beach, settled a chair into the sand and went to work.
”I do the same … But it’s a backpack. I’m a little more with the times,” Pettine said.
The lessons passed on by dad stay with him to this day.
Mike Pettine Sr. http://www.dallascowboysteamonline.com/tyron-smith-jersey , who died in Feburary 2017, was one of the most successful coaches in Pennsylvania prep history. Pettine, 51, is coaching again in the NFL after being hired by head coach Mike McCarthy to oversee the Packers defense. He returned after largely staying out of football following a two-year stint as head coach of the Cleveland Browns, serving as a consultant with Seattle in 2017.
”I thought it was normal for everybody else’s dad to carry a briefcase on to the beach,” Pettine said after a recent Packers practice. ”He always had (football) on his mind, it was always there. If it wasn’t direct, it was always kind of lurking. He always had pen and paper close, if an idea popped into his head.”
Those ideas often worked.
The elder Pettine won 326 games at Central Bucks West High School and four state titles. He retired in 1999 following a third consecutive unbeaten season.
Pettine played for his father and later served as an assistant coach. He ended up across the field from his father, too, after taking the head coaching job at rival North Penn – matchups that often made Philadelphia-area headlines. Pettine took over a team that went from hovering at about .500 to challenging his father’s team for state supremacy.
All five head-to-head meetings went to Dad.
”The headline `Father knows best’ was getting a little bit old,” Pettine quipped.
The elder Pettine was a Philadelphia Eagles fan, though he had no qualms about rooting for whatever team that his son was working for as he climbed the NFL coaching ladder. Pettine’s first stop in the pros came in 2002 as an assistant with the Baltimore Ravens.
Dad would serve as a consultant. Pettine would send him DVDs to view film. Later, he could watch on an iPad.
”A lot of times he would start the conversations with, `I know I’m just a high school football coach Sven Andrighetto Jersey , however …,”’ Pettine recounted. ”He would give us 10 things and they were all dead on. … He just had a great eye for the game.”
A high school coach can sometimes resemble a drill sergeant on the job. The style in the NFL is a bit different. For Pettine, it’s about creating an environment where players and coaches work together.
But he admired the way his father adjusted to players in a career that started in the 1960s.
”I thought his strength was his ability to adapt, where he goes from an age of kids where they never questioned authority and by the time he finished that had essentially flipped,” he said.
”And I think you have to be able to adapt, and I feel the same way when you’re working with NFL players,” he said. ”I just think it’s important to know your audience, understand that you’re working with the, trying to help them be successful, which in turn will help you be successful.”
Team film sessions at CB West with Pettine Sr., on Mondays after Friday games stick out, too.
”You would never know (they won) if you sat in on those film sessions – you would think they lost by 30 when they had won by 30,” Pettine said. ”But I’m a big believer in there’s no better teaching tool than seeing it on film. You paint a picture, you show a guy, `Hey Womens Will Butcher Jersey , this is how it’s supposed to look.”’
It was a way that his father held his players accountable, which is also important to Pettine.
”My dad said, `Stop the projector, turn on the lights. Quick, stand up and explain to your teammates what you were just doing.’ Nobody wanted that to happen,” Pettine said. ”And that’s something I’ve always believed, being honest with your players, being direct, that’s by far the best way to go about things.”
With one big difference.
”I don’t turn on the lights,” Pettine said with a laugh.
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