A four-game sweep at Shea certainly is a nice way to start a road trip. Eventually the guys are going to have to learn how to win at home, but now isn’t really the time to gripe about that.

Great starting pitching in the series. The combined line:

  IP  H R ER HR BB SO
30.0 16 4  4  1  6 17

And all but one of the runs came against Jake Peavy in the opener. David Wells surrendered the other with the two out in the ninth inning of Tuesday night’s game.

Speaking of Wells, Trevor Hoffman came in to get the last out to notch his 32nd save Tuesday. As has been well documented, all four of Hoffman’s blown saves this year have come in Wells’ starts. This is such a freaky split:

         IP  H R ER HR BB SO W-L SV BS
Wells  11.1 16 9  9  4  1  7 0-2  5  4
other  32.2 21 5  5  1  7 30 2-1 27  0

Explanation? Most likely just dumb luck. Still, it is pretty bizzare.

Bye, Bye Big Buck

Brian Buchanan refused his latest assignment to Portland and became a free agent. The Mets signed him and he struck out against the Pads in his debut Thursday afternoon.

Sorry to see Buck leave, but it’s a good career move for him. With Brian Giles, Ryan Klesko, and Phil Nevin firmly entrenched at the corners; Terrence Long’s unmovable contract backing them up; and Tagg Bozied, Jon Knott, and Xavier Nady knocking on the door, there wasn’t a lot of "upward mobility" in San Diego for Buchanan.

Between management’s fascination with Kerry Robinson and a few poorly timed injuries, Big Buck just never got rolling this season. Still, the Padres acquired him cheaply enough (Jason Bartlett stands a good chance to be a decent big-leaguer but he wasn’t going to pass Khalil Greene any time soon) and he put up two solid seasons with the club before getting buried this year. His final line with the Padres:

 AB  R   H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO   BA  OBP  SLG
350 48 101 17  2 16  48 39 96 .260 .339 .457

Buchanan turned 31 just last month, so he should still have a few good years left. Here’s wishing him the best.

Chris Oxspring

Finally, congrats to Chris Oxspring and the Australian team for their silver medal at Athens. Oxspring has been one of my wife’s faves since she saw him being very generous with his time at Elsinore to a bunch of little kids who demanded his time while he was charting pitches behind the plate at a game. He also shut out Japan to put his country into the gold medal game against Cuba. Remember the name. You’ll see him in a Padre uni at some point in 2005.