first pitch: 6:40 p.m., PT
television: Channel 4SD
matchup: Jake Peavy (3-3, 3.63 ERA) vs Orlando Hernandez (2-4, 7.36 ERA)
previews: Padres.com | SI.com | ESPN
How can a guy be striking out more than 10 batters per 9 innings and still have an ERA over 7.00? I dunno, but that’s exactly what Arizona’s Orlando Hernandez is doing. Batters are hitting .304/.387/.574 off “El Duque” this year. Stack the lineup with lefties; they’re hitting .407/.467/.815 against him, while right-handers are at .179/.295/.284. Wow, those are some obscene splits. Talk about a guy who belongs in the bullpen.
The Padres counter with ace Jake Peavy, who is coming off his best start of the season. Despite the rough start in 2006, opponents are hitting just .230/.284/.385 against Peavy in the early going. It’s amazing how high his standards have become in such a short time. The guy is having a season most pitchers would kill for and we all think he’s struggling.
Time to start a new winning streak. Go Pads!
Interesting thought on Hernandez going to the pen. You don’t hear about a right handed only specialist, it’s always the lefty, but those splits sure do seem to indicate he could be better used situationally.
Geoff, any idea if this is just a recent development or a skewing caused by small sample size, or if it’s more of a career/late career trend?
The ESPN link above says Hernandez was born in 1969 … NOT! baseball-reference.com and The Baseball Cube both say 1965 … and my money would be earlier … this is one old man! But I think that just means more variability … he knows how to be good, and when his body cooperates, he’ll be good, but if/when it doesn’t, his experience doesn’t help much … let’s go get him!
A day game today in Portland … I’ll bet it was *GREAT* day to be at the ballpark based on the blue sky here in Corvallis … http://tinyurl.com/jg2yx … HR #9 by Cust … but Beavers fall 3-1 … a clean inning (w/ a K) by Sikorski …
Also the complaint about Sikorski might be because once he is brought up, he’d have to pass through waivers as a free agent and another team might claim him if he’s doing well. I know that argument has come up a lot.
But when you have Jim Brower in the bullpen (who might be sent down tomorrow for Mike Thompson), either use him or let him go.. he might not do well in San Diego let alone anywhere.
Damn, Giles should have caught that. They’re calling it a triple.
if he doesn’t touch it, which it appeared he just m issed it.. it’s scored a triple. might not be fair but that’s how it goes.
Peavy takes care of business and takes Giles off the hook. I’ll have to watch the replay again, but it looked to me like that ball hit his glove.
Pat: The splits 2003-05 aren’t nearly as severe for Hernandez:
LHB: .276/.358/.447
RHB: .234/.311/.401
He worked a nice sequence to Giles in the first, so maybe it’s just an early-season small sample thing.
Hernandez hurt.. I don’t see why.. it didn’t seem like he was hurting.. maybe shoulder though with the breaking balls.. We shall see.
man there has to be someone better than steve quis to fill in for Matty V when he’s gone
Thanks Geoff. Another reason for him to become a situational/bullpen guy is his age and fragility. Wouldn’t surprise me to see him there eventually. He strikes me as the sort of guy who just loves to play and will play as long as he can. A John Franco, Julio Franco sort of guy.
Man, this Quis guy never shuts up. It seriously detracts from the game.
your good ol’ 5-3-4 double play
Painful to watch. Roberts forgetting how many outs; Cameron’s DP with the bases loaded; no offense; we have played some sick teams in our run, now playing a good team, and we are losing. Gave away a game yesterday, got beat today. Jake was off. What was with Adkins? I like the way he battled but it seemed like Bochy was just going to let him hang. OK, I guess, but seemed mean-spirited. May ended earlier than expected.
Crappy game. But I’m still feeling pretty good today because:
1. The sun is finally out — it’s rained for a week straight out here;
2. The Pads are still in second place, 4 games over .500. I really believe that they have the talent to compete in a wide open division. All they have to do is hang around. They certainly have issues — 3B comes to mind immediately — but what team in the West doesn’t?
Anyway, the U-T says that Meredith might be going down to be replaced by Thompson. Also says WW will not be back until September & Estes’ target date is 6/16.