Love Coors Field

The Padres have one one series in Colorado every year since 2003.  Did they pick a good time to get their series win for 2010, or what?  With the buzzards circling, and Colorado seemingly on the same path they took to the World Series in 2007, virtually no one expected the Padres to put up much resistance this week.

Someone forgot to tell the 25+ guys in the visitors dugout they'd been buried for 2010, and ought to work on their tee time schedule.

The much bally-hood inability to score 5 runs in a game, at least since August 26?  San Diego has scored 6 and 7 runs in the two games of this series.  Put that little streak to bed.  There's nothing like playing in Coors Field to cure whatever offensive ills one has.

The problems San Diego starters not named Richard and Latos seemed to have?  Mostly put away.  Yes, Cory Luebke and Jon Garland each had one bad inning in their starts, but by and large the starting pitching has been solid.  The bullpen has returned to its former lights out form (Heath Bell's adventure in the ninth inning last night notwithstanding).

Suddenly the Padres find themselves with a 1.5 game lead on San Francicso, and 3.5 on Colorado.  A little breathing room never felt so good.  A sweep of this series is too much to ask, but the Padres will go for that behind Clayton Richard today.

Two other notes of interest regarding this blog:

1.  There will not be a Podcast this week because,
2.  I will be in St Louis for the Thursday game with the Cardinals.  It is Social Media night at Busch, and in my other capacity as a Cardinal blogger I'm going.  There is a panel discussion scheduled, including some of the local press writers covering the team.  I will not be on the panel, which is probably good.

As a result, there won't be much (if any) content on this here blog before the weekend ends.  However, come Monday I should have a summary post up on the weeks activities somewhere.

Venable gets picked off, snuffs out game-changing rally

Well they put up a better fight, but still fell to the Cardinals. Some thoughts:

- I think Pujols' ball in the first should have been caught by Blanks. I'm not saying it was an easy play (it wasn't), or that I would have caught it (and judging from my play on Thursday, I would have spiked myself running after it), but a Major League OF needs to catch that ball.

- Stauffer couldn't have put the ball on a tee any better for Holliday than the pitch he threw, that turned into the 2-run HR.

- Adrian Gonzalez is a strong man. I mean, really strong. That he hit a low-and-away pitch for an opposite field HR is amazing. I tried to hit a pitch like that on Thursday and popped out to shallow left. This also explains why Gonzo is in the Majors and I'm not.

- Gwynn Jr catches the ball Schumaker hit to drive in the 4th Cardinal run. You can't convince me otherwise.

- William Venable, you owe us 25 push-ups. Correction: You owe us 2500 push-ups.

- Thatcher did everything right as a pitcher after Molina broke for home in the seventh. The umpire hooked us up with the call - Molina was safe - but not for a lack of execution.

The Padres are hitting the ball well against these Cardinals, but aren't getting the clutch hit, and their pitchers are getting killed when they make a mistake.

Richard tries to avoid a sweep tomorrow. He draws Lohse, who has struggled since coming off the DL just before the All-Star break.

This Just In...

The Cardinals are a little bit better than the Brewers.

Mat Latos - don't get down, kid. You've had a lot of success so far, but that was the first Major League lineup you've faced. Learn from it.

Peavy to White Sox

A long weekend, which started off with the surpirse deal of Cy Young winner (and heart & soul of the Padres) Jake Peavy being dealt to the White Sox for 4 minor leaguers.

As of this writing (and lots of internet "ink" has already been spent on the topic), Clayton Richard threw a no decision against Milwaukee on Saturday night, and looked OK in his first start (5 2/3, 1 ER).

I agonized over what to write regarding. I'll keep it short, since it's time late, but here it is:

The Padres should be professionally embarassed they had to deal Peavy.

Yes, the financial situation changed on the team (Moores' divorce acrimony notwithstanding). However, they promised to pay Peavy like the elite pitcher he was, and they couldn't. Not to mention they spent most of the last 9 months (a) openly shopping him, and (b) behind the scenes trying to talk him into 'taking one for the team'. I'm glad Jake told them to stick it in May, because it made the whole front office look stupid.

I also understand why he said F*** it last week and left. At least the White Sox are trying to win. Who wants to hang around where you're not wanted?

Good luck to Jake in Chicago. Hopefully he'll be healthy enough to pitch and contribute, get into the playoffs, and make a deep run.

Then today Gaslamp Ball reports Gonzo might have been traded to Seattle in a 3-team deal involving Boston and Felix Hernandez.

Bleech.

The All-Star Game Gods Hate San Diego

It's bad enough the team sits in last in the NL West, behind the moribund Diamondbacks. It's bad enough the team has the third worst record in baseball at the break.

Now, for the third time in 4 years, a Padre loses the All-Star Game for the National League.

Fantastic. And I ran out of beer earlier.