SAN DIEGO — The play ended in a chorus of boos, fans pelting objects onto the field and John Brebbia standing on the mound waiting to throw the next pitch. Somehow, some way, the red-bearded fellow was still preserving a lead.
For fans who have tuned in all season and might have forgotten: that is what stellar defense can do. It can change the tide of the game so quickly, so dramatically that it provokes visceral reactions from a sold-out ballpark.
The decibel level inside Petco Park hardly changed as the Monday night crowd of 40,686 shifted from raucously cheering Ha-Seong Kim’s game-tying double off Brebbia to vociferously jeering as crew chief Larry Vanover announced over the loudspeakers that Gabe Kapler’s highest-stakes challenge this season had been ruled successful.
