first pitch: 7:05 p.m., PT
television: Channel 4
matchup: Woody Williams (5-6, 4.57 ERA) vs Mark Mulder (11-5, 3.98 ERA)
preview: Padres.com
Phil Nevin remains a Padre for now and takes a seat on the bench. First base? Should belong to Xavier Nady, IMHO, but Mark Sweeney probably will see a lot of time there as well because he’s been around the league longer. As for Nevin, I don’t know that there’s much anybody can do at this point. He’s not good enough to start, he’s too expensive to sit, and he doesn’t want to leave. There isn’t really a good answer to that. The best we can hope for is that Nevin is able to help the team off the bench and that the Padres stop signing guys to bad contracts. I don’t know about the former, but I have a pretty good feeling with Sandy Alderson onboard about the latter.
Meantime, life goes on in the Hot Potato Division. Perhaps the Padres’ new battle cry should be, “At least we had May!”
non-May May
W L RS RA W L RS RA
LA 34 37 303 315 11 17 120 150
Ari 32 41 313 387 16 12 127 143
SF 31 40 329 370 11 16 104 138
SD 28 43 272 325 22 6 160 117
Col 26 43 306 389 9 20 118 156
Padres return home and try to break a seven-game losing streak against the best team in the league. Maybe all the activity over the past few days will galvanize the club and help push them beyond themselves. Yes, I realize this is wishful thinking, but somebody has to win the division and it might as well be the Padres. Here’s to better days…
Leitner and Coleman are talking about the Mulder trade.
Neither of them have ever heard of Daric Barton.
Good to know they do their homework.
Will the Pads ever score another run?!?!
The offense has completely run aground. This just isn’t a particularly good team. It isn’t a good team, at all.
Burroughs draws a walk for Portland.
Daric Barton is a stud. If they haven’t heard of him yet, they will.
You may be right Lance. We are all operating on the assumption that the Padres are the team that played great baseball in May. One great month and we all hung our hats on that. But two months later and we have a mediocre team at best with piss poor hitting.
Already 6 LOBs and I ain’t talkin tennis.
Got to blame Petco partly. Place is a graveyard for fly balls.
Hitters are not stringing hits together.
Ah well, weather is nice here.
*****whistling****
And there she blows, the Cardnal hitting breaks through. Folks, its the only the top of the sixth, but at 4-0, I’d say its time to hit the parking lot. Pads are done for tonight. I hope I’m wrong.
And Nady just keeps hitting. Geez, Edmonds almost made a circus catch on that one.
This team doesn’t do ANYTHING well enough to make me think they’re better than average.
I think we’re lucky that they’re at .500.
finally they string some hits together..
dang its been a long time coming..
could have had more but its a start
Hey, some hits. Feels good.
Hey, let’s get some runs!
9 left on base.
Gees Phil, 5 LOBs!
10 left on base.
hero time….we need a hero..
somebody get on and somebody be a hero..
giles or nevin get a chance if someone gets on
I’m holding out for a hero.
well here it is…
hero time..
no hero today..damn..
Nevin makes the last out. 11 left on base, six from him, I think. The Padres are 50-50.
The Padres are just awful. I can’t stand it anymore.