Thanks in part to the pitching of 20-year-old Oliver Perez and the hitting of backstop Wiki Gonzalez, the Pads managed to take two of the three games against Seattle. Perez picked up his first big-league victory and in so doing became the youngest ever to win a game for the Padres.

Perez looked good early, fanning Ichiro Suzuki and Jeff Cirillo to begin the game and his career, and took a 1-0 lead into the top of the fourth. There, after a one-out walk to Mike Cameron, he served up a homer to left off the bat of Dan Wilson on a 1-1 fastball out over the plate. It was one of only two balls that were hit hard off Perez in five innings of work (the other being a drive to the wall in left courtesy of Ruben Sierra that Ron Gant leaped into the wall to snag back in the second).

Perez’ fastball generally sat in the 90-92 range, topping out at 94 MPH. He also mixed in a sharp-breaking slider and the occasional changeup. Perez dropped down from the side a couple times against Ichiro and John Olerud, and also threw in a little hesitation move on one occasion.

As might be expected, Perez’ biggest obstacle was himself. He walked four and, after a terrific start, found himself working from behind in the count much of the afternoon. Perez threw 107 pitches during his stint, only 62 for strikes.

Still, Perez did show poise, which was supposed to be one of his strengths. After serving up the homer to Wilson, he settled down and finished strong. His only other trouble spot came in the second, when he walked Olerud and Cameron after Sierra hit his deep drive to left on an 0-2 pitch. But pitching coach Greg Booker came to the mound, and Perez proceeded to strike out Wilson and Desi Relaford to end the inning.

Overall, it was an impressive debut for the baby-faced rookie but he will need to be much more efficient with his pitches than he was today to survive at this level. Here are some numbers from the game:

Time
thru
lineup  AB  H 2B 3B HR BB SO   BA  OBP  SLG
-------------------------------------------
1st      7  0  0  0  0  2  5  000  222  000
2nd      7  3  0  0  1  2  1  429  556  857
3rd      5  1  0  0  0  0  1  200  200  200

tot     19  4  0  0  1  4  7  211  348  368