first pitch: 5:00 p.m., PT
television: ESPN
matchup: Brian Lawrence (7-12, 4.70 ERA) vs John Smoltz (12-6, 2.89 ERA)
preview: ESPN | Padres.com
Yesterday my wife and I went to the Maxfield Parrish exhibit at the San Diego Museum of Art. By no means am I a connoisseur of art, but I do like a good painting, and Parrish did plenty of those. Many are on display in San Diego into early September. If you’re in town, I highly recommend getting down to Balboa Park and checking out the works of a master.
Speaking of masterpieces, Saturday’s contest in Atlanta ended on Xavier Nady‘s first career grand slam. The game was on national television. So, now the rest of the country knows what we know: Nady can hit. And the Padres, when they want to, can play good ball.
Pedro Astacio pitched well again, surrending just two runs over six innings. No walks. Gotta like that. And the bullpen held the Braves scoreless over the next seven innings until Nady’s slam in the 13th off rookie right-hander Joey Devine, who was making his big-league debut.
Tonight the Padres go for the season sweep against Atlanta. Again, the pitching matchup favors the Braves. But as we know, when you get two teams out on a field, anything can happen.
| AB | BA | OBP | SLG | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lawrence vs current Phillies | 73 | .260 | .300 | .411 |
| Smoltz vs current Padres | 115 | .243 | .278 | .339 |
Not much against Lawrence. The most at-bats come from Brian Jordan (!), who apparently is still in the big leagues but currently on the DL. Andruw Jones is 2-for-11 with 5 strikeouts. Chipper Jones and Julio Franco are the only guys to homer off Lawrence (one apiece). I thought there would be more to work with here, but I guess not.
Ditto with Smoltz. Brian Giles (.455/.500/.636 in 11 AB) and Joe Randa (.300/.417/.600 in 10 AB) have had the most success. Randa and Eric Young have the only homers (again, one each). I know Smoltz has been great in his return to the rotation, but it sure is nice to know you’ll face him no more than once in a series.
Obligatory Nady Segment
Bill Center of the U-T has a great article comparing Brian Giles and Xavier Nady in terms of their early struggles to get into a big-league lineup. Nady keeps saying all the right things, which is great. I don’t know that I could stay as cool as he apparently is. From the article: “Perhaps the biggest strike against Nady has been his struggles in the pressurized runners-in-scoring-position situations. ‘He has to be relaxed in that situation and sometimes he gets too hyped up,’ said Padres manager Bruce Bochy.”
Two things:
- Gee, I wonder why Nady isn’t always relaxed at the plate.
- Nady hasn’t actually struggled with RISP. The batting average is a little low, but only Khalil Greene has more homers in those situations. Let’s go to the numbers:
Padres with RISP in 2005 Player AB BA OBP SLG AB/HR RC/27 Khalil Greene 87 .333 .396 .575 21.8 8.17 Mark Loretta 60 .367 .459 .450 60.0 7.78 Brian Giles 102 .304 .438 .451 51.0 7.22 Dave Roberts 57 .316 .403 .474 57.0 6.44 Ryan Klesko 85 .235 .365 .471 17.0 6.04 Xavier Nady 69 .246 .316 .464 17.3 4.85 Phil Nevin 86 .279 .302 .419 28.7 4.63 Ramon Hernandez 75 .280 .305 .333 – 3.03 Geoff Blum 59 .203 .284 .322 59.0 2.54 Sean Burroughs 56 .196 .361 .214 – 3.36 Padres 1049 .264 .354 .394 43.7 4.77 Minimum 60 plate appearances. Stats are through Saturday, August 20, and are courtesy of ESPN. In terms of overall production with RISP, Nady has been roughly average as compared with the team as a whole. But basically, if you’re looking for a base hit, you want Mark Loretta, Giles, or Dave Roberts up there.
If you need the long ball, it’s Ryan Klesko, Nady, or Greene. Sure, the batting average could be higher, but to suggest that Nady has struggled with RISP isn’t really accurate.
If batting average is your measure of choice, then Klesko has “struggled” even more. If you prefer more sophisticated metrics, then Nady has been more productive than “proven run producers” Phil Nevin and Ramon Hernandez. Yeah, I know those guys aren’t on the active roster anymore, but you get the point.
Links
- X Marks The Spot In Hot-lanta (San Diego Spotlight). Rich Campbell recaps the Saturday night game and talks about new Padres catcher Miguel Olivo. I think we’re all a little surprised at how cheaply a talented guy like Olivo came.
- NL West Race (Graph) (Friar Faithful). Want to see just how bad the division has been for most of the year? Richard B. Wade shows us.
- Hank is back with his daily recaps and rants. Check out the latest edition for the scoop on Sean Burroughs, Josh Barfield, Cesar Carrillo, and the rest of the Padres system.
- Nady flips on ‘electric’ switch with late homer (U-T). I just love the headline. Because, you know, that’s exactly what Nady did. And how many guys on this team can do that?
- Olivo has provided huge lift for Padres (U-T). More love for the new backstop. Didn’t there used to be some guy named Ramon behind the plate?
Do I have to say it? Yes, I believe I do. Go Padres!
Looks like somebody is MOTIVATED again! lol
I have tried this new site in an effort to eliminate the popups. I need some constructiive critism again..lol
the new site is:
http://hankspadres.blogspot.com/
the old site is:
http://www.angelfire.com/sports/padresreport/hanksrants/
spefically I am looking for easiest to load, view and post comments on..
I wont use your forum for this kind of post again Geoff, thanks in advance.
aloha, hank
who would have thunk that Peavy would lose and Parks/Astacio would both win? Got to admit, it wasn’t me. Im with Geoff, GO PADRES!!
ps, thanks to lynchmob for the heads up on Blogspot.com
I had some difficulty getting it started but now that I have kinda figured it out, it appears to be simple enough, even for me. ha.
Looking good Hank. Elminating the popups was reason enough to move. Good to see you back in the swing of things!
Barring a comeback in the ninth, we may have our second ever 1-0 game in Coors Field today. 1-0 Rockies after 8. Only THREE hits combined through eight innings!
Oops, sorry for that post. Yahoo Statcast was a little bit off. Final score: 9-7 Rockies. Now that’s a Coors Field score!
Giles swung at the first pitch tonight in his first at-bat. Saturday, he swung at the first pitch almost every at-bat.
Eight-pitch first for Brian Lawrence.
Giles is 21st in the league in pitches per plate appearance at 3.92.
Rob Picciolo held Damian Jackson at third with Brian Lawrence due up in the second. Questionable move, but Andruw Jones was the who would have been throwing home.
Good job by Lawrence to get Francoeur to ground into the double play. Of course, Francoeur doesn’t exactly take pitches.
Lawrence: 20 pitches through two innings, and that’s with a walk.
I’m usually against the continuous rants against things we can’t control (like Nady’s playing time). But screw it: The batting order still makes no sense. Why is Loretta batting fifth instead of second? Giles should be in front of Klesko. Giles should bat second or third. Nady should bat fourth or fifth.
Randa doubled to right-center in the second. He tested Francoeur’s arm and was easily safe. Francoeur has had nine assists in 31 games, but this play goes toward the theory of testing those arms, which is probably what Picciolo/Jackson should have done to Jones in the first.
Lawrence looks great the first time through the lineup: 33 pitches, 20 strikes, 1 K, 1 BB.
Lawrence showed something in the third. He loaded the bases with no outs, struck out Andruw Jones and forced LaRoche into the double play.
Cox is breaking up his big sticks — Jones, Jones, Francoeur — by putting LaRoche between them, which could have killed that inning.
Atlanta took the lead in the fifth on John Smoltz’s second career triple. But Lawrence did strike out Giles to keep the damage low. Atlanta, 1-0.
Joe Morgan just talked about the Padres batting order, about Randa batting second and Loretta fifth. He just said Bochy must feel Loretta has more power than Randa. What!?!??!
http://firejoemorgan.blogspot.com/
Also, and this was before the Loretta comment, Morgan showed some numbers for Giles during the past few seasons and said basically he is in “decline.” Has this guy never heard of ballpark factors? Giles has not declined and has been the Padres best player since joining the team.
The Padres took the lead in the 7th on a two-RBI single by Mark Sweeney, who pinch-hit for Lawrence. Nady doubled earlier in the inning and came home. For all those Nady fans, he started againt the right-hander Smoltz. Padres, 2-1. Lawrence in position to win it.
Also from Morgan: He says Atlanta hasn’t won more World Series because they don’t have any “rah-rah” guys. This guy is in a zone. And when I say zone, I mean a stupidity zone.
Joe Morgan makes you appreciate Mark Grant and Matt Vasgersian.
That had to be one of the stupidest innings I have ever seen.
1) Why bring in Otsuka?
2) DR shouldn’t have thrown to third.
3) What the hell was Sweeney thinking? Hell, what was he doing playing first base?
Hating…
Padres have fallen apart here in the 8th. Two big errors. Ugh.
I agree. Otsuka is in because it’s Bochy’s formula. But the Jackson error at SS, Roberts throw to 3B and Sweeney’s throw home were lunacy.
Oh and DJ booting the ball. I forgot to say that.
Bochy’s formula is nothing more than lazy idiocy.
Oh and why did Linebrink have to come out?
Linebrink threw 11 pitches, allowed no hits, no walks and struck out one. Yeah, he was done. It’s just stupid. There’s no other way to say it.
Bochy ought to be stripped of all decision-making powers. They can keep him around to do what he does best, “be a nice guy.”
Also, why make a double switch that makes your defense worse?
I agree about the formula. Otsuka was facing the best of Atlanta’s lineup. You want dominance against that, and that is Linebrink. Of course, Otsuka has been very good, but you knew Andruw was coming up and he was 2-for-2 with a HR against Otsuka.
Nice throw over by Farnsworth there. That made a ton of sense.
Bochy managed poorly and Roberts, Jackson and Sweeney all made terrible plays.
Bummer of an end to what still was a great series. As for Sweeney, I cringe every time he has to make a throw.
dang this game leaves a bad taste in my mouth. This was such a winnable ball game and we did so many things right, but…….
oh well, hopefully we get home and continue playing well
hopefully Bochy will keep playing Nady regularly
anyone besides me having trouble with fanstop?
ok, I got it.. they just switched over to jt brick board..
The Swingdog now has at least 60 PA with runners in scoring position, and his numbers kill Nady. Fick would also be marginally outproducing Nady if he had enough PA (he is around 50).
So, basically, putting aside the pipe dream of 3b, the guys who are blocking Nady from more PT are all outproducing him in the clutch, and most are outproducing him against right handers. That is so unfair.
It’s also worth noting that both Sweeney and Fick are terrible defensively at first base.
It is worth noting that Fick has equal to or better defensive statistics at first base than Nady this year, and that Sweeney is a below average first baseman, but not so far below Nady’s performance this year that his offensive superiority is even remotely compromised.