Monday, April 14, 2003

Man, there’s nothing I’d rather do on a Sunday than fill out a tax return. Talk about fun.

On the bright side, the Padres took two out of three from the Rockies. Gotta like that! Here’s a real quick recap of the series.

Game 11: 4/11/03

San Diego 6, Colorado 4 (ESPN)

The Good

• More good hitting. Mark Kotsay and Rondell White had two hits each, and Gary Bennett (!) had three.
• Brian Lawrence worked six strong innings, allowing two runs on five hits and an uncharacteristically high three walks. He fanned eight, had a nice 4:1 GB:FB ratio, and even knocked his first big-league homer.
• Brandon Villafuerte nailed down his second save, striking out three of the six batters he faced.

The Bad

• Ramon Vazquez didn’t get on base. Hey, it had to happen.
• The bullpen coughed up a couple runs in the eighth.

The Ugly

• Lawrence taking Darren Oliver yard on an 0-2 pitch. That’s unforgivable. Including the homer, Lawrence is now hitting .113/.155/.186 in 97 at-bats over his career.

Game 12: 4/12/03

Didn’t get to see this one, so not much analysis here.

Colorado 3, San Diego 2 (ESPN)

The Good

• A hit and two walks from Vazquez.
• Three knocks for White.
• Another strong outing by Adam Eaton.

The Bad

• Xavier Nady struck out twice and grounded it into a double play in four trips to the plate.
• Villafuerte surrendered a solo blast to Preston Wilson in the top of the ninth that turned out to be the game winner.

Game 13: 4/13/03

San Diego 6, Colorado 2 (ESPN)

The Good

• Two hits and a walk (against a lefty!) from Vazquez. That’s 12 walks in 13 games and a .429 OBP for those of you keeping score at home.
• Two hits each from Kotsay and the suddenly resurgent Wiki Gonzalez.
• Rondell White launched a towering two-run homer in the seventh off a hanging breaking ball from Todd Jones to give the Pads some breathing room. After a slow start, White has started to pick up the pace of late. Here’s to his health.
• Nice work by Jaret Wright. He worked two scoreless frames, retiring six of the seven batters he faced and knocking a full-count double to the right-center gap against Jones in the seventh. Surprisingly good stroke for someone who hasn’t batted much.

The Bad

• This is nitpicking but I don’t know where else to put it. Nady struck out on a full-count breaking ball from Jones in the seventh. It was a terrible pitch, well out of the zone. Nady never should have swung at it and, judging from his response, he knows it. So in that respect, this isn’t all bad. Nady is going to make some mistakes. But I’m betting come July, if he sees a similar pitch in a similar situation, he’ll do a better job of recognizing it and taking the walk.
• Sean Burroughs is back but struggling. There are concerns that his throwing motion is contributing to his shoulder woes.

The Ugly

• It will be interesting to see how patient the Padres are with Oliver Perez. He’s going to have to get more than 4 1/3 innings out of 100 pitches (only 48 strikes) if he’s to stick in the big leagues. Here’s a breakdown on Perez’ at-bats yesterday:

  Pitches  No. of
   thrown  batters
  ----------------
     8        2
     6        4
     5        6
     4        5
     3        1
     2        2
     1        2

  And a quick glance at the bigger picture isn’t much more encouraging. Here are some numbers from each of his first three starts this year:

  Pit Str Inn
  -----------
   87  45 4.0
   90  57 5.0
  100  48 4.1

  Perez is averaging 20.8 pitches per inning, and only 54% of his offerings have been strikes. That’s not going to get it done.

All in all, it was a good weekend for the Pads. They took a series from a division rival, and now they get a day off before taking on the Dodgers in LA on Tuesday.

Today: Off.