first pitch: 6:40 7:10 p.m., PT
television: Channel 4
matchup: Darrell May (0-0, 4.24 ERA) vs Brad Halsey (3-2, 3.54 ERA)
The Friars beat Arizona in Tuesday night’s opener at the BOB. The final score was 9-5, but it shouldn’t have been that close. The Snakes’ starter, Russ Ortiz, worked behind in the count all night and was bailed out several times by inexplicably overanxious Padres hitters. (To give one example: In the third inning alone, Ortiz threw 15 balls and 4 strikes, but didn’t surrender a single run; he walked the bases loaded with two outs and then induced Khalil Greene to hit a weak foul popup to Troy Glaus on a 1-0 pitch to end the inning. Before the popup, 13 of Ortiz’ previous 14 pitches had missed the mark; why is Greene hacking?)
The good news is, the Padres got some timely hitting from Phil Nevin, Dave Roberts, and Robert Fick, and hung on to get Adam Eaton his sixth straight victory. Trevor Hoffman capped an “interesting” ninth inning by retiring Craig Counsell on a deep fly ball to right for a one-pitch save. With the win, the Friars move back into first place in the NL West, a half game ahead of Arizona.
Wednesday night features two left-handers.
AB BA OBP SLG
May vs current Diamondbacks 68 .309 .364 .485
Glaus (.545/.583/.727 in 11 AB) is the only batter who has double-digit at-bats against May. Tony Clark and Quinton McCracken have the homers. For whatever reason, the spot in the lineup giving May the most trouble so far this year is the #8 hole (.538/.571/.923 in 13 AB). That’s a real small sample, though, so it could be a fluke. Again, with limited data points, May has been very tough with RISP (.200/.250/.267 in 30 AB); those numbers are pretty far out of line with what he’s done over the past several years, so it’s probably a fluke. It’s also helps explain the respectable ERA despite weak supporting numbers. Eventually those guys May puts on base are going to start scoring. Every time he gets the start, you just hope he can keep it close until the bullpen arrives. It has the potential to be ugly sometimes, but how is that any worse than what the Pads had at #5 for much of 2004?
For the Snakes, Halsey makes his 16th big league start and second against San Diego. His first game against the Pads last month was pretty darned good, although Nevin and Ramon Hernandez did take him deep.
X Factor
Xavier Nady did not play in Tuesday night’s contest and remains well rested. He has sat out 4 games in a row, and 8 of the last 11.
G AB BA OBP SLG
thru Apr 13 8 34 .412 .459 .824
since Apr 13 24 52 .154 .279 .250
(Thanks to David Pinto’s Day by Day Database for those numbers.)
I’m beginning to think the bench may not be the best place for Nady. I wonder if anyone else could use his services.
Pizza Feed
In the comments to yesterday’s In-Game Discussion LynchMob alerted us to the Baseball Prospectus Pizza Feed that is happening at Petco Friday, June 24. Padres GM Kevin Towers will be speaking. More info is available over at Prospectus. Maybe we can get a bunch of Ducksnorters out there.
I can’t believe he threw that pitch 3-1. Guy earned that one.
As ugly and wild as that game was, I can’t help but think that we let it get away.
Disappointing finish, but I’m even more ticked if I’m an Arizona fan. They should have put us away a long time ago.
That was a gutsy slider on that 3-1 count. It could have just as easily ended up in the dirt.
Fick should have kept his cool…Umps are human, they will react to being barked at..agree with the point about Ramon…Blum couldn’t buy a fastball there…oh well. Wild Game.
Did anyone see Khalil’s 3B? where did it hit?
Arizona played bad baseball. The umps called a bad game. Bochy outdid them both.
Nevin and Giles left 10 men on between the two of them. Granted they were the same 5 guys, but still we could have used a few of those.
Khalil’s triple hit up the monster wall to the right of center, at least that was all i could see on the tiny mlb.com feed. It could have bounced on the track first
Peavy needs to bring his A-game tomorrow. So far this year the Pads have had their troubles with sinker-ball pitchers, Webb included.
See you later, I am off to bed.
Boch didn’t throw thigh high heat to fastball hitters…I’d have thrown Aki back out there too.
Ugly loss. We shouldn’t have been in it, anyway, though.
Generally speaking, I don’t mind having Peavy pitch the rubber game of a road series.
Taking 2 out of 3 would be just fine and realistically is the best we could have hoped for with May pitching tonight.
And Burroughs 0-fer’d to get 3 LOBs … btw, I’m DONE hoping that guy gets better … just ’tain’t gonna happen as far as I can tell … and I’m done wasting my hopes on him! Sorry, Sean
Hey, Peter … a W for the LynchMob Propellerheads tonight
Am I happy? NO! NO! NO! But will enjoy woof’ing for my roto team … I do well at “compartmentalizing”, don’t you? I think if you play roto, you just HAVE to
BTW, the last championship for the LynchMob was ’98 … and a good season for the Padres as well 
BTW, CLEVELAND PITCHER KEVIN MILLWOOD LEFT THE GAME IN THE TOP OF THE FIFTH INNING DUE TO A STRAINED RIGHT GROIN.
… and I’d prefer we hang on the Nady also … but I understand the value of and our need for one more “good” starting pitcher … we gotta get May outta our rotation!
Brian Giles for Kyle Davies