first pitch: 5:05 p.m., PT
television: Channel 4SD
matchup: Mike Thompson (2-2, 4.24 ERA) vs Vicente Padilla (6-4, 4.65 ERA)
previews: Padres.com | SI.com
The highlight of my baseball experience this year probably was when Akinori Otsuka saved Japan’s two victories at Petco Park in the World Baseball Classic this past March. The Padres should make the deal that sent him to Texas every time, but I am very happy to see Aki doing so well with the Rangers as their closer. That said, I hope he doesn’t pitch in this series.
Interesting footnote: According to the U-T, the Padres almost acquired Chris Young from the Expos in 2003 for Rondell White. And over the winter the Pads almost dealt Aki to the Mets for Jae Seo (the Mets turned it down), proving yet again that some of the best trades are the ones you don’t make.
Go Padres!
Texas has called up ex-Padre Freddy Guzman: http://tinyurl.com/nomtf
Another extra base hit for Vinny! That’s all we ask, just hit the ball once in a while.
We need to get Khalil on whatever plan Gonzalez is following. It wasn’t that long ago that AGon was down around .210 too.
Give the man I would fire some credit: he didn’t start EY.
Big Ben comes through.
Cameron goes oppo. Guess I got home at just the right time.
So much for that inning. I love it when the first two guys reach base and we can’t score. Curious decision to have Cameron bunt there.
With hindsight, I was curious as to having Cameron bunt when he had just gone deep. I know they wanted the one insurance run by getting the man to third and hoping for at least a SF. But, GY, I agree with you. I was perplexed. By the way, X went deep x 2 tonight.
This is ridiculous if they reverse the call.
Okay, foul ball. So Teixeira’s celebration was premature and the umpire got it right. Game on.
Cameron makes the catch to end the game. Victory #900 for Bochy. Man, that was a nerve-wracking finish. I’ll be very interested to hear what the Rangers blogs and newspapers have to say about Teixeira’s near homer in the ninth.
Dodged a bullet there. One down two to go..
Go Padres
I think Trevor should have thrown his arms into the air when Teixeira popped up to Vinny.
Anybody want to bet me a dollar that Texeria takes one in the middle of the back at some point during tomorrows game. Vinny’s look at him after he caught the pop-up was priceless. I was watching with my wife and she said, “It looks like Vinny wants to fight him.” If you’ve got TiVo or DVR you’ve got to check it out.
Yeah, Vinny absolutely stared him down. Plus he was 3 for 4. I hope there’s a close play at third tomorrow and Vinny tags Teixeira in the mouth.
I was reading the comments at lonestarball.com and they seemed to think it was fair but really there’s no way to tell from the replay. I’m sure if it was called fair we’d all be griping that it was foul. For what it’s worth I thought it was foul as soon as it left the bat, it looked like he was out in front and the launch angle didn’t look good. Trevor seems to give up his share of long foul balls, probably a result of changing speeds so often. I love that he doesn’t get rattled by stuff like that.
Traveling, so my time zones are off, but nice to say: first place. Granted last place is only 1.5 games away, tight division. With all of our gripes, things that have gone well and those that have not, imagine our position if we had a normal Jake. That would be 1-3 wins at least, giving us a 2-4 game lead. So given our most reliable, best player is off his game, pretty cool that we are in the running.