first pitch: 7:05 p.m., PT
television: Channel 4SD
matchup: Dewon Brazelton (1-8, 7.61 ERA) vs Zach Day (1-3, 6.85 ERA)
previews: Padres.com | SI.com | ESPN.com
During Friday night’s 10-4 loss to the Rockies, the opening to Rush’s “Twilight Zone” played as the television broadcast went to commercial following the top of the ninth. This is noteworthy for two reasons. The first is that the more obvious choice would have been Golden Earring’s hit song of the same name, which came out in 1983. The song by Rush appeared seven years earlier, on Side 2 of their seminal 2112, and bears no resemblance whatsoever to the Golden Earring tune.
This brings us to the second reason, which is that even among Rush fans, “Twilight Zone” is a pretty obscure track. It’s 30 years old and as far as I can tell, it never received any airplay. Not only is it less well known than the song by Golden Earring, but most likely it’s not known at all by the vast majority of, well, anyone. So to whomever chooses the music leading to commercial over at Channel 4SD, I say thank you for rewarding this Rush fan for suffering through an otherwise horrible game.
Ah yes, the game. The less said, the better. Despite the final line, Chris Young looked good in his Padres debut. He also showed that he can swing the bat a little, driving a ball deep into the left field corner for a double, his first big-league hit. Adrian Gonzalez and Khalil Greene hit balls that had home run distance but hooked just foul. Nice to see Gonzalez, who gets to keep his first base job a little longer now that Ryan Klesko has opted to have surgery on his left shoulder and is expected to miss two to four months, pull the ball with such authority. And Chan Ho Park and Alan Embree did a nice job coming out of the bullpen, with the latter running his fastball at 94-97 mph according to the displays on television.
The rest of the relief corps looked very shaky, with Clay Hensley having a rare bad outing, and the recently recalled Scott Cassidy and Brian Sweeney demonstrating why they have spent so much of their careers in the minor leagues. Cassidy, if you haven’t been following along, was brought up to replace Shawn Estes, who landed on the disabled list due to a “strained flexor tendon in his left elbow” and is expected to be out four to six weeks. Woody Williams replaces Estes in the rotation, with Park getting the #5 spot when it comes up on or around April 15.
As for Saturday night’s contest, Padres fans will get their first look at yet another unknown in the equation that is the San Diego pitching staff. Dewon Brazelton opened a lot of eyes this spring and won the #4 spot over guys with longer track records and bigger contracts. Tonight we’ll get our first indication of whether to believe his performance this May or the 5.98 ERA over 253 career innings he brings into the season. He is a former first-round draft pick and he’s only 25 years old, so anything is possible. With so many question marks on the staff, it would be fantastic to see someone like Brazelton step up and establish himself. We can only hope.
I think he could have a good game tonight.. and we’ll see if the offense shows up. Also Mirabelli hitting 5th in this lineup.. the Padres must have saw something in him that suggested he’d turn from .230 hitting backup to something over replacement level.
Also just a word.. have the Alternate Blues been exiled or something? What’s the deal with not using those?
I think the I can count on one hand the number of times the Padres have worn the blue tops at home in 2+ seasons. It is a rare sight to see them at Petco.
I think that I mentioned it in my spring training observances, but Clay Hensley struggled all thru spring training. His location and velocity both were off. I was hoping that it was just a case of “taking it easy and working on some things” but now I wonder.
Piazza, career .467 v. Day.. he’s sitting.. great idea Bochy.
mlb.com access pass has me locked out and no way to contact them. crap.
eh the Rockies broadcast is on.. try to get your password back or something.. I’d give you mine but I’m on someone elses account.
Single. Single. Walk. Double. Rockies up, 2-0, nobody out. The second single and double might have been caught by Cameron in CF. Brazelton is leaving everything up and out over the plate.
This is my first opportunity to see Braz, and from what I heard, I was expecting more velocity, around 92-94. His fastball is sitting in the upper 80s tonight. Same old Padre pitching though, get ahead 0-2 in the count and then serve up the fat pitch.
Hell, they dont hit thiis well in batting practice. The new Padres pitching philosophy is to wear em out running the baese? eh?
One out in the first, Balsley just made a call down to the bullpen. Cassidy is up and getting ready.
I don’t care what people say, this Rockies team is not very good, and if these first two games are any indication, neither are we.
This is baaaad. Brazelton’s getting ripped.
This is embarrassing.
Yikes. Home run Miguel Ojeda, 7-0 Rox. Shades of Tim Redding.
Redding and May all rolled into one.
7-0? Ridiculous. I don’t know what it looks like live, but it can’t be pretty. I’m “watching” it on Gameday and I’m getting pissed.
Tonight’s lesson: spring training performance doesn’t really mean much once the season starts.
Get well soon Mike Cameron.
So much for Braz having a confident first outing. This will not help Bochy’s paranoia.
His ERA is 94.50 now, if anyone is wondering.
Well . . . Zach Day isn’t very good, right?
At least he has Dennis Tankersly beat.
I am sure Day, like every other mediocre pitcher to take Petco’s mound, will have a sterling performance, especially since he’s been spotted a 7 run lead. I expect to see a lot of first and second pitch swinging tonight from the Padres.
Yeah he does!! Forgot about that game, Bruce! Only that one was in Colorado . . .
The Tank start I am thinking of, the one where he failed to record an out, was in SF.
Nick, it’s every bit as ugly as it looks. Brazelton didn’t use the inner half at all. Anyone know how many pitches he threw that inning?
Was it?? Oh yeah . . .
38!! Yuck . . .
At this pace the final will be 63-27.
Um. 63-36, sorry.
I’m pretty sure that the Rockies took a swing at every ball thrown in their half of the inning.
Maybe they forgot who the home team is. We’re not in Colorado dudes. 11 runs, in 5 outs.
At least we came back and got some runs. Nothing worse than going 1-2-3 after a big inning.
well that was shaky but much better from the kid. Glad that Bochy didnt jerk him. Too late now, let him stretch it out with no pressure. Maybe it will do him some good.
So he loaded the bases and got out of the jam? That’s a good thing, I guess — his ERA’s down to 31.5
the problem is, we have a habit of letting the offense die after our “one rally”. we need to chip away to get back into this thing…of course we have to contain their offense, which hasnt been happening. ha ha.
Ouch. Now we know why Brazelton wasn’t using the inner half. That was ugly.
crap . . .2 run jack. I’m going to bed, guys . . . 11 pm EST.
Here’s hoping they can chip away and come back.
well so much for gaining a little confidence out of a bad situation. Better days, i sure hope anyway.
nice fireman job by cassidy. maybe a brigt side after all, or else the Rocks are just getting tired.
It just hit me why Pizza might not be catching tonight. Tomorrow is a day game after a night game and the usual day to rest your regular catcher. But hitting conditions are much better in day games than night games at Petco. So maybe by starting Mirrabelli tonight, we save Piazza for tomorrow. Sound probable? or at least possible. he he.
awrite. Scott is doing a great job mopping up. Hopefully this will carry over and we may have found a reliable middle reliever…at least its a bright spot for today.
OK then, time to take one for the team. Tomorrow is guaranteed win day. I just picked up Jennings and put him in my fantasy lineup for tomorrow. That should give the guys some luck.
I started to watch and then Colorado put up 4.. I assumed Brazelton might not make it out of the inning so I’ll give some credit to him for not completely exploding. ..
Also these last 2 nights so far have looked a lot why this team could be pegged for 76 wins.
Our first Rob Bowen sighting!
the underlying problem is… our offense is dormant. wtf is wrong with these guys?
Someone, please. hit a line drive.. 300 ft fly balls don’t go out of PETCO, in fact they don’t go out anywhere. do something. Hank, it’s the bad offense that makes Zach Day look like Chris Carpenter
Nice Padres debut for Sean Burroughs.
Colorado – Top of 1st
Dewon Brazelton pitching for San Diego
C Sullivan singled to right.
C Barmes singled to center, C Sullivan to second.
T Helton walked, C Sullivan to third, C Barmes to second.
G Atkins doubled to deep center, C Sullivan and C Barmes scored, T Helton to third. Colorado 2-0
M Holliday doubled to right, T Helton and G Atkins scored. Col 4-0
E Marrero flied out to center.
J Smith singled to left, M Holliday scored. Colorado 5-0
M Ojeda homered to left, J Smith scored. Colorado 7-0
That was really Sean Burroughs, in disguise, on the hill to start tonight’s contest for the Padres.
Either Burroughs or Duke Cunningham on a work release program.
You know I was thinking that Burroughs could have probably pitched a little better than Brazelton tonight.. I mean he did only give up a run or two v. Colorado last year.
I think it might be panic time for Hensley. He doesn’t have it…. again.