Seven Game Sprint

I should probably give some explanation to my last post.  As you know from reading the game recap, if nothing else, David Eckstein was not intentionally walked to get to Miguel Tejada on Friday night.  I did not see this game live, as I was on a softball diamond in the Mira Mesa area, and was monitoring the action from my iPhone.  The Gameday graphics showed the first 3 pitches to be waaaay outside - like splitting the left handed batters box outside.  It sure looked like he was being pitched around to get to Tejada, which made no sense, and still makes no sense.

Hence the post.  Guess Posnanski won't be covering this one.

Anywho, we reach the last week of the regular season.  I have a Baseball Digest post pending talking about this next series with the Cubs.  In a perfect world, the Diamondbacks would sweep San Fran, San Diego would sweep the Cubs, and we'd go to the Bay Area with a 3-game lead and 3 to play.  Since San Diego holds the season series edge (10-5 at this point), the NL West would be ours.  That's probably not going to happen.

So what, realistically, should our expectations be?  Splitting this series with the Cubs is absolutely essential.  You gotta figure the Giants are going to get at least 2 of their 3 games with AZ.  Splitting the 4 game series sends San Diego to San Fran 1 game back with 3 to play.  Still a tall order, but do-able, to win 2 of those 3 and the Division.  Should the Giants sweep, well, then the Padres would have to sweep to win the division, and that's probably not going to happen.

I think the club can take 2 of these games from the Cubs, most likely the last two (against Wells and Gorzelanny).  Getting one of the first 2 (against a hot Zambrano and Dempster, the Cub ace) will be a taller order. At least we have Latos going on Tuesday, well, hopefully the May-August Latos.

Starters for the AZ/SF series:

• Rodrigo Lopez vs Sanchez
• Ian Kennedy vs Bumgarner
• Barry Enright vs Lincecum

AZ has a shot at two of those games, although admittedly it depends on which Sanchez shows up.  Kennedy has thrown every bit as well as Bumgarner.  Enright is no slouch, but let's face it, Lincecum is hot so advantage SF.

In any case, buckle your seat belts.  It's going to be a heck of a week.

Odds and ends and the Cardinals

Well the Latos/Hernandez duel was pretty good, with Latos getting the better of it.  Of course, it didn't hurt the Mariners put a woefully weak lineup on the field for that game (and if you don't read USS Mariner, you should), and their bullpen combusted in the eighth.  Considering the Padres got ambushed on Friday night, taking 2 of 3 over the weekend was a nice turnout.

Coupled with a Dodger loss, and our Friars find themselves still in first as we start play this week.  This is becoming a trend.

This will be a short 'catch up' post, where I make a couple of announcements.  First, we've added two new players to the Juan Eichelberger All-Stars:  Milton Bradley and Chase Utley.  Anytime a player exists with the name of a major board gaming company of my youth they are automatically inducted on this roster.  If there was a McGraw Hill or a Parker Brothers playing at the major league level, they'd be on the team too.  Chase Utley sounds like a guy with 'a tea cup on [his] lap and ticker-tape coming out of [his] ears'* as opposed to the best power-hitting second baseman in the game.  That's enough.  Also, with Yuri playing short, we need some help up the middle.

*Can anyone name the movie that line appears in?  I'll give something to the winner.  Not sure what, but it'll be nice.

Second, I've been asked to write about the Padres over at Baseball Digest.com, and have accepted.   My first story went up today.  I hope to make it a regular weekly feature over there.

Finally, since the next Padre opponent is the other MLB team I blog about, I am going to try something daring:  do a game recap for each of the 3 Cardinal/Padre games from the perspective of each team's fanbase.  I don't think this has been attempted anywhere ever by the same writer.  It might suck, it might be great, it might cause the Mayan Doomsday Prophecy to happen 2 years early - I don't know.  But it'll be fun nonetheless.

The Cardinals are scuffling right now but are still one of the most dangerous teams in the league.  St Louis has had some success at Petco (10-9 against the Padres since the park opened).  Adam Wainwright is one of the best pitchers in the NL, and the ace of the Cardinal staff.  Jon Garland has his work cut out for him, because the Padre offense won't get much from Adam.  Jamie Garcia is an early favorite for Rookie of the Year.  The other Cardinal starter is unsettled; both Brad Penny (who's turn it would be) and Kyle Lohse are on the DL after injuries suffered this weekend.  From the Cardinal perspective, it's great to bring a kid up and pitch in a pitcher's ballpark.  From the Padre perspective, it's fresh meat.

Amazingly, this series will pit two division leaders against each other (amazing because none of us expected the Padres to be in first place the week before Memorial Day) You'd think that'd mean a Wednesday Night Baseball gig, right?

No, it'll be Yankees/Twins.  What-ever.