IGD: Padres @ Cubs (14 May 06)
Sun, May 14, 2006
by Geoff Young
first pitch: 11:20 a.m., PT
television: Channel 4SD
matchup: Clay Hensley (1-2, 4.73 ERA) vs Rich Hill (0-2, 9.00 ERA)
previews: Padres.com | SI.com | ESPN
Happy Mother’s Day! If you can’t get out there and swing a pink bat, at least do something nice for Mom today (and every day, for that matter).
How about that game Saturday? With Greg Maddux completely shutting down the Padres for most of the afternoon, he was lifted with one out in the eighth after throwing just 73 pitches. Quoth Maddux: “I didn’t want to go through that lineup a fourth time” — a fact for which we are all mighty grateful.
In the ninth, in case you missed it, Mike Cameron blooped a single to center, Brian Giles grounded one to right, and Mike Piazza launched his fourth homer of the season into the left field basket to give recently recalled Cla Meredith his first big-league win. Meredith, acquired in the deal that brought catcher Josh Bard to San Diego, was recalled along with veteran reliever Jim Brower, replacing outfielder Ben Johnson (optioned to Portland) and starter Woody Williams (placed on DL) on the roster.
Welcome, Mr. Meredith, to the magical month of May:
Pads go for their second straight sweep of the Cubs this morning. Clay Hensley, presumably no longer woozy from being struck in the head by a broken bat, looks to bounce back from a tough outing last Tuesday against the Brewers.
Unable to throw between starts before that game due to “lingering soreness,” Hensley didn’t look sharp in the Friars’ lone May loss. Otherwise, he’s been terrific since taking Dewon Brazelton’s spot in the rotation.
Rich Hill goes for the Cubs. No, not USD’s head coach. This Hill is a highly touted rookie left-hander who hasn’t had any success at the big-league level thus far. He’s made two starts in 2006, allowing five runs and taking the loss in each.
Picking up where last year's version left off, the Ducksnorts 2008 Baseball Annual provides in-depth analysis of and commentary on the San Diego Padres. Get your copy today.
May 14, 2006 at 11:17 am
How DO you do it? And to think I thought you might be taking a day off. Good job again, Geoff…aloha
May 14, 2006 at 11:37 am
This Cubs kid looks like he has good stuff and pretty good command. I really dont like the looks of this. We have lots of trouble with lefties we dont know. Remember that other kid in san diego(leftie)?
May 14, 2006 at 11:47 am
Heckuva catch there by Gonzalez, but these guys really have to start talking to each other on pop flies.
May 14, 2006 at 12:12 pm
ya, that gets a little scary…
dang, Giles left too soon…..thought we had one.
May 14, 2006 at 12:12 pm
cubs replay showed he didn’t leave early.
May 14, 2006 at 12:14 pm
all the guys looking at the replays are saying the call was blown and that Giles did in fact, tag up and not leave too soon…
chit…well bad calls happen both ways..
just carry on, its all u can do..
May 14, 2006 at 12:23 pm
ey doubles to drive in Josh. great…
May 14, 2006 at 12:33 pm
gawd that guy is great. I wonder how many runs cameron is going to save us wiith his great defense this year? He is amazing..
May 14, 2006 at 12:46 pm
I am sorry, I know the umps have a hard job, but I don’t get the call on Giles at all. It is a rare call, arguably only called when it is egregious. That was not only not egregious, but it was wrong. Missing a balls/strikes, the ump has to make a call. Same with a tag, safe or out. Or whether the throw beat the runner or not. Umps will get it wrong, but in their defense, they have to a make a call either way. Some portion of the time they are going to get it wrong, no matter how good they are.
This makes no sense. The default is a no-call, so you should only make a call when it is very obvious. It could not have been very obvious, because he did not leave early. In my mind, that is just home town ump-ing at its worst. And, to take away a run, possibly more, is raises the stakes even more, so you ought to be very, very certain. There is no way to be very, very certain when you wrong and you are professional. Again, they miss another type of play, where they have to call one way or another, they have to do their best. Here, they have responsbility to be risk averse, because their call is disrupting play. Again, I think that ump has no defense whatsoever. Burn his house! OK, OK; go visit or call your Mom instead.
Go Pads.
May 14, 2006 at 12:50 pm
these old guys are at it again. Piazza and then Castilla scoring on btb passed balls..
May 14, 2006 at 1:01 pm
Watching this on Tivo; post that rant then tune in to watch them scratch for 3 runs. Let’s call this MagBall. Good plate discipline and executing on SF opportunities (barely, in both cases). Not lots of big hits, but enough to get 4 runs, arguably 5. Then watch Hensley pitch efficiently and well. Fun, fun.
May 14, 2006 at 1:09 pm
yah, games like this make me really want to have the tv. grrrrrr…some things are not so great about Hawaii…not too many..
smile
Khalil just went yard into the wind
May 14, 2006 at 1:13 pm
Nice 8 pitch inning for Clay
May 14, 2006 at 1:31 pm
Old baseball adage: “If you see 157 pitches in 8 innings you are likely to win”
May 14, 2006 at 1:33 pm
And another 8 pitch inning for Clay. He has out Madduxed Maddux.
May 14, 2006 at 1:36 pm
I wonder if there has ever been a game where one member of a team had 5 PAs and 5 walks and another had 5 PAs and 5 K’s. We need to get Hensley another AB.
May 14, 2006 at 1:39 pm
Bingo
May 14, 2006 at 1:40 pm
I just realized before this 1/2 inning that Hensley has had a very quiet 2 hitter thru 8 innings…Lets see the kid finish this one off…
May 14, 2006 at 1:46 pm
21 pitches over the last 3 innings. wow.
May 14, 2006 at 1:48 pm
When is the last time we had 5 starters all with ERAs under 4?
May 14, 2006 at 1:50 pm
I remember asking something like that last May, except it was under 5.
Last May’s run was fueled more by offense…this one is pitching and D.
May 14, 2006 at 1:51 pm
We are also exploiting opportunities on the basepaths
May 14, 2006 at 1:53 pm
Were we ever 6 games over .500 last year? It’s nice seeing us on top of the standings and also seeing our record be respectable compared to the other division leaders.
May 14, 2006 at 2:03 pm
We peaked at 14 games over on May 31st last year
May 14, 2006 at 2:15 pm
Nice win. Only Woody’s injury is the sole black cloud on the Padre picnic, though a nasty cloud it is. I believe the Cubs pitchers threw 83 more pitches than Hensley. 91 pitch, complete game. It’s been a while for that.
Launches us into first place. Very sweet, coming from 7 under. I have this budding hypothesis about winning streaks. When they are rolling, my guess is that players just focus on each game; one game at a time, not looking too far out. That is probably what you want your players to do all the time, but it happens in streaks, so the focus builds on itself. I wonder if the reverse is true in losing streaks. You are so demoralized, you cannot focus, so that also builds on itself. Just a thought. Nice, nice win.
I have never been a fan of the Cubs or of Dusty Baker, but man I feel for those guys. The MLB Innings or whatever cable I am watching has some of his interviews. Actually, doing a very human job of answering the questions. Here’s hoping they get Lee back and get well to face our division rivals.
May 14, 2006 at 2:21 pm
One last thing. After Woody’s injury, I was really nervous about our pen, that this might snowball into something bad. A tired pen has to pitch, gets hit hard, gets more tired, repeat…; so, over the next two games, the relievers threw for a total of 23 pitches. Nice work when needed by the starters.
May 14, 2006 at 2:49 pm
Who caught Matt’s reference to The Drunken Sut Incident in the top of the 7th? After Mud’s Harry Carry schitck Matt goes, “Who doesn’t love Mark Grant?”
Classic.
May 14, 2006 at 4:57 pm
Michael Thompson started and pitched 1 inning for Portland today. We can safely assume he will start in Woody’s place next week.
May 14, 2006 at 8:29 pm
Here’s the pitching details from today’s game …
Pitches-strikes - C Hensley 91-59; R Hill 90-53; S Williamson 17-10; R Novoa 23-10; J Ryu 27-14; B Howry 17-10.
Ground balls-fly balls - C Hensley 13-12; R Hill 6-5; S Williamson 0-0; R Novoa 0-2; J Ryu 1-0; B Howry 0-1.
Batters faced - C Hensley 30; R Hill 23; S Williamson 4; R Novoa 7; J Ryu 7; B Howry 5.
… eh, the cubs only threw 174 pitches … not quite 2x!
Also, Braz threw 3 good innings for Portland today … it’d still be good if he got him into a position to be able to contribute to the Padres this season … methinks pitching depth is very valuable.
May 15, 2006 at 8:11 am
By my rekon’ing, Padres magic number is 124