first pitch: 1:05 p.m., PT
television: FOX
matchup: Clay Hensley (7-10, 4.19 ERA) vs Claudio Vargas (9-8, 5.10 ERA)
previews: Padres.com | SI.com | ESPN
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You know what’s awesome? For all our griping about the Padres’ recent play, they’re only 1 game out of a playoff spot.
Game is on FOX this afternoon, so you might want to hit mute and turn up the radio.
Just heard that other guy on 1090 asking RJ and Flan who the Padres MVP is this year. There was a lot of silence initially, and then almost random throwing out of names. Interesting question. By VORP, the leaders are Chris Young (30.2) and Mike Cameron (29.8). Then there’s like nine guys between 18 and 24 VORP. I say the MVP is gonna be whoever puts this team on their back over the next 6 weeks and takes us to the promised land! Time for the Padre MVP to step up and claim it!
No TV here in orange county…Fox LA decided to show the Yankees/Red sox instead of the Padres…
Rudy Seanez DFA-ed
why is thompson pitching instead of clay?
Thompson clearly struck Hudson out, but the umpire blew the call. Two pitches later and Hudson is on second base.
That blown call ends up costing us two runs.
Nothing is worse than an umpire affecting the outcome of a game.
Walker’s wOBA of.376 through 49 PA as a Padre is good for third on the team behind Bard and Piazza.
Padres just got lucky on a call. Barfield dropped that ball.
That wasn’t even close, we caught a break on that call.
Barfield kept Thompson from getting out of the inning. Now, here comes Brocail. Interesting choice, you’d think Bochy would still be trying to win this one.
Personally, I’m shocked that Brocail let one of his inherited runners score. I expected both to cross home plate.
This home plate umpire is lousy.
The adjective “pathetic” comes to mind when describing the offense, although many others come to mind as well.
I find it interesting that the announcers are ripping on swinging at a 3-1 fastball.
There’s that pitch the umpire has called a ball most of the night called for a strike there. The announcers continue to be unaware that the strike zone has been wildly inconsistent.
Geoff Blum batting in this situation is unacceptable.
Im pretty sure the announcers have no idea what theyre talking about. They say its embarassing that the tactics and quality of the game have slipped to this point(with Brian Giles 3-1 swing). Well while following the theme of sweeping generalizations I find that the quality of todays announcers is worse than todays players could ever dream to be. All hype no substance all smoke no fire. I’m only 23 could some of the older clarify as to whether baseball announcing has ever been in a poorer state than it is today (especially with the nationwide guys.)
Geoff Blum is the worst remaining hitter on the team.
Good news: tieing run at the plate in bottom of 9th …
Bad news: it’s Geoff Blum …
Game on!
- G. Blum singled to second, M. Cameron scored, J. Bard to third, T. Walker to second
- M. Piazza hit for J. Adkins
It comes down to the second worst hitter on the team.
Ben Johnson is a significantly better hitter than Bellhorn.
- M. Piazza walked, J. Bard scored, T. Walker to third, G. Blum to second
… now Belhorn up … Padres down 5-3 … 2 outs … any PH options? I can’t wait for Sept when we’ll have McAnulty, Sledge, and Cust available off the bench!
.027 runs per plate appearance better…
Ben Johnson PR’s … hmmm ….
And that’s why you don’t waste a better hitter as a pinch-runner.
M. Bellhorn struck out swinging
Richard … agree … when you gonna post next Top100?
Not pinch-hitting for Blum with Piazza was a bad move. Not pinch-hitting for Bellhorn with Johnson was a bad move. Still, it’s not Bochy’s fault that people have put him in a position to make decisions.
I don’t think you could pinch hit for Blum. Blum is our only shortstop, since Khalil went on the DL today. If Piazza replaces Blum and ties it, Piazza would be playing short, since we don’t have another shortstop, other than Blu.
Sorry, add “m” to the end of that sentence.
Boch would have definitely used Piazza to pinch-hit for Blum if Khalil had been available. We’ve been wasting roster spots on injured dudes all season and it keeps hurting us.
Well, Richard, either Bellhorn or Blum had to hit because, I think, Johnson and Piazza were the only bench options. Adkins had to be hit for, so if you hit for Blum then Bellhorn has to hit. Also, we didn’t have any other infielders available, so had the game ended tied then an outfielder or catcher would have had to played 3B. Hopefully Bochy doesn’t decide to carry Thompson instead of Greene, because with 3 catchers we desperately need other bench options. In conclusion, no way both Blum and Bellhorn should have been hitting there, but one of them had to.
yeah I thought the same thing Lamar when blummer came up, which why im suprised they brought up thompson instead of leone or another middle infeilder, does the team really need 13 pitchers?
It also killed me when boch burned his last IF on the doubble switch, Poor moves on KT’s part and Poor Moves on Boches part.
Ok i thought Brenaman had said we put Hensley on the DL before the game, but Rotoworld says that Khalil was DL’ed instead so he wasn’t available at all.
But it really is poor roster construction on Towers’ part. Having only 12 position players, and having three of them be catchers, severely limits Bochy’s options. If Bochy hadn’t double-swtiched in Brocail and Bellhorn, then he would have had to pinch-hit with somebody for Brocail, and then replace that hitter again with another pitcher. The double-switch was actually a brilliant move because it allowed him to use two players for more innings, instead of just one.
Why were the announcers ripping on Giles for swinging 3-1? Isn’t that the ideal hitter’s count? Unless it was clearly a ball there’s no reason not to swing there.
To answer Matt’s question: My memories go back to the mid to late 70s, I mainly remember Tony Kubek and Joe Garagiola on the national broadcasts, plus some Vin Scully. Very old school, obviously ignorant of today’s stathead theories since they hadn’t been invented yet. Kind of like Joe Morgan with a better attitude. I don’t think much has changed, some good, some bad, most were mediocre. But at least they didn’t have all those annoying graphics that we see on Fox games.
The best national announcer in those days was Mel Allen on This Week in Baseball.
Portland’s catch, Luke Carlin, is hitting leadoff for the Beavers tonight … http://tinyurl.com/fuvrc … might be because he’s got a .410 OBP in over 250 PAs! (48 BBs vs 46 Ks)
To all you Ducksnorters going to Petco tomorrow … HAVE A GREAT DAY!!! I sure wish I could join ya! But even more, I hope you get a W!
GY – take some pics … post ‘em … and name names