first pitch: 7:05 p.m., PT
television: Channel 4
matchup: Pedro Astacio (3-10, 5.85 ERA) vs Vicente Padilla (5-11, 5.00 ERA)
preview: Padres.com
For the second straight game, the Padres face a pitcher with an ERA of exactly 5.00. Unfortunately, unlike Friday night the Friars aren’t sending a better pitcher out there. No offense (pun intended), but if you let Jon Lieber shut you down, you deserve what you get.
Jake Peavy pitched a great game. That’s not what he’ll tell you but aside from some first-inning struggles, he did just fine. Peavy isn’t the guy who ran the bases poorly in the seventh. Peavy isn’t the guy who made sure Xavier Nady never saw the light of day, even when flamethrowing lefty Billy Wagner entered the contest.
Saturday night features Padilla, who started against the Padres in Philly on July 22. Padilla allowed three runs over six innings, and the Phillies eventually won in the 11th on a walkoff two-run jack by Chase Utley. This was the fifth defeat in a row for the Pads, in what turned out to be an eight game losing streak.
The Padres figure to stack the lineup with lefties against the Nicaraguan born righthander, who has some pretty extreme splits:
| AB | BA | OBP | SLG | AB/HR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vs left | 185 | .314 | .408 | .600 | 15.4 |
| vs right | 179 | .229 | .317 | .374 | 44.8 |
Not a lot of Padres have faced him much. The ones who have generally have done pretty well, and most of the success (with the notable exception of Mark Loretta) has come from lefties. Here’s how Saturday night’s starters have fared against the opposition:
| AB | BA | OBP | SLG | AB/HR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Astacio vs current Phillies | 188 | .303 | .393 | .596 | 15.7 |
| Padilla vs current Padres | 95 | .295 | .380 | .516 | 19.0 |
Pretty much everyone hits Astacio. Kenny Lofton is 0-for-11, and Jimmy Rollins is hitting .115/.207/.231 over 26 career at-bats. The rest? Of the guys who have 10 or more plate appearances against Astacio, Mike Lieberthal, Bobby Abreu, Pat Burrell, and Todd Pratt all have OPS higher than 1000 in those matchups.
For the Padres, it’s Ryan Klesko (.462/.588/.769 in 13 AB), Loretta (.455/.500/.818 in 11 AB), and Robert Fick (.333/.368/.444 in 18 AB) doing most of the damage. In a smaller sample, Brian Giles (.500/.636/1.375 in 8 AB) has put up some Nintendo numbers against Padilla.
My advice? If you want to see the starters pitch, better get to the park early.
Linkapallooza
- Padres activate Seanez from DL (Yahoo). Craig Breslow is sent to Portland to make room. Did you know that Seanez is fifth on the team in strikeouts?
- Klesko must go back to first base (Padres.com). I dunno. I can’t really get too worked up over where Klesko plays as long as Nady continues to ride pine.
- Floyd angry after Otsuka hits him in knee (NY Newsday). Quoth Floyd: “We already lost two of our guys, and instead of just putting four fingers up and walking me, he throws the ball right into my knee. You can’t let teams disrespect you like that.” It’s like Ray Davies says: paranoia will destroy ya.
- Beavers find hitting power for home win (Oregonian). Sean Burroughs hits a grand slam!
- Conversation with Dustin Delucchi (PDX Beavers). Jonathan chats with the Beavers center fielder. Delucchi is, among other things, a childhood friend of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.
- Padres Lose By One, Nady Watches From Bench (Future Friars). Richard is glad to see the 26-year-old stud hitter get the rest he needs. No, not really. He’s pissed, like the rest of us.
Tunes: Beck, White Stripes, Kurt Elling, Pinback, R.E.M., The Killers, Muse.
You know Goff, I’m tired of this crappy team. Realistically, we are a third or forth place team. If the NL West wasn’t the double A league, the Padres would be another also ran team.
One lousy run, one lousy, f****ing run. Hell we couldn’t even get a guy on base, and when Jackson did get on base, he got tagged out on a questionable call.
No wonder Bocky got him self tossed, it was just ugly.
I’m going off the Padres for a while, its too frustrating to watch us shutdown repeatedly by mediocre pitching or wasting great pitching performances because we can’t hit the fucking ball.
Bitter, Padre Mike
What are you crying about? The Padres are going to the playoffs for the first time since ’98. Be happy.
Yeah, Mike!
Richard wasn’t even BORN YET in 98, so imagine what it must be like for HIM, never having witnessed his team in the postseason!!!
Chin up, dammit!!!
I think we have the talent there to score some runs but Bochy runs a new lineup out there every night. How in the heck are we gonna achieve some offensive consistency?
Good thing they traded Nevin to open up the playing time for Nady. Otherwise he would just be warming the bench.
Oh he is warming the bench!
Betcha Pedro is liking Petco park by now. Nice to see a 1, 2, 3 inning. Now lets get some runs!
Hey, Geoff, what do the “tunes” mean?
I imagine the tunes are bands he’s listening to.
Sweeney has hit better than both Nady and Nevin this season. Hell, he’s hit better than everyone in the NL save Derrek Lee and Albert Pujols.
And only Jason Giambi in the AL has hit better than Sweeney this season.
As soon as you compliment Sweeney, he shows his baserunning insanity again.
I mean, just because the hit and run is on doesn’t mean you don’t look at the ball. Sweeney just ran blindly.
Sweeney may be the worst base runner in the Majors, though.
Rich, do you have Bill James’ book on managers he did about 10 years ago.
Yep, that’s just what I’m listening to when I write.
I’m afraid not.
$35 for that book (used no less) on Amazon.
And there goes the perfect game.
It’s great. I have read it a few times. I was going to tell you/ask you some stuff about it. Do you have an IM system?
RichardBrianWade on AIM
Astacio is looking really good thus far.
Yes, Sweeney has been amazing this year, but not too much different splits wise. He has had only 14 ab this year vs lefties..add that to 76 ab total for his ten year career and you have a made to order platoon player.
When you compare Sweeney to Lee and Pujols, remember that they play everyday. Sweeney has just less than half their ab’s and is used selectively.
Sweeney is haveing a heckva year but we cant really compare him to a superstar everyday player, can we?
I think you can if he’s the left side of a platoon. And I wish he was used with Nady in a true platoon. That would result in some of the best first base production of any team in the Majors.
Yes, we could get some good production off of that but I am not sure Bochy knows how to use a straight platoon. If he does, he sure doesnt act like it.
Routine 1-4-3 play.
Even a straight platoon isn’t quite right. Nady is too good to be a platoon player.
http://www.dodgerblues.com/content/features_moments.html
Someone put together a list of dubious moments in Dodgers history. Great stuff. You can play Lasorda’s rant on Bevacqua.
Ah yes, the good ol’ double play. Damn.
So, did anyone expect a scoreless tie through four tonight?
I wouldn’t have been surprised if we were scoreless through four.
actually, I didnt expect the Padres to score as the offensive has been impotent at home. I didnt expect Pedro to be shuting out Philly tho.
back to Nady, its hard to lobby for him to be an everyday player when he is having so much trouble making contact vs right handers. He does some damage when he does make contact(15 of his 31 hits have been extra bases with 9 homers). Still, its really hard to justify .221ba/.264obp against rightys as an everyday player.
Have you guys seen those folks at tonight’s game dressed up as superheroes and bees at the park?
True, Hank. On the other hand, I wonder how much of that is due to lack of PT. When Nady was getting more opportunities against RHP, he was hitting them a lot better than that.
Yeah, I just saw the bees. What’s up with that?
Wow, beautiful bunt by Roberts.
Sweet play by Roberts. I would love to see him bunt more often, especially when he is in a slump otherwise. I realize he is hitting well this month.
I don’t know about those fans. I thought it was unusal because San Diego has a laid-back rep. What is the general atmosphere at the park like?
God bless you, David Bell. Kicks it twice. Should have been a double play. Let’s make ‘em pay.
Gotta think Roberts speed shook up the 3B a bit there, causing the error.
It’s a pretty festive atmosphere at Petco. Moreso, I think, than at the Q.
Okay, Klesko bunting? WTF?
And now Lieberthal boxes a pitch. Runners at second and third, nobody out. Needless to say, we have to score at least one run here.
I’m not feeling Klesko bunting.
Yeah, I don’t ever want to see Klesko try to lay down a sacrifice bunt again. That was ugly. Not that his grounder to second was any better.
It makes no sense that Klesko bats before Giles.
Two down, nobody in. Unbelieveable. The Phillies are going to get out of this without any damage.
Nothing. Sigh. Nice going, guys.
It makes a lot of sense. Giles is our best hitter, having him behind Klesko forces them to pitch to Klesko with runners on or else face Giles in an even worse situation.
It should give Giles additional rbi chances too.
That hurt.
that was pathetic but normal for the Padres. Drive for show and putt for dough. All their heroics come with no one on. When the chips are down, they get the yips..