Somedays Peanuts, Somedays Shells

Reason #3457 why I like baseball - it's exactly like life.  The Padres could not have looked more dominant than during their weekend dismantling of Pittsburgh, which they followed by losing 2 gut-punch games at the hands of the Mets.  You're up, then you're down.

You may have heard the stats Andy Masur put out last night in the first inning of the broadcast.  It had been 186 games since the Padres blew a 2-run lead in the ninth inning, all the way back to 2004 (I believe).  It had been 195 games since the Mets came back from a 2-run deficit in the ninth inning to win.

San Diego tried to bounce back last night, taking a 4-2 lead into the eighth, but surrendered 3 runs and lost 5-4. 

In the last 2 games they've given up 8 runs after the eighth inning started.  For the season they've allowed 61 runs total in the 8th and 9th innings.  That's 13% of the total in 2 games.  Some more numbers to chew on:

- Chad Qualls has now been charged with 11 runs in the eighth.  Five of those scored this week (45%).  Current ERA in the eighth:  7.07.  ERA in the eighth before Monday:  3.46.

- Heath Bell had allowed 11 ER in the ninth going into Monday.  His total surrendered jumped 21% with the loss.  It had been almost 2 years since he gave up 3 runs in an inning (9/11/09 vs Colorado)

- Josh Spence had walked 6 hitters total (not counting intentional walks) in 20 innings before last night.  I wonder if Bill Welke has an unusually small strike zone?  I didn't get to see Spence's inning.

Not much to do besides get up, dust off, and try to win one for Harang tonight.