You don't want to play the Padres these days.
After spotting the Cardinals an early 2-0 lead, San Diego roared back to take control of the game via 3 consecutive 2-run innings. Then, after Dale Thayer got Matt Holliday to bounce into a 4-6-3 double play with the bases loaded to end the seventh, the Padres broke the game open with 5 runs to win going away. 11-3 was your final.
Some scoring tidbits:
- The last time San Diego hung 11 on the Cardinals was last April 2 in St Louis.
- The last time they scored 10 or more against the Cardinals in San Diego was 5/28/2006 (W 10-8). That game is memorable because Josh Bard hit 2 home runs off Mark Mulder. It's the only 2-HR game of Bard's career.
- You have to go back to 1993 to find a home game where the Padres scored at least 11 runs against St Louis - 8/24/1993 to be exact. The Padres scored 13 in the first inning that Tuesday night, although only 9700 people saw it.
Some odds and ends from last night (quick hits, since I started this post at 0650 and now it's 1510):
- You're no doubt aware that Cameron Maybin and Logan Forsythe had three opportunities to be the first Padre to hit for the cycle. In those 3 AB neither one put the ball in play (Maybin walked). Oh, well.
(Seque: Andrew Cashner will throw the first no-hitter in Padres history. Bank it.)
- I couldn't tell if Forsythe burned Cardinal CF John Jay on his RBI double in the second, or if Jay just took a bad route to the ball. Some on Twitter thought the latter. That ball was drilled, however.
- Initially I thought wild pitch was the correct call, allowing Everth Cabrera to advance to third; after looking at the replay, however, he was going. Perhaps it should have been a stolen base.
- Taking Carlos Quentin out after his AB leading off the third - right call. He looked uncomfortable at the plate during that at-bat.
- Good Grief Maybin's HR was crushed. 439' was a conservative distance.
- When was the last time a Padre got six plate appearances, at home, during a 9-inning game? Can't remember seeing it in person this year.
- Reports that Pete Kozma can't hit seem greatly exaggerated. Then again, one game is the definition of a SMALL SAMPLE SIZE.
- Jamie Garcia couldn't find the plate, and when he did find it he caught too much of it. I've been out of touch a lot, but there seemed to be a lot of hysteria amongst #stlcards Tweeters about his home/road splits. Yes, Garcia is a much different pitcher at home than on the road. It has to be all mental; is he able to locate that badly at Busch and get away with it? Can't be.
- Cardinal pitching in this game was awful overall. They gave up 4 - FOUR - unintentional 4-pitch walks in this game. Headley got 2, Kotsay 1, Grandal the other. I believe there is a study out there documenting that the strike zone gets bigger in the pitcher's favor on a 3-0 count. St Louis hurlers couldn't even hit that expanded zone.
- Shelby Miller pitched well. Hey, he kept the Cardinals in the game for 3 innings when San Diego threatened to blow it open early. When he has a HOF career, I can say I saw his first ML at bat. Assuming I don't lose my scorecard.
- Holliday's double play. Killer.
- David Freese was hit twice last night. St Louis came way in to Yonder Alonso in the eighth, after Freese got hit the second time, but didn't hit him. I wonder if this will carry over to tonight's game. St Louis can't afford to give the Padres free baserunners, not the way they're currently swinging the bat.
St Louis came in leading for the second Wild Card spot, but you would have thought the Padres were playing for a post-season berth, not the Cardinals, the way last night's game unfolded. It's too bad the Padres are 8.5 back with 20 to play, because I would not want to face them in the post-season.
Neither do the remaining teams fighting for a playoff spot.
CORRECTION to my last post: I said if the Padres won 4 of 6 from the Diamondbacks they'd tie AZ. Yeah, not quite. They'd need to win 5 of 6 to catch AZ, assuming they both win the same number of games outside of those head-to-head matchups. Math is hard.
Showing posts with label Padres Recap. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Padres Recap. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Monday, August 27, 2012
Game Reflections - Game 130 vs Braves
It's not very often the Padres have a seven-game winning streak. It's not very often they come home riding a seven-game winning streak, which included 3 straight against a Wild Card contender. But that's exactly where we find ourselves today.
Well - check that. It's 8 straight now.
After a most satisfying 3-game sweep in the desert, the second 3-game sweep of the season in Phoenix (the last time San Diego swept the D-backs in AZ before this season was NEVER), the team returned home to face Atlanta, leaders in the NL Wild Card. Today was a great day, because:
1. Of the aforementioned 7-game winning streak,
2. It was Padres Social night, which I was not aware of until I got to the ballpark (MAN I've been away a long time), and
3. It marked the Major League Debut of Casey Kelly, that 'other' player we got from Boston for Adrian Gonzalez. His father was in attendance - former major leaguer Pat Kelly, he of 7 ML at-bats in 1980 for the Toronto Blue Jays. And, it was his father's birthday (check that link again).
A lot going on. So let's get to it.
- Interesting tidbit - all the runs Atlanta starter Paul Maholm has allowed since becoming a Brave have scored via a home run. When I read that, my sarcastic thought was 'well here comes the shutout!'. Maybe with the May 2012 Padres. Not the August 2012 Padres. Yasmani Grandal took care of business with a laser of a 2-run HR in the second inning.
- The Kid Kelly pitched 6 effective innings. He worked around a 2-out double from Jason Heyward to get out of the first inning. He froze Paul Janish with a ridiculous curveball for the second out of the second, and straned two runners when Maholm flied to center. After Michael Bourn was doubled off second on a busted hit and run (Martin Prado lined out to second), Kelly allowed only one more baserunner and no more hits.
- In fact, the next Brave hit after that Bourn single was Prado's base knock leading off the ninth. Padres pitchers retired 16 of 18 hitters faced, the only two that reached were via walks, and one of those was erased thanks to a double play.
- That said, Dale Thayer made the eighth inning interesting. Dan Uggla hit a 2-2 pitch to the 396 sign in CF before Cameron Maybin jumped and hauled it in. Chase Headley had to sprawl behind the bag at third to snare Janish's ground ball for the second out of the inning, and Bourn drove Carlos Quentin to the track in LF with his drive.
- Uggla wasn't the only guy who got Petco'd tonight. Quentin's drive in the fourth died just short of the 401 sign in LC, and Logan Forsythe drove Bourn into the wall just to the right of that spot with his blast in the eighth.
- Welcome back Jesus Guzman! Guzman enjoyed his second 2-hit game of this month in only his fourth start of the month. I was feeling all warm inside about my guy ... then he got picked off to end the sixth. Oh well.
Not much else to mention. Maholm pitched well, his only mistake was to Grandal. Tommy Layne came in and threw 6 strikes to retire the side in the seventh. Luke Gregerson notched his second save and ran his scoreless inning streak to 23. A crisply played game in 2:24. 3-0 Padres.
Here's something fun to ponder - the Padres only trail Arizona by 5 games on the loss side. Let's make climbing into third a goal for the rest of this season, yes? If we do that, we'll finish at .500, something unthinkable as even a possibility 6 weeks ago.
Well - check that. It's 8 straight now.
After a most satisfying 3-game sweep in the desert, the second 3-game sweep of the season in Phoenix (the last time San Diego swept the D-backs in AZ before this season was NEVER), the team returned home to face Atlanta, leaders in the NL Wild Card. Today was a great day, because:
1. Of the aforementioned 7-game winning streak,
2. It was Padres Social night, which I was not aware of until I got to the ballpark (MAN I've been away a long time), and
3. It marked the Major League Debut of Casey Kelly, that 'other' player we got from Boston for Adrian Gonzalez. His father was in attendance - former major leaguer Pat Kelly, he of 7 ML at-bats in 1980 for the Toronto Blue Jays. And, it was his father's birthday (check that link again).
A lot going on. So let's get to it.
- Interesting tidbit - all the runs Atlanta starter Paul Maholm has allowed since becoming a Brave have scored via a home run. When I read that, my sarcastic thought was 'well here comes the shutout!'. Maybe with the May 2012 Padres. Not the August 2012 Padres. Yasmani Grandal took care of business with a laser of a 2-run HR in the second inning.
- The Kid Kelly pitched 6 effective innings. He worked around a 2-out double from Jason Heyward to get out of the first inning. He froze Paul Janish with a ridiculous curveball for the second out of the second, and straned two runners when Maholm flied to center. After Michael Bourn was doubled off second on a busted hit and run (Martin Prado lined out to second), Kelly allowed only one more baserunner and no more hits.
- In fact, the next Brave hit after that Bourn single was Prado's base knock leading off the ninth. Padres pitchers retired 16 of 18 hitters faced, the only two that reached were via walks, and one of those was erased thanks to a double play.
- That said, Dale Thayer made the eighth inning interesting. Dan Uggla hit a 2-2 pitch to the 396 sign in CF before Cameron Maybin jumped and hauled it in. Chase Headley had to sprawl behind the bag at third to snare Janish's ground ball for the second out of the inning, and Bourn drove Carlos Quentin to the track in LF with his drive.
- Uggla wasn't the only guy who got Petco'd tonight. Quentin's drive in the fourth died just short of the 401 sign in LC, and Logan Forsythe drove Bourn into the wall just to the right of that spot with his blast in the eighth.
- Welcome back Jesus Guzman! Guzman enjoyed his second 2-hit game of this month in only his fourth start of the month. I was feeling all warm inside about my guy ... then he got picked off to end the sixth. Oh well.
Not much else to mention. Maholm pitched well, his only mistake was to Grandal. Tommy Layne came in and threw 6 strikes to retire the side in the seventh. Luke Gregerson notched his second save and ran his scoreless inning streak to 23. A crisply played game in 2:24. 3-0 Padres.
Here's something fun to ponder - the Padres only trail Arizona by 5 games on the loss side. Let's make climbing into third a goal for the rest of this season, yes? If we do that, we'll finish at .500, something unthinkable as even a possibility 6 weeks ago.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Spoilers
How mad must the Pirates be? They take 2 of 3 from the Cardinals in St Louis, then come here and drop the first 2.
In fairness, if San Diego was going to win any game in this series it was going to be Monday night's. Pittsburgh had just survived a 19-inning game in St Louis which used every pitcher they had available, including 3 starting pitchers, and so were slightly undermanned in the bullpen. San Diego jumped on Kevin Correia early and rode that 3-0 lead to the victory.
Pittsbgh figured to bounce back last night, and they did. I didn't see much of this game (playoff softball); in fact, I saw exactly two pitches. Chase Headley get caught looking at an AJ Burnett curveball, and Carlos Quentin bounce into a 5-4-3 DP. Ugh.
Still, the Padres went into the ninth up 5-3. Garrett Jones tied the game at 5 all and it looked like they could carry that momentum into an extra innings win. Queue the music, right? Nope. Chase Headley took care of that with his game winning 2-run HR in the tenth.
So that makes 4 wins in 5 games against Pittsburgh this season. The Pirates can thank the schedule maker for putting both their series with the Padres after the All-Star break, when San Diego began playing much better. In the heat of a playoff race, the last thing contending teams want to see is a team in the second division playing with nothing to lose. Note to Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and St Louis - look past the Padres at your own peril.
The Padres look to sweep today; it will be their first home sweep against the Pirates since 2010.
In fairness, if San Diego was going to win any game in this series it was going to be Monday night's. Pittsburgh had just survived a 19-inning game in St Louis which used every pitcher they had available, including 3 starting pitchers, and so were slightly undermanned in the bullpen. San Diego jumped on Kevin Correia early and rode that 3-0 lead to the victory.
Pittsbgh figured to bounce back last night, and they did. I didn't see much of this game (playoff softball); in fact, I saw exactly two pitches. Chase Headley get caught looking at an AJ Burnett curveball, and Carlos Quentin bounce into a 5-4-3 DP. Ugh.
Still, the Padres went into the ninth up 5-3. Garrett Jones tied the game at 5 all and it looked like they could carry that momentum into an extra innings win. Queue the music, right? Nope. Chase Headley took care of that with his game winning 2-run HR in the tenth.
So that makes 4 wins in 5 games against Pittsburgh this season. The Pirates can thank the schedule maker for putting both their series with the Padres after the All-Star break, when San Diego began playing much better. In the heat of a playoff race, the last thing contending teams want to see is a team in the second division playing with nothing to lose. Note to Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and St Louis - look past the Padres at your own peril.
The Padres look to sweep today; it will be their first home sweep against the Pirates since 2010.
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Random Thoughts on Game 54 (vs Diamondbacks)
Well, Daniel Hudson beat the Padres again, improving to 5-1 lifetime against San Diego, although his ERA ballooned to 1.86. The winning run scored thanks to a Joe Thatcher balk; the insurance run scored courtesy of an Alex Hinshaw bases loaded walk.
Highlights of the game for me:
1. The bottom of the fourth was the most fun I've had watching the Padres this year. Will Venable executed a perfect drag bunt to start the inning, then stole second. Cameron Maybin lined a single to right, and an excellent slide by Venable just beat Manny Parra's throw to the plate. Maybin, who had taken second on the throw home, then scored standing up on Yonder Alonso's soft single to center. Alonso then defied the Fates by stealing second.
Sadly that was the end of the fun. Carlos Quentin flied to Parra, who threw out Alonso trying to tag and go to third. Parra had also thrown out Cabrera in the third trying to stretch a double into a triple; the moral is, as always, don't run on Parra.
But that is the way the Padres should play the game. The team doesn't have a lot of power, and doesn't have an offensively charged lineup like St Louis or Texas. They need to press the action, and use the one asset - SPEED - they do possess. Make the opposing team's defense turn the perfect relay or play to stop the madness.
2. Back in December, Quentin told XX 1090's Darren Smith he didn't have any walk-up music and didn't want any. I've been waiting for 2 months to see if he meant it. He did. Quentin is rapidly becoming my favorite Padre.
3. Thru three plate appearanes, Arizona's Montero and Young had the exact same line - 2 walks, and a strikeout looking. Odd.
4. Cabrera made a very heads-up play to snuff an Arizona rally in the second. He gloved Josh Bell's sharp grounder while moving into the hole; with no play at first, he threw to third to force Montero. Nicely done.
5. Goldschmidt's HR was crushed, measuring 425' by the Padres PR staff. it was what - 7 rows back in the LF upper deck? Wow.
6. Parra forced the balk by Thatcher by bluffing coming down the line at third to steal home. Thatcher had started his wind-up, then froze. Oops. Parra had a huge game.
7. Finally, we got to see the ML debut of Yasmani Grandal. He hit a 3-1 pitch to the track in LF. He was fooled on the pitch, and hit it off his front foot, so don't read' Warning Track Power' into that swing. As a friend of mine said, 'he's got swagger'. Welcome to the big leagues Yasmani.
SD tries to win the series tomorrow afternoon.
Highlights of the game for me:
1. The bottom of the fourth was the most fun I've had watching the Padres this year. Will Venable executed a perfect drag bunt to start the inning, then stole second. Cameron Maybin lined a single to right, and an excellent slide by Venable just beat Manny Parra's throw to the plate. Maybin, who had taken second on the throw home, then scored standing up on Yonder Alonso's soft single to center. Alonso then defied the Fates by stealing second.
Sadly that was the end of the fun. Carlos Quentin flied to Parra, who threw out Alonso trying to tag and go to third. Parra had also thrown out Cabrera in the third trying to stretch a double into a triple; the moral is, as always, don't run on Parra.
But that is the way the Padres should play the game. The team doesn't have a lot of power, and doesn't have an offensively charged lineup like St Louis or Texas. They need to press the action, and use the one asset - SPEED - they do possess. Make the opposing team's defense turn the perfect relay or play to stop the madness.
2. Back in December, Quentin told XX 1090's Darren Smith he didn't have any walk-up music and didn't want any. I've been waiting for 2 months to see if he meant it. He did. Quentin is rapidly becoming my favorite Padre.
3. Thru three plate appearanes, Arizona's Montero and Young had the exact same line - 2 walks, and a strikeout looking. Odd.
4. Cabrera made a very heads-up play to snuff an Arizona rally in the second. He gloved Josh Bell's sharp grounder while moving into the hole; with no play at first, he threw to third to force Montero. Nicely done.
5. Goldschmidt's HR was crushed, measuring 425' by the Padres PR staff. it was what - 7 rows back in the LF upper deck? Wow.
6. Parra forced the balk by Thatcher by bluffing coming down the line at third to steal home. Thatcher had started his wind-up, then froze. Oops. Parra had a huge game.
7. Finally, we got to see the ML debut of Yasmani Grandal. He hit a 3-1 pitch to the track in LF. He was fooled on the pitch, and hit it off his front foot, so don't read' Warning Track Power' into that swing. As a friend of mine said, 'he's got swagger'. Welcome to the big leagues Yasmani.
SD tries to win the series tomorrow afternoon.
Monday, May 21, 2012
Random Thoughts on Game 42 (vs Angels)
Nothing like 13 innings of baseball to break up your Sunday, is there? Padres take 2 of 3 from California over the weekend. Some thoughts from yesterday's 4-and-a-half hour marathon:
- The game actually entered the seventh inning in under 2 hours. I believe it was 2 hrs 5 min to the seventh inning stretch. Of course it took another 2:18 to play the rest of the game. Time slows down as the game gets longer.
- Both teams played the last 2 innings with no more position players available. In fact, Langerhans injury on John Baker's double that opened the eleventh set in motion a whole chain of events (which ultimately was decisive in how the game ended):
If it seems stuff like this happens more and more it's because it does. Back in the day when bullpens were 4 men deep, and starters on their throwing day would be long men out of the bullpen, managers had a lot more flexibility because they carried 16 position players on the roster. Now, with starters routinely not getting out of the seventh, and all the specialization out of the bullpen, pitching staffs have expanded. There have been a couple of teams this year (albeit it briefly) where they carried 13 pitchers and 12 position players.
Baseball is great because there is no time limit. You can't run out the clock; you have to get 27 men out to win, or more if the game is tied after 9. Because of how the game is played today, and how rosters are managed to play today's game, teams are only built to play 9. If the game goes longer than, say, 11 innings, teams are forced to use the worst guys in the pen. The guys like Hisanori Takahashi with a 5.91 ERA, or Miles Mikolas with a 5.40 (numbers include yesterday's game).
Look at yesterday. Bud Black used his best 3 bullpen arms for an inning each - in the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings. With the score tied and those guys out of the game you're just hoping you score before one of your less reliable arms gives up the go-ahead run.
- Of course, this game wouldn't have gone 13 if anyone could drive in a runner in scoring position. Anaheim was 1-for-14 with RISP; San Diego 1-for-13. The winning run scored from first base thanks to Kendrick's bobble on Will Venable's single, which allowed Clayton Richard to scamper home. Kendrick was playing out of position, as noted above; although he did start 20 games in LF last year, yesterday was his first exposure there in 2012.
- Additionally, starting with Chris Denorfia in the bottom of the seventh inning Saturday night, 9 consecutive pinch hitters in this series struck out. That streak includes both teams, and also includes Peter Bourjos' first AB after Vernon Wells left with a thumb injury. This particularly random streak of futility didn't end until Baker's double.
- Will Venable was hit by Angels starter Ervin Santana in consecutive AB's. He is the first Padre to be hit-by-pitch twice in the same game since Everth Cabrera was plunked twice by Texas' Kevin Millwood in 2009.
- Apparently HP umpire Doug Eddings doesn't like to ask for help. The first 3 check swings in this game were called strikes by Doug himself. On replay it looked like he got 2 of them wrong (Nick Hundley with the bases loaded in the first, and Venable with 2 out in the second). He finally asked for help when Andy Parrino checked his swing in the sixth inning.
I'm not in a position to tell a seasoned umpire how to do his job, but one would think that the 1B or 3B umpire has a better view of a check-swing than the HP guy who's focused on whether the pitch is a ball or a strike. I don't think it a stretch to say the call on Hundley changed the game; he was hitting with the bases loaded in the first, and the Padres had been hitting the ball hard off Santana early in the game. We might not have played 13 innings had Hundley delivered there. Of course, the WHOLE game is different if the Padres tie it up or go ahead in the first inning, so saying the Padres win in regulation if Hundley has another pitch is a stretch - I know that. There is the possibility the game goes a lot differently if he gets another pitch.
- This just in: Mike Trout is fast. He hit a slow roller to short leading off the 10th inning and beat the throw by a step. Usually that play is bang-bang. Trout hits right-handed.
- This also just in: So is Alexi Amarista. He hit a line drive to LC in the bottom of the 10th and left the box thinking 2 bases. If Bourjos doesn't slide to cut the ball off, it's in the gap and Amarista circles the bases. Although Bourjos threw the ball to second, Amarista slid in without a play. Love love LOVE the energy he's brought to the Padres so far.
- Amarista also hit a line drive to Angels SS Erick Aybar in the twelfth inning which Aybar then dropped, attempting to turn the 643 DP. Kerwin Danley, working 2B, said 'nay nay moosebreath' on that. Scioscia then tried to argue it.
Uh, fellas - if I can't get away with that on my slow-pitch, beer league softball team, you can't do it in the majors. The fact the Angels tried was hilarious. The fact Danley vetoed it was just.
- Is Pujols lost at the plate? Well, he had homered at Petco every year since 2008. He also homered here in 2006 and 2005. He didn't homer this weekend, and had only 2 singles in the series. He didn't hit a ball out of the infield yesterday. San Diego attacked him with fastballs and sliders. He looks lost to my untrained eye.
Yesterday was a big win in the most-attended home series so far this year. San Diego flies to St Louis to take on the Cardinals, who are currently reeling, and were just swept by the Dodgers. The Padres might be more competitive in this series than many thought they would be just 2 short weeks ago.
- The game actually entered the seventh inning in under 2 hours. I believe it was 2 hrs 5 min to the seventh inning stretch. Of course it took another 2:18 to play the rest of the game. Time slows down as the game gets longer.
- Both teams played the last 2 innings with no more position players available. In fact, Langerhans injury on John Baker's double that opened the eleventh set in motion a whole chain of events (which ultimately was decisive in how the game ended):
- Backup catcher John Hester came in for Langerhans, pushing
- Starting catcher Bobby Wilson to first, moving
- Starting 1B Albert Pujols to third, sending
- Starting 3B Maicer Izturis to second, and exiling
- Starting 2B Howard Kendrick to LF.
If it seems stuff like this happens more and more it's because it does. Back in the day when bullpens were 4 men deep, and starters on their throwing day would be long men out of the bullpen, managers had a lot more flexibility because they carried 16 position players on the roster. Now, with starters routinely not getting out of the seventh, and all the specialization out of the bullpen, pitching staffs have expanded. There have been a couple of teams this year (albeit it briefly) where they carried 13 pitchers and 12 position players.
Baseball is great because there is no time limit. You can't run out the clock; you have to get 27 men out to win, or more if the game is tied after 9. Because of how the game is played today, and how rosters are managed to play today's game, teams are only built to play 9. If the game goes longer than, say, 11 innings, teams are forced to use the worst guys in the pen. The guys like Hisanori Takahashi with a 5.91 ERA, or Miles Mikolas with a 5.40 (numbers include yesterday's game).
Look at yesterday. Bud Black used his best 3 bullpen arms for an inning each - in the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings. With the score tied and those guys out of the game you're just hoping you score before one of your less reliable arms gives up the go-ahead run.
- Of course, this game wouldn't have gone 13 if anyone could drive in a runner in scoring position. Anaheim was 1-for-14 with RISP; San Diego 1-for-13. The winning run scored from first base thanks to Kendrick's bobble on Will Venable's single, which allowed Clayton Richard to scamper home. Kendrick was playing out of position, as noted above; although he did start 20 games in LF last year, yesterday was his first exposure there in 2012.
- Additionally, starting with Chris Denorfia in the bottom of the seventh inning Saturday night, 9 consecutive pinch hitters in this series struck out. That streak includes both teams, and also includes Peter Bourjos' first AB after Vernon Wells left with a thumb injury. This particularly random streak of futility didn't end until Baker's double.
- Will Venable was hit by Angels starter Ervin Santana in consecutive AB's. He is the first Padre to be hit-by-pitch twice in the same game since Everth Cabrera was plunked twice by Texas' Kevin Millwood in 2009.
- Apparently HP umpire Doug Eddings doesn't like to ask for help. The first 3 check swings in this game were called strikes by Doug himself. On replay it looked like he got 2 of them wrong (Nick Hundley with the bases loaded in the first, and Venable with 2 out in the second). He finally asked for help when Andy Parrino checked his swing in the sixth inning.
I'm not in a position to tell a seasoned umpire how to do his job, but one would think that the 1B or 3B umpire has a better view of a check-swing than the HP guy who's focused on whether the pitch is a ball or a strike. I don't think it a stretch to say the call on Hundley changed the game; he was hitting with the bases loaded in the first, and the Padres had been hitting the ball hard off Santana early in the game. We might not have played 13 innings had Hundley delivered there. Of course, the WHOLE game is different if the Padres tie it up or go ahead in the first inning, so saying the Padres win in regulation if Hundley has another pitch is a stretch - I know that. There is the possibility the game goes a lot differently if he gets another pitch.
- This just in: Mike Trout is fast. He hit a slow roller to short leading off the 10th inning and beat the throw by a step. Usually that play is bang-bang. Trout hits right-handed.
- This also just in: So is Alexi Amarista. He hit a line drive to LC in the bottom of the 10th and left the box thinking 2 bases. If Bourjos doesn't slide to cut the ball off, it's in the gap and Amarista circles the bases. Although Bourjos threw the ball to second, Amarista slid in without a play. Love love LOVE the energy he's brought to the Padres so far.
- Amarista also hit a line drive to Angels SS Erick Aybar in the twelfth inning which Aybar then dropped, attempting to turn the 643 DP. Kerwin Danley, working 2B, said 'nay nay moosebreath' on that. Scioscia then tried to argue it.
Uh, fellas - if I can't get away with that on my slow-pitch, beer league softball team, you can't do it in the majors. The fact the Angels tried was hilarious. The fact Danley vetoed it was just.
- Is Pujols lost at the plate? Well, he had homered at Petco every year since 2008. He also homered here in 2006 and 2005. He didn't homer this weekend, and had only 2 singles in the series. He didn't hit a ball out of the infield yesterday. San Diego attacked him with fastballs and sliders. He looks lost to my untrained eye.
Yesterday was a big win in the most-attended home series so far this year. San Diego flies to St Louis to take on the Cardinals, who are currently reeling, and were just swept by the Dodgers. The Padres might be more competitive in this series than many thought they would be just 2 short weeks ago.
Friday, May 18, 2012
Random Thoughts on the Dodgers series
It has been a long time since I watched an entire regular season series between two teams. Any two teams. Maybe it happened in 2001. But I got to observe both games this week between the Dodgers and Padres. Talk about two different games.
Clayton Richard started Wednesday. That game kicked off at 3:35 which although not odd because the Padres play a lot of Wednesday afternoon games, it was odd because it was the first game back after a 5-game road trip. When was the last time a team played a day game following a cross-country flight? At least the Tuesday game had started at 10am our time.
LA started 4 lefties against Richard, another oddity because Richard is left-handed. Typically teams don't stack their lineups with lefties when facing a lefty. Then again, the Dodgers started SIX lefties last night against Edinson Volquez, so maybe it's not that unusual for them.
Wednesday's game did not start well. Eight pitches in the Dodgers led 2-0, the big blow being Elian Herrera's double, also his first major-league hit. Richard got out of it, and Chase Headley's HR in the home half brought San Diego back within one.
It may have also relaxed Richard. After giving up 2 hits in 5 pitches, he allowed 2 hits over the next six innings. Clayton didn't walk anyone for the first time since his 8 April start against LA, and his 6 K's matched his second-highest total in a game this season. Game Score: 67, second best to that 8 April game (72). Richard apparently loves both pitching against the Dodgers at Petco and pitching during the day.
On the other side, Dodger lefty Chris Capuano pitched pretty well himself. He allowed only one other hit besides the Headley HR, a hustle double by James Darnell. Darnell plays every game like it's his last. His aggressive approach paid off on this play; it wouldn't last night, as he sublexed his left shoulder trying to make a diving catch on Tony Gwynn Jr's line drive in the sixth.
If Capuano could have solved Headley he might have won this game. Chase followed his HR with a 10-pitch walk leading off the fourth. Headley came up with 2 on and 1 out in the sixth, saw seven more pitches, then lined a 2-run double up the gap in left-center to give the Padres the lead. Here's a cool statistic: At this point in the game Capuano had thrown 78 pitches, and Headley had seen 21 of them. Twenty-seven percent of Capuano's pitches had been thrown to Headley. Ridiculous.
Richard kept cruising. He gave up a 1-out double to Jerry Sands in the fourth, then retired the last 11 hitters he faced. Andrew Cashner came on and blew away the side in the eighth. Although Bobby Abreu broke the consecutive retired string at 15 with a 1-out single off Dale Thayer, Darnell made a spectacular diving catch to rob Andre Ethier, and James Loney fouled out to Headley to give the Padres a 4-2 win.
The only other weird things in this game were the two throwing errors by pitchers, one by each team. If one can throw the ball to the plate with precision at 90MPH, they should be able to toss it to first. Not so much. There'd be another pitcher throwing error in last night's game.
*********
Between the games the Padres made a number of roster moves. Jason Bartlett was placed on the 15-day DL with a knee issue. Eric Stults was claimed off waivers from the Chicago White Sox. The Padres called up Everth Cabrera (his first return to the majors since July 2011) and Alexi Amarista (acquired in the Ernesto Frieri deal). Both those players started last night.
By far, the biggest news was Orlando Hudson's unconditional release. Initially I thought this was just a fancy way of saying 'Designated for Assignment', but that's not true. If a player is DFA'd, the club places him on waivers for 10 days, during which time any other club can claim him; then the two clubs have ~10 days to work out a deal. If the player clears waivers, he can be sent to the minors or given his release.
When the guy is given his unconditional release, he just leaves. That's it - see ya.
I was a little bit surprised by that. O-Dog still has some value at the major league level. Yes he's 34, and he's hitting .211, but he's still a veteran guy who was a 2-time All-Star and a 4-time Gold Glove winner. Some team out there will give him another chance (hello, San Francisco?), wouldn't they? Couldn't a trade have been worked out once he was on the waiver wire?
Is the team better without him? Well they can't be much worse. Hudson struggled this year, and he struggled last year, at the plate. His defense is what it is, and this year by UZR/150 (-3.3) it's as mediocre as it was last year (-3.5), granted in about 1/4 the innings. I guess from that perspective why not let the kids play.
It's also worth noting Hudson isn't the sole reason San Diego has started 13-24. Carlos Quentin hasn't yet taken the field for a Major League game in 2012. Cory Luebke may need season ending surgery. There are 10 other Padres who have done time on the DL (not including Darnell, who may go there today). In some ways, though, Hudson and Bartlett became the most visible examples of what this team is lacking - sometimes sloppy defense and a lot of futility at the plate. One wonders how much time Bartlett has left on the roster.
*********
Last night's game was no contest. The Dodgers walloped San Diego 8-1. If it weren't for Don Mattingly's decision to bring Todd Coffey in for the ninth inning - against whom the league was hitting .474 before the game - it would have been a shutout. More random-ness from last night:
- Volquez got squeezed right out of the gate. His first pitch to Dee Gordon may have been a strike, but his second one was definitely a strike. Nope, both called balls. Volquez struggled to get ahead of hitters the rest of the game.
- Was it my imagination or was Volquez throwing a lot of off-speed stuff early in the count? Seems his previous starts he's featured his 94-95 MPH fastball and worked off that. Last night he seemed to reverse that pattern. I thought initially he might be injured, but there was nothing wrong with his velocity so it must have been the game plan they tried to execute. Ted Barrett having a phone book for a strike zone didn't help.
- Bobby Abreu takes FOR-EVER to get into the box. Then, he steps out after every pitch to collect himself. No wonder games at the ML level last around 3 hours.
- Abreu's triple in the first was smoked. I thought Cameron Maybin took a good angle to the ball, it was just hit so hard it skipped past him. Stuff happens.
- It took 16 pitches last night for the Padres to fall behind 2-0. I guess that's an improvement over Wednesday.
- As good as Richard was on Wednesday, that's how good Aaron Harang was last night. He scattered 4 hits, two of those doubles off John Baker's bat. Harang also struck out 6 and didn't walk anyone. True to form, he allowed a lot of fly balls; San Diego hit 10 balls in the air (9 outs), but it didn't matter.
- Amarista made a very heads-up play to end the second inning. Mark Ellis' ground ball up the middle was hit such that Amarista had no play at first; so instead, and knowing that Gwynn Jr is aggressive, he threw behind the runner to third. Result - 4-5-2-5-3-4 putout that ended the inning. Nicely done.
- Maybin should have Ethier's fly ball in the fifth. There's no other way to say it. I bet if you asked him, he'd say he should catch that ball 100 times out of 100. Yes, it was hit hard; but Maybin was there.
- Darnell sold out trying to catch the Gwynn line drive. Unfortunately he was already moving downward when the ball glanced off his glove and he didn't have time to brace himself. I love the way this kid plays, but the risk of injury is always great with that style. Hopefully his DL stint isn't too long.
- Is it me or does Andy Parrino strike out a lot? Eighteen K's in 77 PA (24%) seems like a lot.
- Alex Hinshaw had a bad-luck seventh. Cabrera couldn't corral Ethier's hard ground ball up the middle. Adam Kennedy rolled the ball down the third-base line, which was perfect since Headley was swung over into the hole. Harang hit a soft ground ball about 25 feet into no-man's land that went for a hit. Only Loney's single to right was well struck. Hinshaw ended up giving up 2 runs in the frame. Sometimes it's not your night.
- Memo to Mr. Amarista: For the Love of God, PLEASE pick a different walk-up tune. I'd rather hear fingernails on a chalkboard or someone dragging a cat across a washboard than be subjected to Jorge Cantu's theme music again on a recurring basis.
- Surprised Scott Van Slyke uses batting gloves. His dad never did.
- Harang managed to strike out on a foul bunt twice in last night's game. Baseball Reference doesn't let one search for foul bunt strike three's, or if they do I'm not smart enough to figure out how to write the search. I can't imagine there's been a lot of players who've struck out twice in the same game on a foul bunt. Maybe that minutae is only interesting to me.
Interleague starts tonight with the Angels from the Greater Los Angeles Basin. Signs indicate Albert Pujols is heating up, just in time for the Padres. Oh goody.
Clayton Richard started Wednesday. That game kicked off at 3:35 which although not odd because the Padres play a lot of Wednesday afternoon games, it was odd because it was the first game back after a 5-game road trip. When was the last time a team played a day game following a cross-country flight? At least the Tuesday game had started at 10am our time.
LA started 4 lefties against Richard, another oddity because Richard is left-handed. Typically teams don't stack their lineups with lefties when facing a lefty. Then again, the Dodgers started SIX lefties last night against Edinson Volquez, so maybe it's not that unusual for them.
Wednesday's game did not start well. Eight pitches in the Dodgers led 2-0, the big blow being Elian Herrera's double, also his first major-league hit. Richard got out of it, and Chase Headley's HR in the home half brought San Diego back within one.
It may have also relaxed Richard. After giving up 2 hits in 5 pitches, he allowed 2 hits over the next six innings. Clayton didn't walk anyone for the first time since his 8 April start against LA, and his 6 K's matched his second-highest total in a game this season. Game Score: 67, second best to that 8 April game (72). Richard apparently loves both pitching against the Dodgers at Petco and pitching during the day.
On the other side, Dodger lefty Chris Capuano pitched pretty well himself. He allowed only one other hit besides the Headley HR, a hustle double by James Darnell. Darnell plays every game like it's his last. His aggressive approach paid off on this play; it wouldn't last night, as he sublexed his left shoulder trying to make a diving catch on Tony Gwynn Jr's line drive in the sixth.
If Capuano could have solved Headley he might have won this game. Chase followed his HR with a 10-pitch walk leading off the fourth. Headley came up with 2 on and 1 out in the sixth, saw seven more pitches, then lined a 2-run double up the gap in left-center to give the Padres the lead. Here's a cool statistic: At this point in the game Capuano had thrown 78 pitches, and Headley had seen 21 of them. Twenty-seven percent of Capuano's pitches had been thrown to Headley. Ridiculous.
Richard kept cruising. He gave up a 1-out double to Jerry Sands in the fourth, then retired the last 11 hitters he faced. Andrew Cashner came on and blew away the side in the eighth. Although Bobby Abreu broke the consecutive retired string at 15 with a 1-out single off Dale Thayer, Darnell made a spectacular diving catch to rob Andre Ethier, and James Loney fouled out to Headley to give the Padres a 4-2 win.
The only other weird things in this game were the two throwing errors by pitchers, one by each team. If one can throw the ball to the plate with precision at 90MPH, they should be able to toss it to first. Not so much. There'd be another pitcher throwing error in last night's game.
*********
Between the games the Padres made a number of roster moves. Jason Bartlett was placed on the 15-day DL with a knee issue. Eric Stults was claimed off waivers from the Chicago White Sox. The Padres called up Everth Cabrera (his first return to the majors since July 2011) and Alexi Amarista (acquired in the Ernesto Frieri deal). Both those players started last night.
By far, the biggest news was Orlando Hudson's unconditional release. Initially I thought this was just a fancy way of saying 'Designated for Assignment', but that's not true. If a player is DFA'd, the club places him on waivers for 10 days, during which time any other club can claim him; then the two clubs have ~10 days to work out a deal. If the player clears waivers, he can be sent to the minors or given his release.
When the guy is given his unconditional release, he just leaves. That's it - see ya.
I was a little bit surprised by that. O-Dog still has some value at the major league level. Yes he's 34, and he's hitting .211, but he's still a veteran guy who was a 2-time All-Star and a 4-time Gold Glove winner. Some team out there will give him another chance (hello, San Francisco?), wouldn't they? Couldn't a trade have been worked out once he was on the waiver wire?
Is the team better without him? Well they can't be much worse. Hudson struggled this year, and he struggled last year, at the plate. His defense is what it is, and this year by UZR/150 (-3.3) it's as mediocre as it was last year (-3.5), granted in about 1/4 the innings. I guess from that perspective why not let the kids play.
It's also worth noting Hudson isn't the sole reason San Diego has started 13-24. Carlos Quentin hasn't yet taken the field for a Major League game in 2012. Cory Luebke may need season ending surgery. There are 10 other Padres who have done time on the DL (not including Darnell, who may go there today). In some ways, though, Hudson and Bartlett became the most visible examples of what this team is lacking - sometimes sloppy defense and a lot of futility at the plate. One wonders how much time Bartlett has left on the roster.
*********
Last night's game was no contest. The Dodgers walloped San Diego 8-1. If it weren't for Don Mattingly's decision to bring Todd Coffey in for the ninth inning - against whom the league was hitting .474 before the game - it would have been a shutout. More random-ness from last night:
- Volquez got squeezed right out of the gate. His first pitch to Dee Gordon may have been a strike, but his second one was definitely a strike. Nope, both called balls. Volquez struggled to get ahead of hitters the rest of the game.
- Was it my imagination or was Volquez throwing a lot of off-speed stuff early in the count? Seems his previous starts he's featured his 94-95 MPH fastball and worked off that. Last night he seemed to reverse that pattern. I thought initially he might be injured, but there was nothing wrong with his velocity so it must have been the game plan they tried to execute. Ted Barrett having a phone book for a strike zone didn't help.
- Bobby Abreu takes FOR-EVER to get into the box. Then, he steps out after every pitch to collect himself. No wonder games at the ML level last around 3 hours.
- Abreu's triple in the first was smoked. I thought Cameron Maybin took a good angle to the ball, it was just hit so hard it skipped past him. Stuff happens.
- It took 16 pitches last night for the Padres to fall behind 2-0. I guess that's an improvement over Wednesday.
- As good as Richard was on Wednesday, that's how good Aaron Harang was last night. He scattered 4 hits, two of those doubles off John Baker's bat. Harang also struck out 6 and didn't walk anyone. True to form, he allowed a lot of fly balls; San Diego hit 10 balls in the air (9 outs), but it didn't matter.
- Amarista made a very heads-up play to end the second inning. Mark Ellis' ground ball up the middle was hit such that Amarista had no play at first; so instead, and knowing that Gwynn Jr is aggressive, he threw behind the runner to third. Result - 4-5-2-5-3-4 putout that ended the inning. Nicely done.
- Maybin should have Ethier's fly ball in the fifth. There's no other way to say it. I bet if you asked him, he'd say he should catch that ball 100 times out of 100. Yes, it was hit hard; but Maybin was there.
- Darnell sold out trying to catch the Gwynn line drive. Unfortunately he was already moving downward when the ball glanced off his glove and he didn't have time to brace himself. I love the way this kid plays, but the risk of injury is always great with that style. Hopefully his DL stint isn't too long.
- Is it me or does Andy Parrino strike out a lot? Eighteen K's in 77 PA (24%) seems like a lot.
- Alex Hinshaw had a bad-luck seventh. Cabrera couldn't corral Ethier's hard ground ball up the middle. Adam Kennedy rolled the ball down the third-base line, which was perfect since Headley was swung over into the hole. Harang hit a soft ground ball about 25 feet into no-man's land that went for a hit. Only Loney's single to right was well struck. Hinshaw ended up giving up 2 runs in the frame. Sometimes it's not your night.
- Memo to Mr. Amarista: For the Love of God, PLEASE pick a different walk-up tune. I'd rather hear fingernails on a chalkboard or someone dragging a cat across a washboard than be subjected to Jorge Cantu's theme music again on a recurring basis.
- Surprised Scott Van Slyke uses batting gloves. His dad never did.
- Harang managed to strike out on a foul bunt twice in last night's game. Baseball Reference doesn't let one search for foul bunt strike three's, or if they do I'm not smart enough to figure out how to write the search. I can't imagine there's been a lot of players who've struck out twice in the same game on a foul bunt. Maybe that minutae is only interesting to me.
Interleague starts tonight with the Angels from the Greater Los Angeles Basin. Signs indicate Albert Pujols is heating up, just in time for the Padres. Oh goody.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Random Thoughts on Game 30 (vs Rockies)
I don't know what ya-all's problem is - I go to Petco, the Padres win. Tonight's 3-2 victory moves the Padres 4-2 when I'm able to attend. Here are tonight's random thoughts:
- Loved Cameron Maybin's hustle on his first-inning double. Think he might have seen Harper double just past shortstop in Sunday's game against the Phillies? Also was it just me or did Maybin need about 4 strides to make it from first to second? Speed never goes into a slump.
- I think people were seeing the ball well out of Drew Pomeranz's hand. Yonder Alonso's single to score Maybin was smoked, and almost took the young Rockie hurler with it into CF. Edinson Volquez's drive found Pomeranz, although Drew recovered to throw Volquez out. That line drive would eventually force Pomeranz from the game with a right leg quad contusion, but not before he clobbered a 3-1 Volquez fastball off the facade in LF. That was a shot, people.
- Friday's theme of weirdness continued. We saw another wild pitch, another passed ball, another runner caught stealing, and the weirdest play of all, Rockies catcher Rosario out trying to advance on a ball just barely away from Nick Hundley. Rosario was out by 3 feet. And BZ to Orlando Hudson for keeping the tag on Cuddyer and throwing Cuddyer out when his momentum carried him past the bag.
- Chase Headley's slide to score the Padres third run was exemplary. He's safe IMHO even if Rosario holds onto the ball.
- Nothing kills a rally like Hudson and Jason Bartlett striding to the plate. They were a combined 0-4 with runners on, and stranded 5 in scoring position between them. San Diego should have blown this game open in the third inning.
- I'll be the baseball is a big as a beach ball to Alonso right now. Everything he hits is a rope. One will never prove it but it sure looked like Colorado pitched around him in the fifth inning, even though Jesus Guzman was on first base.
- Headley's caught stealing earlier in the fifth looked like a busted hit and run, busted because Guzman didn't make contact.
- Gotta love the Padres bullpen, the lone bright spot on this team. They threw 3 2/3 no hit ball, striking out 6, to preserve Volquez's first win with the club.
Jeff Suppan goes tomorrow, his opponent is still TBD (at least as of 5pm Monday). I won't be back in the ballpark until sometime next week, but the Padres don't need me to win - do they?
- Loved Cameron Maybin's hustle on his first-inning double. Think he might have seen Harper double just past shortstop in Sunday's game against the Phillies? Also was it just me or did Maybin need about 4 strides to make it from first to second? Speed never goes into a slump.
- I think people were seeing the ball well out of Drew Pomeranz's hand. Yonder Alonso's single to score Maybin was smoked, and almost took the young Rockie hurler with it into CF. Edinson Volquez's drive found Pomeranz, although Drew recovered to throw Volquez out. That line drive would eventually force Pomeranz from the game with a right leg quad contusion, but not before he clobbered a 3-1 Volquez fastball off the facade in LF. That was a shot, people.
- Friday's theme of weirdness continued. We saw another wild pitch, another passed ball, another runner caught stealing, and the weirdest play of all, Rockies catcher Rosario out trying to advance on a ball just barely away from Nick Hundley. Rosario was out by 3 feet. And BZ to Orlando Hudson for keeping the tag on Cuddyer and throwing Cuddyer out when his momentum carried him past the bag.
- Chase Headley's slide to score the Padres third run was exemplary. He's safe IMHO even if Rosario holds onto the ball.
- Nothing kills a rally like Hudson and Jason Bartlett striding to the plate. They were a combined 0-4 with runners on, and stranded 5 in scoring position between them. San Diego should have blown this game open in the third inning.
- I'll be the baseball is a big as a beach ball to Alonso right now. Everything he hits is a rope. One will never prove it but it sure looked like Colorado pitched around him in the fifth inning, even though Jesus Guzman was on first base.
- Headley's caught stealing earlier in the fifth looked like a busted hit and run, busted because Guzman didn't make contact.
- Gotta love the Padres bullpen, the lone bright spot on this team. They threw 3 2/3 no hit ball, striking out 6, to preserve Volquez's first win with the club.
Jeff Suppan goes tomorrow, his opponent is still TBD (at least as of 5pm Monday). I won't be back in the ballpark until sometime next week, but the Padres don't need me to win - do they?
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Random Thoughts about Game 27 (vs Marlins)
Last night's 9-8, 12-inning loss to the Miami Marlins has to be the wackiest one I've seen in person. Unlike the mainstream media, Gaslamp Ball, and some others I was not up to writing about it at 1am this morning. This is what happens when your day starts 21 hours earlier.
What made this game so wacky? Here's a short list:
Wild Pitches. There were 4 in the game. The wackiest had to be the wild pitch on a pitchout in the third inning by Anthony Bass, which allowed Emilio Bonifacio to reach second. I can't recall the last time I saw that happen, or if I've ever seen it at the ML level. Marlins reliever Randy Choate threw two during Chris Denorfia's AB in the seventh that pushed Andy Parrino to get all the way to third.
Balk. Jose Reyes baited Bass into a balk that allowed him to score from third and tied the game in the sixth.
Baserunning Hijinx. Three stolen bases (two by the Padres), two additional bases taken by San Diego thanks to defensive indifference, a runner picked off first by the catcher (Bonifacio, by Nick Hundley in the eleventh thanks to a timely pitchout call by Bud Black), and a runner cut down trying to advance (Yonder Alonso, by Giancarlo Stanton in the seventh).
We saw Chase Headley hit by a pitch in the first, Reyes called out on batter interference for running on the infield grass while trying to beat out a bunt in the eighth, two middle relievers hit for themselves in a one-run game, Parrino intentionally walked in consecutive at bats, and Bud Black NOT ejected from the game for arguing a strike call (I forget when that happened)
By the way, Marlin reliever Dan Jennings grounded to short in his first ML at-bat in the fourth, and fellow Marlin reliever Chad Gaudin struck out for the first time this season (he had 2 previous at-bats).
And all that's before we get to the Marlins' staking Josh Johnson to a 5-run lead before the Padres batted, then Johnson's inability to get out of the third with the lead, Bass' huge night at the plate, Heath Bell's bad luck in the ninth, or the fact that the game ended 10 minutes before midnight.
I kept waiting for bees, rain, and Godzilla to move through the Park at the Park. Why not? The whole game seemed surreal. If you were one of the 29,201 who went yesterday you got your money's worth.
- Last night Bass became the 19th Padre pitcher ever to triple, and the first since Jake Peavy did it on April 19, 2007. He also became the 14th Padre pitcher to drive in at least 3 runs in a game. FWIW, the team record for most runs driven in by a pitcher is 4, shared by Mike Corkins (9/4/70), Tim Lollar (5/15/84), Eric Show (9/27/85), Mark Thurmond (6/8/86), and Peavy (7/26/06).
Two more thoughts on this: (a) Bass' ball got past Stanton and rolled all the way to the wall. He had a shot at an inside-the-park HR, but honored Glenn Hoffman's instruction to hold at third base. If it was you, would you have run through that stop sign? I think I would have. How many pitchers have hit an inside-the-park HR in their career since WWII?
(b) Tim Lollar hit 3 triples as a Padre and drove in at least 3 in a game runs four times. I'd forgotten how good a hitting pitcher he was.
- Having Alonso tag on a fly ball to Stanton was ridiculous. The slowest guy on the Padres against one of the best arms in the NL. The ball beat Alonso to the bag on the fly.
- I thought Venable's attempt to throw out Bonifacio in the seventh was ill-advised. Bonifacio was already around third when Venable picked up the ball, and Will was playing deep against Greg Dobbs; not to mention there were 2 out and Bonifacio was off at the crack of the bat. He had no play. The throw allowed Dobbs to take second, and subsequently score on Omar Infante's single to left.
- A lot of folks commented about it on Twitter during the game, and I agree: booing Bell when he came in was crap. Total and complete crap. The guy bled Padres brown for 4 years, wanted to stay here, and only left because the team wouldn't pay him. Boo guys like Albert Pujols who get competitive offers from their former teams and leave anyway for slightly more money; don't boo guys like Bell.
Yes, Bell blew the save, but it's not like he got tattooed during the ninth. Jesus Guzman had swung through one, and fouled off another, 93+ MPH fastball before hitting a ball just fair down the RF line. And just fair by, like, 2 feet. Cameron Maybin's double came on a check-swing and would have been a ground out to first had the infield been playing back. I'd call that some bad luck. Bell's closer position is in jeopardy.
- Dobbs takes for-EVER to get into the box. That is all.
- Everyone was ready to start the top of the 11th except for Alonso, who was nowhere to be seen. He emerged about a minute later. There's no witty comment here, I just thought it was funny.
So not only do the Padres use everyone in their bullpen (Miami used everyone but Home Run Ed) and lose in 12, but before the game we heard Cory Luebke likely needs season-ending Tommy John surgery, and during the game Huston Street left with a right posterior shoulder strain that was changed to a lat strain after the game. If Street he headed to the DL - and it's probable he is - I would expect Andrew Cashner to fleet up to the closer's spot. The hits just keep on coming for the Padres this year.
What made this game so wacky? Here's a short list:
Wild Pitches. There were 4 in the game. The wackiest had to be the wild pitch on a pitchout in the third inning by Anthony Bass, which allowed Emilio Bonifacio to reach second. I can't recall the last time I saw that happen, or if I've ever seen it at the ML level. Marlins reliever Randy Choate threw two during Chris Denorfia's AB in the seventh that pushed Andy Parrino to get all the way to third.
Balk. Jose Reyes baited Bass into a balk that allowed him to score from third and tied the game in the sixth.
Baserunning Hijinx. Three stolen bases (two by the Padres), two additional bases taken by San Diego thanks to defensive indifference, a runner picked off first by the catcher (Bonifacio, by Nick Hundley in the eleventh thanks to a timely pitchout call by Bud Black), and a runner cut down trying to advance (Yonder Alonso, by Giancarlo Stanton in the seventh).
We saw Chase Headley hit by a pitch in the first, Reyes called out on batter interference for running on the infield grass while trying to beat out a bunt in the eighth, two middle relievers hit for themselves in a one-run game, Parrino intentionally walked in consecutive at bats, and Bud Black NOT ejected from the game for arguing a strike call (I forget when that happened)
By the way, Marlin reliever Dan Jennings grounded to short in his first ML at-bat in the fourth, and fellow Marlin reliever Chad Gaudin struck out for the first time this season (he had 2 previous at-bats).
And all that's before we get to the Marlins' staking Josh Johnson to a 5-run lead before the Padres batted, then Johnson's inability to get out of the third with the lead, Bass' huge night at the plate, Heath Bell's bad luck in the ninth, or the fact that the game ended 10 minutes before midnight.
I kept waiting for bees, rain, and Godzilla to move through the Park at the Park. Why not? The whole game seemed surreal. If you were one of the 29,201 who went yesterday you got your money's worth.
- Last night Bass became the 19th Padre pitcher ever to triple, and the first since Jake Peavy did it on April 19, 2007. He also became the 14th Padre pitcher to drive in at least 3 runs in a game. FWIW, the team record for most runs driven in by a pitcher is 4, shared by Mike Corkins (9/4/70), Tim Lollar (5/15/84), Eric Show (9/27/85), Mark Thurmond (6/8/86), and Peavy (7/26/06).
Two more thoughts on this: (a) Bass' ball got past Stanton and rolled all the way to the wall. He had a shot at an inside-the-park HR, but honored Glenn Hoffman's instruction to hold at third base. If it was you, would you have run through that stop sign? I think I would have. How many pitchers have hit an inside-the-park HR in their career since WWII?
(b) Tim Lollar hit 3 triples as a Padre and drove in at least 3 in a game runs four times. I'd forgotten how good a hitting pitcher he was.
- Having Alonso tag on a fly ball to Stanton was ridiculous. The slowest guy on the Padres against one of the best arms in the NL. The ball beat Alonso to the bag on the fly.
- I thought Venable's attempt to throw out Bonifacio in the seventh was ill-advised. Bonifacio was already around third when Venable picked up the ball, and Will was playing deep against Greg Dobbs; not to mention there were 2 out and Bonifacio was off at the crack of the bat. He had no play. The throw allowed Dobbs to take second, and subsequently score on Omar Infante's single to left.
- A lot of folks commented about it on Twitter during the game, and I agree: booing Bell when he came in was crap. Total and complete crap. The guy bled Padres brown for 4 years, wanted to stay here, and only left because the team wouldn't pay him. Boo guys like Albert Pujols who get competitive offers from their former teams and leave anyway for slightly more money; don't boo guys like Bell.
Yes, Bell blew the save, but it's not like he got tattooed during the ninth. Jesus Guzman had swung through one, and fouled off another, 93+ MPH fastball before hitting a ball just fair down the RF line. And just fair by, like, 2 feet. Cameron Maybin's double came on a check-swing and would have been a ground out to first had the infield been playing back. I'd call that some bad luck. Bell's closer position is in jeopardy.
- Dobbs takes for-EVER to get into the box. That is all.
- Everyone was ready to start the top of the 11th except for Alonso, who was nowhere to be seen. He emerged about a minute later. There's no witty comment here, I just thought it was funny.
So not only do the Padres use everyone in their bullpen (Miami used everyone but Home Run Ed) and lose in 12, but before the game we heard Cory Luebke likely needs season-ending Tommy John surgery, and during the game Huston Street left with a right posterior shoulder strain that was changed to a lat strain after the game. If Street he headed to the DL - and it's probable he is - I would expect Andrew Cashner to fleet up to the closer's spot. The hits just keep on coming for the Padres this year.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Random Thoughts - Games 6 and 7
I've watched a lot of Padres baseball in the last 2 days. Let's over the highlights.
- Cory Luebke was all over the place in the first inning Wednesday, needing 43 pitches to retire the side. Some of that was due to an inconsistent strike zone from HP umpire Eric Cooper (which, incidentially, was a common theme throughout these two games), some of it because Luebke was all over the place. After walking Jason Kubel to force in Arizona's first run, he struck out Paul Goldschmidt swinging. The next 3 1/3 he struck out three more, didn't walk anyone else, and scattered 4 hits. The fact he got into the sixth inning is something of a miracle, but he did, and he held down Arizona's offense.
- Willie Bloomquist's triple in the second inning should have been a HR. I've never understood the function of those plexiglass windows placed at the end of stairwells at Petco. I had season tickets waaaay out in the LF corner a couple of years ago and the aisle right next to our seats had that window. It made it tough to see the game because the plexiglass is warped. Other than giving the usher something to lean on when standing at the bottom of the stairs I don't know why its there.
Bloomquist managed to hit the plexiglass plate in left-center, on the fly, with a batted ball struck 400 feet away. That's amazing. There is no yellow line at the top of the wall at Petco, so that plate is considered part of the wall; and since the ball struck it, it was a live ball and Bloomquist had a triple. If he'd hit the ball 4 feet either side of where it landed he'd have had a HR and they might still be playing. If the plexiglass isn't there that ball is out. Tough break for Willie.
- Nick Hundley's throw down to second in the first inning was one of the most ridiculous ones you'll ever see. Hundley had two options on that play. He could either eat the ball and give up the stolen base without a play, or try to throw it down. Because the pitch was low, away, and breaking away from him, his momentum pulled him into the LH hitter's box and he didn't have time to get on top of the ball. Apparently just after he let it go he thought "Oh S*!t" knowing he'd uncorked a wild throw to second.
- The Padres really only hit Joe Saunders hard in one inning - the seventh, his last inning. Kyle Blanks had a hard single, Orlando Hudson lined into a tough-luck double play, and Andy Parrino lined out to right. Other than a pair of line drives by Guzman (one for a single, one for an out), the Padres didn't hit it all that hard.
- I didn't think Chris Denorfia's ball would get out. It didn't appear to be hit well enough, but it kept carrying and carrying and carrying. Then the other bizarre play in this game happened - Diamondbacks CF Chris Young jumped up to try and catch the ball, but he clipped the wall on his way up knocking his glove off his hand. The glove kept going upward and was struck by the ball on its way down. In slow motion on Fox Sports SD it looked very cool.
Padres pulled it out to win 2-1. Arizona kind of gave that game away, having left the bases loaded twice and 11 guys on overall. The game featured 10 walks, 12 strikeouts, and 5 pitching changes. Two hours and 58 minutes of fun.
By contrast, tonight's game featured 6 walks, 20 strikeouts, and 8 pitching changes. Three hours and 2 minutes to play a 3-1 game. If you want to live forever go to a Padres game because they take forever. I'm the biggest baseball fan I know but these two games were excruciating to watch.
- I'm also the biggest Jesus Guzman homer this side of his mom, but he had a lousy game tonight. Three strikeouts at the plate, and a fly ball he misplayed into a double. Guzman broke the wrong way initially, charged in far enough to catch it, then had the ball kick off his glove as he slid trying to catch it.
San Diego has made at least one error in 5 of their 7 games so far. Yeech.
- The sad thing about this game is the Padres came out on fire. Cameron Maybin's leadoff triple was crushed, as were the singles that followed it by Will Venable and Chase Headley. I could watch Maybin run all day, by the way. Love the chicken wing. But after Guzman struck out looking for the first out, the Padres kind of went all flat. After that they got a 1-out double from Jason Bartlett in the second, and a two-out single from Yonder Alonso in the sixth. That was their offense.
As an aside, HP umpire Marty Foster's strike zone was just as inconsistent as Cooper's was the night before. Not inconsistent during an at-bat, but definitely inconsistent from at-bat to at-bat. On several occasions a pitch called a strike to one hitter was a ball to a later hitter. Hitters on both teams were frustrated throughout these two games.
- Gotta love it when you get to see the 5-2-4 double play. Also both games featured a rundown, which is always cool (Parrino picked off first 1-3-4-3, and Anthony Bass' great play on Lyle Overbay's drive up the middle that led to a 1-5-6 put out on Chris Young).
- Bartlett airmailed the throw to first that eventually led to the unearned run which won the game. I don't know if Alonso could have caught that ball in any situation. He didn't jump for it, which is true, but the throw landed 3 rows deep in the stands on the fly. Not sure he had any play on that throw.
- Bass pitched pretty well despite not surviving the fifth. He had some tough luck in that fifth; had Guzman made the play on that fly to left Bass might have gotten out of the inning unscathed.
- Young's HR in the seventh was crushed, a line shot into the fans down the LF line. Nice, easy swing, dropping the head of the bat onto the ball. Since it was coming in at 98 MPH he didn't need to do too much with it.
San Diego finishes their opening homestand 2-5. Last year they went 3-5 on their first homestand. They head up to LA and out to Denver for this 6-game road trip. They've used everyone in the pen during the last 2 games, but only Josh Spence in both, and he threw only 1 pitch tonight. Tomorrow's game is a rematch of Sunday's game.
- Cory Luebke was all over the place in the first inning Wednesday, needing 43 pitches to retire the side. Some of that was due to an inconsistent strike zone from HP umpire Eric Cooper (which, incidentially, was a common theme throughout these two games), some of it because Luebke was all over the place. After walking Jason Kubel to force in Arizona's first run, he struck out Paul Goldschmidt swinging. The next 3 1/3 he struck out three more, didn't walk anyone else, and scattered 4 hits. The fact he got into the sixth inning is something of a miracle, but he did, and he held down Arizona's offense.
- Willie Bloomquist's triple in the second inning should have been a HR. I've never understood the function of those plexiglass windows placed at the end of stairwells at Petco. I had season tickets waaaay out in the LF corner a couple of years ago and the aisle right next to our seats had that window. It made it tough to see the game because the plexiglass is warped. Other than giving the usher something to lean on when standing at the bottom of the stairs I don't know why its there.
Bloomquist managed to hit the plexiglass plate in left-center, on the fly, with a batted ball struck 400 feet away. That's amazing. There is no yellow line at the top of the wall at Petco, so that plate is considered part of the wall; and since the ball struck it, it was a live ball and Bloomquist had a triple. If he'd hit the ball 4 feet either side of where it landed he'd have had a HR and they might still be playing. If the plexiglass isn't there that ball is out. Tough break for Willie.
- Nick Hundley's throw down to second in the first inning was one of the most ridiculous ones you'll ever see. Hundley had two options on that play. He could either eat the ball and give up the stolen base without a play, or try to throw it down. Because the pitch was low, away, and breaking away from him, his momentum pulled him into the LH hitter's box and he didn't have time to get on top of the ball. Apparently just after he let it go he thought "Oh S*!t" knowing he'd uncorked a wild throw to second.
- The Padres really only hit Joe Saunders hard in one inning - the seventh, his last inning. Kyle Blanks had a hard single, Orlando Hudson lined into a tough-luck double play, and Andy Parrino lined out to right. Other than a pair of line drives by Guzman (one for a single, one for an out), the Padres didn't hit it all that hard.
- I didn't think Chris Denorfia's ball would get out. It didn't appear to be hit well enough, but it kept carrying and carrying and carrying. Then the other bizarre play in this game happened - Diamondbacks CF Chris Young jumped up to try and catch the ball, but he clipped the wall on his way up knocking his glove off his hand. The glove kept going upward and was struck by the ball on its way down. In slow motion on Fox Sports SD it looked very cool.
Padres pulled it out to win 2-1. Arizona kind of gave that game away, having left the bases loaded twice and 11 guys on overall. The game featured 10 walks, 12 strikeouts, and 5 pitching changes. Two hours and 58 minutes of fun.
By contrast, tonight's game featured 6 walks, 20 strikeouts, and 8 pitching changes. Three hours and 2 minutes to play a 3-1 game. If you want to live forever go to a Padres game because they take forever. I'm the biggest baseball fan I know but these two games were excruciating to watch.
- I'm also the biggest Jesus Guzman homer this side of his mom, but he had a lousy game tonight. Three strikeouts at the plate, and a fly ball he misplayed into a double. Guzman broke the wrong way initially, charged in far enough to catch it, then had the ball kick off his glove as he slid trying to catch it.
San Diego has made at least one error in 5 of their 7 games so far. Yeech.
- The sad thing about this game is the Padres came out on fire. Cameron Maybin's leadoff triple was crushed, as were the singles that followed it by Will Venable and Chase Headley. I could watch Maybin run all day, by the way. Love the chicken wing. But after Guzman struck out looking for the first out, the Padres kind of went all flat. After that they got a 1-out double from Jason Bartlett in the second, and a two-out single from Yonder Alonso in the sixth. That was their offense.
As an aside, HP umpire Marty Foster's strike zone was just as inconsistent as Cooper's was the night before. Not inconsistent during an at-bat, but definitely inconsistent from at-bat to at-bat. On several occasions a pitch called a strike to one hitter was a ball to a later hitter. Hitters on both teams were frustrated throughout these two games.
- Gotta love it when you get to see the 5-2-4 double play. Also both games featured a rundown, which is always cool (Parrino picked off first 1-3-4-3, and Anthony Bass' great play on Lyle Overbay's drive up the middle that led to a 1-5-6 put out on Chris Young).
- Bartlett airmailed the throw to first that eventually led to the unearned run which won the game. I don't know if Alonso could have caught that ball in any situation. He didn't jump for it, which is true, but the throw landed 3 rows deep in the stands on the fly. Not sure he had any play on that throw.
- Bass pitched pretty well despite not surviving the fifth. He had some tough luck in that fifth; had Guzman made the play on that fly to left Bass might have gotten out of the inning unscathed.
- Young's HR in the seventh was crushed, a line shot into the fans down the LF line. Nice, easy swing, dropping the head of the bat onto the ball. Since it was coming in at 98 MPH he didn't need to do too much with it.
San Diego finishes their opening homestand 2-5. Last year they went 3-5 on their first homestand. They head up to LA and out to Denver for this 6-game road trip. They've used everyone in the pen during the last 2 games, but only Josh Spence in both, and he threw only 1 pitch tonight. Tomorrow's game is a rematch of Sunday's game.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Random Thoughts on Game 4
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| Congrats Kid. (Denis Poroy/Getty Images) |
- Sunday's attendance was announced at 19,021. My first thought was 'Wow, for a Dodger game on a Sunday that's a really small crowd. Guess people really are pissed off about the ownership and TV deal soap opera'. Well that's not really the case. I went back to 2005 and looked at the Padres schedule.
They've played on Easter Sunday five times (including this Sunday); in 2005, 2008, and 2010 Easter fell on a Sunday prior to the start of the regular season. The 2006 game was played in Atlanta, but the 2007, 2009, 2011, and this year's were played at home. Here's the attendance figures for those 4 games:
- 2007: Win 2-1 (10), 27,086
- 2009: Win 6-1, 19,415
- 2011: Loss 1-3, 24,031
- 2012: Win 8-4, 19,021
- 2006: Padres finish 88-74, win NL West
- 2008: Padres finish 63-99, last in NL West
- 2011: Padres finish 90-72, miss playoffs by one game
- 2012: Padres finish 71-91, last in NL West
- Matt Treanor crushed a ball in the third inning that died in LC (caught by Cameron Maybin on the track). Venable hit a ball even further leading off the bottom of that same inning only to have Andre Ethier run it down at the wall near the 401 sign. Cue the 'bring in the fences' music. Then Andy Parrino launches a shot into the Padres bullpen to give the team a 4-0 lead. That ball didn't look like it was hit as well as Venable's, yet it kept going and going. Matt Kemp later snuck a ball out just beyond Maybin's reach in dead center, and Chase Headley hit his ball into the second deck in left to blow the game open.
That's 3 HR and 2 almosts in this game. Maybe the Padres should play all their games at home under the sun. Check this out:
Home record in day games, 2004-2012: 94-83 (.531)
Overall record at home, 2004-2012: 336-316 (.516)
Just sayin'.
- Jesus Guzman snubbed the Marine Drill Instructor waiting for him in LF. Now, to be fair, he shook the hand of the DI waiting at shortstop for Jason Bartlett, but then he ran into LC and started warming up, ignoring the gentleman standing there. Maybe he didn't see him - that particular SSGT was standing just beyond the infield near third base - but it's not like this is a new event on Sundays at Petco.
If his personal politics are such that he doesn't support the American military actions in progress around the globe, that's fine; but shake the man's hand, at least. He's just an instrument of the policy, not the formulator of it.
Speaking of military Sundays, why is it always the USMC who gets to run onto the field before the game to greet the Padres? Last I checked, Commander Surface Forces US Pacific Fleet was headquartered at 32nd street, Commander Naval Air Forces at Naval Air Station North Island, and there's a whole squadron of Submarines moored at Point Loma. We can't find 9 First Class or Chief Petty Officers to run onto the field?
Of course, watching some 'robust' CPO amble onto the field with a coffee cup in one hand and a cigarette in the other would be hilarious, at least to me.
- I forgot how fast Clayton Richard works. He breezed through the first 3 innings. 10 pitches each in the first 2 innings, and 14 in the third. In his last inning (seventh) he threw 6 pitches. Get the ball and throw it - nice.
The game would have been a lot shorter if not for the 8 walks, 1 hit batsman, and 4 pitching changes the Dodgers did.
- My gosh the Padres defense has been awful so far. Another 3 errors on Sunday, which included a dropped fly ball (Venable), a 'I closed my glove too fast' (Richard), and a bad throw to first (also Richard). I don't know why pitchers try to finesse the ball to first on a bunt or roller to the mound. I'm in the Joaquin Andujar school of baseball: FIRE the ball to first if you have to make a throw. Why change your mindset? You don't need to wind up, but don't throw an eephus pitch over there either.
- One more Guzman note: Jesus has hit in every game this season. It continues to baffle me how the team's best returning power hitter from 2011 will become a utility player in 2012 once Carlos Quentin returns from the DL. He has to play every day. And those who say his glove isn't good enough: San Diego made 8 errors in this 4-game series. How could he be any worse than what's been run out there so far?
Padres resume their homestand against Arizona tonight.
When I'm in the park the Padres are 1-0. Clearly the 2 are connected.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Game Reflections - #162 vs Cubs
It's been an emotional roller-coaster of a last 24 hours. Three ridiculously tense elimination games stretched the drama out for almost 3 hours, and then today Geoff Young announces he's hanging them up.
What will tomorrow bring?
We have one more Game Reflection to go, as I was at last night's game. Then, back to the GM series (no really - they are going to happen; it's not just a tease). Padres won last night 9-2.
- Cameron Maybin stole his 40th base last night, a third inning swipe of third with two out. He became the ninth Padre to steal at least that many and the first Padre to do so since Dave Roberts in 2006. The milestone was important to him and congratulations are appropriate for acheiving it. In terms of pure baseball, however, there was no reason to steal that bag. With two out, he would have been running on any pitch hit into play, and with his speed, he would have scored easily from second on a base hit to the outfield. I guess these are the things that happen during the last game of the season.
- Chase Headley's strikeout to end the third, and Will Venable's strikeout for the second out of the eighth, should be credited to home plate umpire Mark Ripperger. Why? Because the 3-1 pitch Ripperger called a strike was a ball. It was off the plate outside, and had been called a ball pretty consistently by Ripperger to that point. Headley swung and missed a 3-2 pitch in the same spot (also a ball). Same thing happened to Will Venable on a 3-0 pitch. He swung at a 3-2 pitch that was ball because the same pitch was a strike 3-0. When people get irritated by inconsistent umpiring, this is what they're talking about.
- The fourth inning ended with a caught stealing of home, but it wasn't a true caught stealing of home. Wade LeBlanc picked off Cub speedster Tony Campana with the third consecutive throw over. During that rundown, Lou Montanez broke for the plate, and the Padres tagged him out. I love rundowns, because you get cool sequences of numbers when the out is recorded. This play went 1-3-6-2-5-3.
- Ryan Dempster was cruising right along until he walked LeBlanc on 5 pitches. Then the wheels came off. Double to Maybin, walk to Venable, 3-Run shot to Nick Hundley. The 3-2 pitch Hundley hit out was RIGHT down the middle; I mean, it couldn't have been set on a tee in a more advantageous hitting position. Dempster wobbled through the 4th, although to be fair his defense betrayed him, kicking a sure double-play ball; recovered for a strong fifth, then started getting tagged in the sixth. I was very surprised Cub manager Mike Quade left him in there for 119 pitches.
- Venable ended the drama in this game with a Grand Slam in the sixth, Dempster's last pitch. It was the only grand slam hit by the Padres this year at Petco, and brings us to an interesting stat. San Diego (by my count) has hit 12 home grand slams since Petco Park opened in 2004 (they're buried in this list). That's not what's interesting, here is what is: last night marked only the second time since Petco opened that the home team has hit a 3-R HR and a grand slam in the same game. The other time? September 17, 2005, the night the first grand slam was hit at Petco by a Padre. Ramon Hernandez hit the 3-run shot and Khalil Greene the slam.
Once Venable's HR left the ballpark the scoreboard watching started in earnest. I don't have to explain what that was like, as it's all over the internet today. An incredible night of baseball. The funniest thing about it to me is the sequence of games. St Louis/Houston was the last of the 4 wild card impact games to start and the first one to finish, thanks to Chris Carpenter's 11-strikeout complete game. Philadelphia/Atlanta, Boston/Baltimore, and New York/Tampa Bay all ended within 25 minutes of each other, or, in different units of measure, while I was walking across the parking lot, while I was on the freeway headed home, and while I was turning onto my street. If the playoffs bring half that much tension to the table, it will be an exciting 2011 post-season.
We can only hope.
What will tomorrow bring?
We have one more Game Reflection to go, as I was at last night's game. Then, back to the GM series (no really - they are going to happen; it's not just a tease). Padres won last night 9-2.
- Cameron Maybin stole his 40th base last night, a third inning swipe of third with two out. He became the ninth Padre to steal at least that many and the first Padre to do so since Dave Roberts in 2006. The milestone was important to him and congratulations are appropriate for acheiving it. In terms of pure baseball, however, there was no reason to steal that bag. With two out, he would have been running on any pitch hit into play, and with his speed, he would have scored easily from second on a base hit to the outfield. I guess these are the things that happen during the last game of the season.
- Chase Headley's strikeout to end the third, and Will Venable's strikeout for the second out of the eighth, should be credited to home plate umpire Mark Ripperger. Why? Because the 3-1 pitch Ripperger called a strike was a ball. It was off the plate outside, and had been called a ball pretty consistently by Ripperger to that point. Headley swung and missed a 3-2 pitch in the same spot (also a ball). Same thing happened to Will Venable on a 3-0 pitch. He swung at a 3-2 pitch that was ball because the same pitch was a strike 3-0. When people get irritated by inconsistent umpiring, this is what they're talking about.
- The fourth inning ended with a caught stealing of home, but it wasn't a true caught stealing of home. Wade LeBlanc picked off Cub speedster Tony Campana with the third consecutive throw over. During that rundown, Lou Montanez broke for the plate, and the Padres tagged him out. I love rundowns, because you get cool sequences of numbers when the out is recorded. This play went 1-3-6-2-5-3.
- Ryan Dempster was cruising right along until he walked LeBlanc on 5 pitches. Then the wheels came off. Double to Maybin, walk to Venable, 3-Run shot to Nick Hundley. The 3-2 pitch Hundley hit out was RIGHT down the middle; I mean, it couldn't have been set on a tee in a more advantageous hitting position. Dempster wobbled through the 4th, although to be fair his defense betrayed him, kicking a sure double-play ball; recovered for a strong fifth, then started getting tagged in the sixth. I was very surprised Cub manager Mike Quade left him in there for 119 pitches.
- Venable ended the drama in this game with a Grand Slam in the sixth, Dempster's last pitch. It was the only grand slam hit by the Padres this year at Petco, and brings us to an interesting stat. San Diego (by my count) has hit 12 home grand slams since Petco Park opened in 2004 (they're buried in this list). That's not what's interesting, here is what is: last night marked only the second time since Petco opened that the home team has hit a 3-R HR and a grand slam in the same game. The other time? September 17, 2005, the night the first grand slam was hit at Petco by a Padre. Ramon Hernandez hit the 3-run shot and Khalil Greene the slam.
Once Venable's HR left the ballpark the scoreboard watching started in earnest. I don't have to explain what that was like, as it's all over the internet today. An incredible night of baseball. The funniest thing about it to me is the sequence of games. St Louis/Houston was the last of the 4 wild card impact games to start and the first one to finish, thanks to Chris Carpenter's 11-strikeout complete game. Philadelphia/Atlanta, Boston/Baltimore, and New York/Tampa Bay all ended within 25 minutes of each other, or, in different units of measure, while I was walking across the parking lot, while I was on the freeway headed home, and while I was turning onto my street. If the playoffs bring half that much tension to the table, it will be an exciting 2011 post-season.
We can only hope.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Game Reflections - #157 vs Dodgers
Yeah a little behind on the GM series. We'll get back to that. Tonight I sat through a 2 hour 43 minute 2-0 game. There should be a law against games in which 8 runners are stranded and 2 runs scored cannot last more than 2 hours 15 minutes.
Anyway, some random thoughts.
- Why in the world did Anthony Rizzo not start this game? Rizzo has actually had the most success against lefthanded starters (.194 batting average). Yeah that's still below the Mendoza Line, but still. One would think a guy with his long swing would match up pretty well against a guy who throws a lot of junk. Besides, Rizzo has demonstrated better plate discipline than Alberto Gonzalez has this season.
- Gonzalez looked absolutely flummoxed up there against Ted Lilly. After he looked at two curve balls and swung at a pitch in the dirt for strike 3 in the second inning, all I could think of was Pedro Cerrano. He popped to first and tapped out weakly to Lilly in his other 2 ABs versus the Dodger lefty.
- Dodgers had 2 extra base hits. Both of them came around to score. Padres were oh-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
- Did you know Matt Kemp has a shot at the triple crown? I didn't. After his 426' HR to the deepest part of Petco, he is tied for the league lead in HR, leads the league in RBI, and trails Ryan Braun/Jose Reyes in AVG by .002. Sabermetrics has taken a lot of the luster out of 2/3 of those statistics, but if he does something no NL hitter has done in 74 years? That's pretty special.
- Wade LeBlanc dominated as he has not dominated since pitching against the Phillies way back in May. He struck out 10, including the side looking in the seventh following Kemp's HR. The high strikeout total may have been helped by all the AAA hitters in the Dodger lineup...
- Three of the first 5 Dodger hitters tried to bunt. Only one of those was a sacrifice attempt to move a runner over. Weird.
- I didn't see the balk play clearly, but I will say it is unusual in my experience for the home plate umpire to call a balk, unless it is because the pitcher flinched, i.e., started then stopped his windup. LeBlanc didn't flinch. Neither the second nor first base umpires thought it was a balk, and first base umpire Todd Tichenor had the best angle.
- Speaking of Angel Hernandez, Friday's home plate umpire, his strike zone was ridiculous and inconsistent. It looked to me some of his inconsistency on outside pitches derived directly from how the catcher caught the ball. If the catcher set up off the outside corner and the pitcher hit his glove, even if it was a ball, they generally got the strike call. If the catcher set up somewhere else and the pitch missed the target (like for example, he sets up inside and the pitch is outside so he has to reach across to catch it), even if the pitch was a strike Hernandez called it a ball.
Fully 24 of the 54 total outs were by strikeout. That's 45% of all the outs in this game. Of those, a third were looking. Ted Lilly strikes out about 7 hitters per 9 innings. He did that tonight in 6 and 1/3.Wade LeBlanc strikes out about 5 per 9. Tonight he struck out 10 in 7. Methinks an inconsistent strike zone had a lot to do with that.
- Aaron Cunningham made a bad baserunning play with one out in the seventh, trying to advance to third on a ground ball to third. Ultimately it didn't matter - Jeremy Hermida walked, so the Padres had runners on first and second with two out anyway - but it was still a bonehead play. He should have waited until Dodger 3B Justin Sellers went to first before taking off for third.
Padres need to win all their remaining games to avoid losing 90 this season. No odds will be given on that happening.
Anyway, some random thoughts.
- Why in the world did Anthony Rizzo not start this game? Rizzo has actually had the most success against lefthanded starters (.194 batting average). Yeah that's still below the Mendoza Line, but still. One would think a guy with his long swing would match up pretty well against a guy who throws a lot of junk. Besides, Rizzo has demonstrated better plate discipline than Alberto Gonzalez has this season.
- Gonzalez looked absolutely flummoxed up there against Ted Lilly. After he looked at two curve balls and swung at a pitch in the dirt for strike 3 in the second inning, all I could think of was Pedro Cerrano. He popped to first and tapped out weakly to Lilly in his other 2 ABs versus the Dodger lefty.
- Dodgers had 2 extra base hits. Both of them came around to score. Padres were oh-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
- Did you know Matt Kemp has a shot at the triple crown? I didn't. After his 426' HR to the deepest part of Petco, he is tied for the league lead in HR, leads the league in RBI, and trails Ryan Braun/Jose Reyes in AVG by .002. Sabermetrics has taken a lot of the luster out of 2/3 of those statistics, but if he does something no NL hitter has done in 74 years? That's pretty special.
- Wade LeBlanc dominated as he has not dominated since pitching against the Phillies way back in May. He struck out 10, including the side looking in the seventh following Kemp's HR. The high strikeout total may have been helped by all the AAA hitters in the Dodger lineup...
- Three of the first 5 Dodger hitters tried to bunt. Only one of those was a sacrifice attempt to move a runner over. Weird.
- I didn't see the balk play clearly, but I will say it is unusual in my experience for the home plate umpire to call a balk, unless it is because the pitcher flinched, i.e., started then stopped his windup. LeBlanc didn't flinch. Neither the second nor first base umpires thought it was a balk, and first base umpire Todd Tichenor had the best angle.
- Speaking of Angel Hernandez, Friday's home plate umpire, his strike zone was ridiculous and inconsistent. It looked to me some of his inconsistency on outside pitches derived directly from how the catcher caught the ball. If the catcher set up off the outside corner and the pitcher hit his glove, even if it was a ball, they generally got the strike call. If the catcher set up somewhere else and the pitch missed the target (like for example, he sets up inside and the pitch is outside so he has to reach across to catch it), even if the pitch was a strike Hernandez called it a ball.
Fully 24 of the 54 total outs were by strikeout. That's 45% of all the outs in this game. Of those, a third were looking. Ted Lilly strikes out about 7 hitters per 9 innings. He did that tonight in 6 and 1/3.Wade LeBlanc strikes out about 5 per 9. Tonight he struck out 10 in 7. Methinks an inconsistent strike zone had a lot to do with that.
- Aaron Cunningham made a bad baserunning play with one out in the seventh, trying to advance to third on a ground ball to third. Ultimately it didn't matter - Jeremy Hermida walked, so the Padres had runners on first and second with two out anyway - but it was still a bonehead play. He should have waited until Dodger 3B Justin Sellers went to first before taking off for third.
Padres need to win all their remaining games to avoid losing 90 this season. No odds will be given on that happening.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Game Reflections - #152 vs Diamondbacks
Tonight's game took 2:31, and 3 of the 4 runs scored were via solo home run. Not a whole lot to talk about, but I have some thoughts on the limited action.
- Had a chance to talk with David Garcia before the game. Well actually Mr. Garcia talked and I listened. His baseball reference page talks about his 6-year managerial career, and that is only the tip of the iceberg. He's been in the game for over 70 years, the vast majority of which spent as a scout. I wish I had more than 25 minutes with him.
- Wonder why Josh Collmenter has such an awkward motion? He learned to throw an ax before throwing a baseball. Rumor has it he was a Michigan state champion in ax-throwing.
- Andy Parrino walks to the plate to Iron Man. I like to think it's the Ozzy Osbourne version. I do believe I'm an Andy Parrino fan.
- Orlando Hudson suffers from a lot of mental lapses. Apparently last night he lost the handle on the ball while attempting to throw Justin Upton out at first, then lay on the ground while the ball rolled away from him. Upton ended up at second, gifted a double. Earlier in the year he did the same thing after Troy Tulowitzki's low line drive glanced off his glove and rolled away. Tonight it appeared he missed a hit-and-run sign and hung Nick Hundley out to dry - caught stealing 2-6-3. He's a former All-Star in the 152nd game of the season - why does this stuff happen? Hudson did homer later in the at-bat to give the Padres the lead.
- Starter Wade LeBlanc had an odd line - 103 pitches thrown, 53 strikes. He got hit hard in the first inning, which is a trend. He's allowed 8 first inning earned runs this season, and 16 ER to teams the first time through the order (of 37 total allowed). On this night, however, LeBlanc gutted through 6 innings, allowing only that first inning home run to Aaron Hill.
- Odd line of the night. Chris Young of Arizona saw 14 pitches from 3 different pitchers. One strike. And he just missed that strike, hitting a 'home run in a silo' off Gregerson that went as a pop-up to short. I can't remember the last time I saw a hitter walk 3 times in a game on 12 pitches.
- At one point, there was a Qualls and a Ziegler pitching against each other. When was the last time the pitching matchup was a guy who's last name started with a 'Q' facing a guy who's last name started with a 'Z'?
- Four caught stealings in the game, although one was of the picked-off-caught-stealing variety.
- Finally the double play Anthony Rizzo started to end the fifth. He made a nice play on the ground ball from Parra as it reached the bag, but his throw was sublime. He threw it so it pulled Jason Bartlett's glove to the feet of John McDonald, who was running from first to second on the play. If he doesn't throw that ball that way McDonald is likely safe. Superb defensive play.
San Diego goes for its first series sweep since taking four from Florida almost a month ago.
- Had a chance to talk with David Garcia before the game. Well actually Mr. Garcia talked and I listened. His baseball reference page talks about his 6-year managerial career, and that is only the tip of the iceberg. He's been in the game for over 70 years, the vast majority of which spent as a scout. I wish I had more than 25 minutes with him.
- Wonder why Josh Collmenter has such an awkward motion? He learned to throw an ax before throwing a baseball. Rumor has it he was a Michigan state champion in ax-throwing.
- Andy Parrino walks to the plate to Iron Man. I like to think it's the Ozzy Osbourne version. I do believe I'm an Andy Parrino fan.
- Orlando Hudson suffers from a lot of mental lapses. Apparently last night he lost the handle on the ball while attempting to throw Justin Upton out at first, then lay on the ground while the ball rolled away from him. Upton ended up at second, gifted a double. Earlier in the year he did the same thing after Troy Tulowitzki's low line drive glanced off his glove and rolled away. Tonight it appeared he missed a hit-and-run sign and hung Nick Hundley out to dry - caught stealing 2-6-3. He's a former All-Star in the 152nd game of the season - why does this stuff happen? Hudson did homer later in the at-bat to give the Padres the lead.
- Starter Wade LeBlanc had an odd line - 103 pitches thrown, 53 strikes. He got hit hard in the first inning, which is a trend. He's allowed 8 first inning earned runs this season, and 16 ER to teams the first time through the order (of 37 total allowed). On this night, however, LeBlanc gutted through 6 innings, allowing only that first inning home run to Aaron Hill.
- Odd line of the night. Chris Young of Arizona saw 14 pitches from 3 different pitchers. One strike. And he just missed that strike, hitting a 'home run in a silo' off Gregerson that went as a pop-up to short. I can't remember the last time I saw a hitter walk 3 times in a game on 12 pitches.
- At one point, there was a Qualls and a Ziegler pitching against each other. When was the last time the pitching matchup was a guy who's last name started with a 'Q' facing a guy who's last name started with a 'Z'?
- Four caught stealings in the game, although one was of the picked-off-caught-stealing variety.
- Finally the double play Anthony Rizzo started to end the fifth. He made a nice play on the ground ball from Parra as it reached the bag, but his throw was sublime. He threw it so it pulled Jason Bartlett's glove to the feet of John McDonald, who was running from first to second on the play. If he doesn't throw that ball that way McDonald is likely safe. Superb defensive play.
San Diego goes for its first series sweep since taking four from Florida almost a month ago.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Game Reflections - #141 vs Giants
Another game, another 10+ strikeout day for a Giant pitcher. This game was closer, and not as close, as the 7-2 final would suggest. Hard to believe, but true.
- Pablo Sandoval hit the longest HR I've seen at Petco this year with 2 out in the first - 436' to the beach in deep RC. Two innings later he followed up with a moonshot to RF. It's worth wondering what has happened to Tim Stauffer. In his last 31 innings he's been torched, including 12 HR allowed. His 173 2/3 IP this season is more than double the most innings he'd ever thrown at the major league level. Fatigue maybe?
- Stauffer did hang on to finish six innings. I was mildly surprised Bud Black didn't pinch hit for him in the fourth with Chris Denorfia at third and two out. At that point the score was 4-1. Faced with a similar decision on Saturday afternoon Black also chose to stay with Cory Luebke. At least Stauffer went out and pitched two more effective innings; Luebke got lit up in the fifth inning Saturday and was removed.
- Welcome Back Chris Denorfia. The first three balls he hit were hammered, including his double to deep CF in the fourth which missed being a HR by about 5 feet. However, when he struck out against Santiago Casilla in the ninth it meant every Padre hitter struck out at least once on the afternoon. And that does include the lone pinch hitter (Aaron Cunningham).
- Maybe it's me, but it seems every time Cunningham hits he either strikes out or pops up.
- The 4-1 score held through the seventh, which is why I said at the top the game seemed closer than it was. Giant starter Madison Bumgarner retired 12 in a row after Denorfia's double in the fourth, broken by Bartlett's soft single to CF in the eighth, which is why I said at the top the game seemed not as close as it was.
- The top of the eighth is one of the more surreal innings of the year. Newly acquired reliever Jeff Fulchino walked Andres Torres on 5 pitches. Torres stole second, Jeff Keppinger signed softly to center, Fulchino's 1-0 pitch to Sandoval found the backstop sending Keppinger to second. Sandoval was walked intentionally. After getting Darren Ford to hit into a force out (Torres retired 4-2), Cody Ross hit the next pitch into the LF corner for a 2-run double. Cue the RAIN, and Black taking Fulchino out. Josh Spence walks Brandon Belt; Brad Brach walks Mark Derosa, forcing in a run; the second runner is retired at the plate on Chris Stewart's ground ball to third; and Bumgarner strikes out looking to end the inning.
So four walks (one intentional), three pitching changes (including Fulchino relieving Andrew Carpenter to start the inning), two runners retired at the plate, and a rain squall. Surreal. It sounds better if you sing it to 'A Partridge in a Pear Tree'.
Yesterday's game was the 10th time this season a starting pitcher has rung up at least 10 Padres in a game. It's the second time a Giant has done it; it's the second time said Giant has struck out 13. Tim Lincecum fanned 13 on April 6, the fifth game of the year; San Diego was 3-1 going into that game. Seems like a very long time ago.
Eric Surkamp will make his second career start tonight against Wade LeBlanc. LeBlanc has only faced the Giants once at Petco; he won that night.
It would have helped if I had looked at my notes before I finalized this post. Some other things from yesterday's game that I meant to mention:
- Belt rolled a single to RF in the second, sending Ross to third. Jesus Guzman didn't even flinch as the ball went through the infield. It is entirely possible he had no play on the ball - it was to his right, he was holding Ross at first - however the ball rolled closer to him than it did to Hudson, who ran a long way and couldn't get it. I've played a little 1B in my time; I was surprised Guzman didn't move at all.
- Denorfia might have had a play on Ross at the plate in the third inning, but the ball slipped out of his grasp on the exchange from glove to hand so that went by the boards. He then had a play on Brandon Crawford at first (Crawford had taken a wide turn), but his throw to Hudson (who alertly came over to cover first) was a bit behind him and he couldn't get back to tag Crawford in time. Tough play.
- Torres should have scored on Fulchino's wild pitch in the eighth. The ball ended up kicking all the way to the camera well next to the Padres dugout. No idea what Torres was thinking on that play.
- I think Kyle Blanks got an off-speed pitch on a 2-0 count in the first inning, but it was middle-out on the plate and he fouled it straight back off the end of the bat. He might have been off-balance because he was expecting a fastball, but it really looked like he was trying to pull it. I said it before but it bears repeating - Blanks desperately needs to learn to take that outside pitch the other way and not try to pull everything. I can't understand why any pitcher would ever pitch him inside since he can't handle the outside pitch.
- Jason Bartlett almost lined into an other 5-3 DP in the third inning. It would have been the second time in 3 days that had happened to him, but this time the baserunner (Cameron Maybin) managed to get back. Talk about hitting in tough luck. Maybin inadvertently caught Aubrey Huff's glove hand under his body as he dove back in; Huff came up in obvious pain and eventually left the game because of it.
- Bumgarner set a career high for strikeouts yesterday.
- Pablo Sandoval hit the longest HR I've seen at Petco this year with 2 out in the first - 436' to the beach in deep RC. Two innings later he followed up with a moonshot to RF. It's worth wondering what has happened to Tim Stauffer. In his last 31 innings he's been torched, including 12 HR allowed. His 173 2/3 IP this season is more than double the most innings he'd ever thrown at the major league level. Fatigue maybe?
- Stauffer did hang on to finish six innings. I was mildly surprised Bud Black didn't pinch hit for him in the fourth with Chris Denorfia at third and two out. At that point the score was 4-1. Faced with a similar decision on Saturday afternoon Black also chose to stay with Cory Luebke. At least Stauffer went out and pitched two more effective innings; Luebke got lit up in the fifth inning Saturday and was removed.
- Welcome Back Chris Denorfia. The first three balls he hit were hammered, including his double to deep CF in the fourth which missed being a HR by about 5 feet. However, when he struck out against Santiago Casilla in the ninth it meant every Padre hitter struck out at least once on the afternoon. And that does include the lone pinch hitter (Aaron Cunningham).
- Maybe it's me, but it seems every time Cunningham hits he either strikes out or pops up.
- The 4-1 score held through the seventh, which is why I said at the top the game seemed closer than it was. Giant starter Madison Bumgarner retired 12 in a row after Denorfia's double in the fourth, broken by Bartlett's soft single to CF in the eighth, which is why I said at the top the game seemed not as close as it was.
- The top of the eighth is one of the more surreal innings of the year. Newly acquired reliever Jeff Fulchino walked Andres Torres on 5 pitches. Torres stole second, Jeff Keppinger signed softly to center, Fulchino's 1-0 pitch to Sandoval found the backstop sending Keppinger to second. Sandoval was walked intentionally. After getting Darren Ford to hit into a force out (Torres retired 4-2), Cody Ross hit the next pitch into the LF corner for a 2-run double. Cue the RAIN, and Black taking Fulchino out. Josh Spence walks Brandon Belt; Brad Brach walks Mark Derosa, forcing in a run; the second runner is retired at the plate on Chris Stewart's ground ball to third; and Bumgarner strikes out looking to end the inning.
So four walks (one intentional), three pitching changes (including Fulchino relieving Andrew Carpenter to start the inning), two runners retired at the plate, and a rain squall. Surreal. It sounds better if you sing it to 'A Partridge in a Pear Tree'.
Yesterday's game was the 10th time this season a starting pitcher has rung up at least 10 Padres in a game. It's the second time a Giant has done it; it's the second time said Giant has struck out 13. Tim Lincecum fanned 13 on April 6, the fifth game of the year; San Diego was 3-1 going into that game. Seems like a very long time ago.
Eric Surkamp will make his second career start tonight against Wade LeBlanc. LeBlanc has only faced the Giants once at Petco; he won that night.
It would have helped if I had looked at my notes before I finalized this post. Some other things from yesterday's game that I meant to mention:
- Belt rolled a single to RF in the second, sending Ross to third. Jesus Guzman didn't even flinch as the ball went through the infield. It is entirely possible he had no play on the ball - it was to his right, he was holding Ross at first - however the ball rolled closer to him than it did to Hudson, who ran a long way and couldn't get it. I've played a little 1B in my time; I was surprised Guzman didn't move at all.
- Denorfia might have had a play on Ross at the plate in the third inning, but the ball slipped out of his grasp on the exchange from glove to hand so that went by the boards. He then had a play on Brandon Crawford at first (Crawford had taken a wide turn), but his throw to Hudson (who alertly came over to cover first) was a bit behind him and he couldn't get back to tag Crawford in time. Tough play.
- Torres should have scored on Fulchino's wild pitch in the eighth. The ball ended up kicking all the way to the camera well next to the Padres dugout. No idea what Torres was thinking on that play.
- I think Kyle Blanks got an off-speed pitch on a 2-0 count in the first inning, but it was middle-out on the plate and he fouled it straight back off the end of the bat. He might have been off-balance because he was expecting a fastball, but it really looked like he was trying to pull it. I said it before but it bears repeating - Blanks desperately needs to learn to take that outside pitch the other way and not try to pull everything. I can't understand why any pitcher would ever pitch him inside since he can't handle the outside pitch.
- Jason Bartlett almost lined into an other 5-3 DP in the third inning. It would have been the second time in 3 days that had happened to him, but this time the baserunner (Cameron Maybin) managed to get back. Talk about hitting in tough luck. Maybin inadvertently caught Aubrey Huff's glove hand under his body as he dove back in; Huff came up in obvious pain and eventually left the game because of it.
- Bumgarner set a career high for strikeouts yesterday.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Game Reflections - #139 vs Rockies
The Padres will drive you crazy sometimes...
Last night's game was a bit surreal. Four foul outs, including a rarely foul popout/double play when Ryan Spilborghs broke for the plate and was cut down by Orlando Hudson. One of the fastest men in the NL picked off second . . . on a throw down from Nick Hundley. A 1-6-4 force out at second. And so on.
Part of it was not so surreal, as the Padres dropped their ninth straight.
I was really looking forward to seeing Cory Luebke pitch again. The last game I attended that he started, he retired the first 11 hitters he saw. Last night's game was aptly summed up on Twitter by Geoff Young of Ducksnorts:
On to the thoughts.
- Lubeke must have thought he was in a shooting gallery. On three separate instances a hard shot went right through the box, started by Todd Helton on his line drive single in the first. Kevin Kouzmanoff and Dexter Fowler also buzzed the tower, as it were. I would think that unsettles a pitcher. After Helton's near miss Luebke retired the next 7 hitters he saw.
- It could have been eight, but Hudson had a sinking line drive off Troy Tulowitzki's bat glance off his glove and roll away. O-Dog then watched it roll into short RF. Tulo, hustling all the way, made it to second standing. Two thoughts here - (a) why did O-Dog buy a ticket after missing the play, and (b) what the heck was Jason Bartlett doing not covering second base?
- Luebke threw 37 pitches in the first inning. Not to be outdone, Rockies starter Alex White threw 28. The first inning took almost 40 minutes to play.
- Padres got the leadoff hitter on in the first, third, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth innings. In the third, sixth, and seventh he didn't get to second. In the eighth he did thanks to a 2-out walk, but was still stranded.
- San Diego showed no interest in trying to move the runner up by bunting in the seventh or eighth innings. I don't count the half-hearted bunt attempt by Hudson that he fouled back over the screen. Stuck in an eight-game losing streak, I would have expected to find Bud Black willing to pull out all the stops in an attempt to break the streak.
- Of course, if Kouzmanoff does not make a tremendous play on Jason Bartlett's line shot in the seventh the game might have ended differently. Kouz dove to his left to snare the drive, then doubled Will Venable off first.
It's been said elsewhere but will be said again here. San Diego lost 10 straight last year from 26 August to 5 September. The current streak started 24 August. Let us hope long losing streaks in late August don't become the norm.
Padres send Mat Latos to the hill today against Padre Killer Aaron Cook.
Last night's game was a bit surreal. Four foul outs, including a rarely foul popout/double play when Ryan Spilborghs broke for the plate and was cut down by Orlando Hudson. One of the fastest men in the NL picked off second . . . on a throw down from Nick Hundley. A 1-6-4 force out at second. And so on.
Part of it was not so surreal, as the Padres dropped their ninth straight.
I was really looking forward to seeing Cory Luebke pitch again. The last game I attended that he started, he retired the first 11 hitters he saw. Last night's game was aptly summed up on Twitter by Geoff Young of Ducksnorts:
Great second inning surrounded by a whole lotta batting practice.
On to the thoughts.
- Lubeke must have thought he was in a shooting gallery. On three separate instances a hard shot went right through the box, started by Todd Helton on his line drive single in the first. Kevin Kouzmanoff and Dexter Fowler also buzzed the tower, as it were. I would think that unsettles a pitcher. After Helton's near miss Luebke retired the next 7 hitters he saw.
- It could have been eight, but Hudson had a sinking line drive off Troy Tulowitzki's bat glance off his glove and roll away. O-Dog then watched it roll into short RF. Tulo, hustling all the way, made it to second standing. Two thoughts here - (a) why did O-Dog buy a ticket after missing the play, and (b) what the heck was Jason Bartlett doing not covering second base?
- Luebke threw 37 pitches in the first inning. Not to be outdone, Rockies starter Alex White threw 28. The first inning took almost 40 minutes to play.
- Padres got the leadoff hitter on in the first, third, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth innings. In the third, sixth, and seventh he didn't get to second. In the eighth he did thanks to a 2-out walk, but was still stranded.
- San Diego showed no interest in trying to move the runner up by bunting in the seventh or eighth innings. I don't count the half-hearted bunt attempt by Hudson that he fouled back over the screen. Stuck in an eight-game losing streak, I would have expected to find Bud Black willing to pull out all the stops in an attempt to break the streak.
- Of course, if Kouzmanoff does not make a tremendous play on Jason Bartlett's line shot in the seventh the game might have ended differently. Kouz dove to his left to snare the drive, then doubled Will Venable off first.
It's been said elsewhere but will be said again here. San Diego lost 10 straight last year from 26 August to 5 September. The current streak started 24 August. Let us hope long losing streaks in late August don't become the norm.
Padres send Mat Latos to the hill today against Padre Killer Aaron Cook.
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