Thanks to a late night out with my singer on Saturday, I overslept on Sunday morning and didn’t make it to Yuma till the top of the second. On the bright side, we got to play a semi-acoustic version of “Stacy’s Mom” to a near-empty house in an obscure part of town.

As for the game against the D’backs, the Padres won it, 17-9. Steve Sparks started and pitched reasonably well. Sparks flew through the first three innings, before sparks flew in the fourth (oh, how clever we are). Randy Williams, fighting for the last bullpen spot, worked a scoreless fifth before losing the plate and being victimized by a couple of misplayed fly balls in the sixth. Williams walked the first three batters of the frame, then served up a drive to left that Jon Knott broke the wrong way for and turned into a bases-clearing double. The next batter hit an RBI triple to left-center on a ball that Knott got a late jump on, tying the game at 9-9.

Xavier Nady got the start in center field and hit a two-run bomb to left-center. Two minor leaguers who don’t show up on anyone’s prospect lists that impressed were third baseman Brett Bonvechio and right fielder Drew Macias. The former hit a mammoth home run just to the left of dead center, while the latter knocked three hits, including a homer to right. Bonvechio was Boston’s 37th round pick in 2000 out of a Santa Clara high school. He hit .237/.309/.395 as a 22-year-old in the Midwest League last year, and Kevin Goldstein calls him an organizational guy, so there’s probably not much here. Interestingly, Bonvechio is the guy the Padres received from the Red Sox for the guy (Henri Stanley) they flipped for Dave Roberts. As for Macias, Goldstein doesn’t seem too impressed with him either. Macias hit .266/.340/.374 as a 21-year-old in the Midwest League and doesn’t possess overwhelming tools. The Padres drafted him in the 22nd round in 2001 but he didn’t sign, so they drafted him again the following year, this time in the 35th round.

Point of all this isn’t to waste your time with guys who are longshots to make significant contributions at the big-league level, but to let you know that these two kids had a real nice showing in a game that featured players who are household names. Even if Bonvechio and Macias don’t make it to the Show, they’ll always be able to say they knocked one out while wearing a Padre uni, alongside the likes of Phil Nevin and Sean Burroughs.

And lest we get too sentimental, I should also note that I got my first look at catcher George Kottaras, who is rated by some as a better prospect than Josh Barfield. (I’m impressed with what Kottaras has done so far, but in my book, catchers are like pitchers: wait till Double-A before getting too excited.) At the plate, Kottaras looks very comfortable. He’s got good balance and little wasted movement. That said, he took some ugly hacks on Sunday. Not surprising, given that he hasn’t yet had a single at-bat above Low-A ball. Anyway, it was just one game; how he does at Elsinore this year obviously will give us a much better idea.