Freddy Guzman makes his big-league debut and the Padres score 11 runs at home. Interesting. Guzman, starting in center field and leading off, singled on the second pitch he saw from Jaret Wright, then proceeded to drive the Braves’ starter to distraction.

How much of it was due to Guzman’s presence on the bases and how much to home plate umpire Tim McClelland’s tight strike zone is anybody’s guess, but Wright ended up throwing 50 pitches before being yanked with two outs in the first inning. Guzman walked with the bases loaded later in the inning to drive in his first run.

It’s only one game, but Guzman sure seemed to bring an energy to the offense that has been missing. Khalil Greene had been doing a terrific job in the leadoff spot of late, but he’s probably better suited to hitting down in the order right now. And maybe moving Sean Burroughs down to the #6 hole will allow him to concentrate more on driving the ball and not just being content to slap it past the shortstop.

Other encouraging sights from last night:

• Three hits each from Brian Giles and Ramon Hernandez. Giles was a triple shy of the cycle and also drew two walks.
• Phil Nevin knocking one out to deep right-center. His bomb came just after Giles’ in the second. It was the first time the Padres had hit back-to-back homers since last April, when Mark Kotsay and Ryan Klesko did it.
• Two more hits from Greene and Mark Loretta. Yawn, what else is new.
• Another sick outing from Jake Peavy. A single and a homer over seven innings. And the homer could have been avoided. The pitch before Chipper Jones went yard, he hit a pop foul down the third base line that Burroughs almost caught. From the replay, it looked like Greene might have had a better shot. But now we’re really nitpicking.
• Dave Hansen finally got a hit in his second tour of duty with the Pads. Singled in his 14th plate appearance since coming back over from Seattle.

With Guzman coming up from Portland, Rod Beck is released. Beck, last year’s great story, missed a good chunk of this season due to personal issues and never really got into a groove. Poor velocity, poor command. Bad combination. Still, I’ll rememeber him fondly for being one of the few bright spots in a horrendous 2003.

The one down note in Tuesday’s game was an injury to Jay Witasick. Apparently he pulled a rib muscle while warming up. He is expected to land on the DL. Early line is on Marty McLeary being recalled from Portland.

Rubber match tonight: David Wells vs Paul Byrd. Another win would be good…