First off, I’m a little behind in my e-mails. If you’ve sent me something recently and I haven’t responded yet, it’s not you, it’s me. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. I actually do read everything you send, which is great because you guys have boatloads of interesting stuff to tell me. The downside is, I spend so much time reading, sometimes I don’t have time to write back right away. Yeah, I know you already know that. But it makes me feel better to say it out loud. Humor me, would you?

Great series against the Royals. The bullpen could’ve been a little better in the late innings, but for the most part everything clicked. Starting pitching? Jake Peavy looked great in his return from the DL, Adam Eaton took a no-no into the eighth, and David Wells did his usual thing. Speaking of Wells, there’s one position we missed in last week’s edition of The Guy We Had, the Guy We Wanted, and the Guy We Got:

P             IP   ERA WHIP Salary*
Jarvis,Ke   15.0 10.80 2.33  $4.5M
Maddux,Gr  105.2  4.43 1.32  $6.0M
Wells,Da    89.0  3.03 1.01  $1.3M

*2004 salary per ESPN.

Anyway, the starting pitching was outstanding, the hitting is coming around (five homers in Friday’s game, four sac flies in Sunday’s), and the bench received a boost when Kerry Robinson was (finally) sent to Portland in favor of just-signed Darren Bragg. In his first Padre at-bat, Bragg hit a dribbler wide of first for an infield hit. Ball traveled about 70 feet. It wasn’t pretty, but it worked. Actually, pretty much everything worked on Sunday.

Khalil "Look Ma, I Can Draw Walks" Greene and Humberto Quintero continued their assault on opposing pitchers (disturbing fact: Quintero has more homers than Ryan Klesko this year). Even Jeff Cirillo and Terrence Long got into the act. Cirillo came in as a pinch-runner for Phil Nevin, who hurt himself coming out of the box on a base hit to center in the fourth. Couldn’t tell what was wrong from where we sat, but apparently he injured his right knee (the one that was giving him trouble earlier). Here’s hoping Nevin won’t be out too long. He’s been swinging the bat extremely well of late, and the Pads need him in the lineup.

RHP Ricky Stone made his Padre debut. Stone, picked up from Houston off waivers, replaces infielder Ramon Vazquez on the roster. Vazquez goes to Portland, again leaving the Padres without a legitimate backup for Greene (who started yet another ridiculous double play on Sunday) at short. As for Stone, he gave up a solo homer to Ken Harvey in two innings of work. If the scoreboard radar is to be believed, Stone’s fastball was running in the 88-90 range. He was around the plate, throwing 19 of 25 pitches for strikes. First impression: Generic middle reliever.

Thanks in part to the sweep, the Pads find themselves a half game out of first place midway through the season. The Padres are now 44-37; last year after the same number of games, they were 26-55, a whopping 21.5 games back of the Giants. Sure, things could be better. But as we are all too aware in San Diego, they could be a lot worse.

Other Stuff

• After an unbelievable start to his North American career, Aki Otsuka has hit his first extended slump. He’s allowed one run or more in five of his past seven appearances:

    G  IP  H ER HR BB SO  ERA
    7 5.2 13  6  3  3  4 9.53

  We’ve talked about Aki’s workload before, and the fact that he’s right about where he finished each of the past two seasons in terms of innings is a concern. Aki has contributed so much to this ballclub. I’m hoping that some of the other relievers will be able to pick up the slack and Aki can return to form after a little rest. The Pads are going to need him down the stretch if they’re serious about taking the division.

• The debatable merits of an exhibition game (oh I forgot, this time it counts) notwithstanding, it’s great to see Mark Loretta get named to the All-Star Game. He’s arguably been the best second baseman in the NL this year and he deserves the honor.
• Interesting that Loretta is the only Padre representative. I don’t think that’s so much a snub as a statement that this team is made up of solid performers who aren’t necessarily having spectacular years. Nevin and Brian Giles have been strong, especially of late, but they’re at deep positions. Greene has been a human highlight reel, and his offense has been better than expected, but he’s not really an All-Star shortstop yet. Cases could be made for Otsuka before his recent implosion, Trevor Hoffman if he’d logged a few more innings or saved a few more games, Wells and/or Jake Peavy if they’d stayed off the DL, Lawrence if he hadn’t stumbled so badly out of the gate, etc. Still, nice as it is for individuals to be recognized, it’s even nicer to see the team contending this late in the season.
• Ismael Valdez is still in the rotation. Opponents are hitting .290/.334/.500 against him, which looks good only in comparison to the .318/.356/.528 they hit against him last year in the much less forgiving environment of Arlington Stadium (or whatever corporate entity owns the naming rights to that place). Scary split:

            IP  H ER HR BB SO  ERA
    home  50.0 41 15  3  6 14 2.70
    away  39.0 64 35 11 19 18 8.08
  
           AB   BA  OBP  SLG
    home  185 .222 .245 .357
    away  177 .362 .422 .650

  Remind me why this is a better option than Dennis Tankersley?

• I’m looking for a good Asian buffet in Bakersfield or Visalia. If anyone knows of one, drop me a line.
• Tired of the same old excuses? Try the Random Excuse Machine.

Okay, that’s enough for now. Tomorrow we’ll take a closer look at the Pads’ first half. Meantime, the Astros are in town for three. Roger Clemens vs Brian Lawrence tonight. Usual time, usual channel.