first pitch: 5:05 p.m., PT
television: Channel 4
matchup: Woody Williams (4-5, 4.14 ERA) vs Wandy Rodriguez (4-3, 6.55 ERA)
preview: CBS | Padres.com
Padres lost again, keeping the rest of the division close. Remember these games come September. Here’s your Thursday matchup:
AB BA OBP SLG
Williams vs current Astros 223 .300 .359 .484
Rodriguez vs everybody 179 .313 .390 .547
Current Astros have hit eight homers against Williams; fortunately, five of those are off the bat of the injured Jeff Bagwell. Among the healthy, Adam Everett (.429/.429/.571 in 14 AB) has had the most success.
Rodriguez is a 26-year-old southpaw making his eighth big-league start. Don’t let the fact that he’s left handed fool you. Lefties are hitting .415/.520/.854 off him, with four homers in just 41 at-bats.
I dunno, maybe a sweep wouldn’t be all bad. Shame can be a tremendous motivating force.
I’ll be at Elsinore tonight for first-round pick Cesar Carrillo’s pro debut so talk amongst yourselves. Go Pads!
one out (Death).
2 outs (taxes).
3 outs (Hoffman).
Minute Maid has to be the most oddly shaped ballpark in the NL…
Lynch, Furmaniak’s line translated to the Majors is not as good as Burroughs’.
Richard, howza bout a Furmaniak feature at Future Friars?
Either tonight or tomorrow morning.
Damn, Richard, you’re a badass.
Lookin’ forward to it.
It’s up: http://padresminors.blogspot.com/
Sweet win. Hopefully we can build on that momentum going into Coors Field.
Pix are up from Carrillo’s debut tonight:
http://www.all-baseball.com/ducksnorts/archives/019534.html
Sorting through my notes, should have some commentary together within the hour. He looked good.
Commentary added:
http://www.all-baseball.com/ducksnorts/archives/019534.html
we thought OUR injury problems were bad, check out LA’s lineup yesterday:
O Robles SS
J Repko CF
J Werth LF
O Saenz 1B
A Perez 2B
M Edwards 3B
C Ross RF
M Rose C
Good point, Eric. You know you’re in trouble when Werth is one of your starting outfielders…
We have had our share of injuries, but my assessment:
Loretta: anyone notice he had an OPS of .732? If we lost Loretta getting back on track, that hurt, but giving up .732 was not that bad. I hope he hits better when he gets back, but his power had disappeared before his injury.
Young: not talked about much, but his absence really hurt. Versatile and good punch.
Eaton: his wins sound better than his pitching, but he forces us to go to our 6th starter, and there is not much there. So that has hurt a lot.
Hernandez: not having a great offensive season (OPS = .732), so getting Fick’s some AB’s was not all that bad.
Nevin: benching Nevin to give Nady and Sweeney AB’s? His injury helped us.
So, aside from Eaton, and to a lesser extent Young, our injuries have not hurt us that badly. What has really hurt us is the fact that aside from Giles, Klesko and Roberts, none of the “everyday” hitters have been getting it done consistently. When Sweeney and Fick are keeping the offense strung together, we have problems.
Greene? Making Bay’s ROY award seem highly justified (Bay is .950 OPS, btw). Burroughs? What happened?
Throw in light hitting from Nevin, Hernandez, Loretta (and replacements), and we have a sickly offense. Not sure why that gets better, but I hope it does.
Here’s to hoping that Nady gets 4 HR’s in the Colorado series. If he does that, he will have 14, and barring any more from Klesko, he would be the team leader in knocks. Even Bochy cannot bench the team leader in HR’s, not to mention his much fewer PA’s. Right? Please tell me I am right…