first pitch: 7:05 p.m., PT
television: Channel 4SD
matchup: Clay Hensley (7-9, 4.41 ERA) vs Brad Hennessey (4-2, 2.93 ERA)
previews: Padres.com | SI.com | ESPN
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If you’re reading this sentence, it means I ran out of time this morning to put something more profound here. Go Padres!
56 Comments
I’ll start of with something a bit OT … Nevin with #10 … http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/boxscore?gid=260814118
PeterF’s happy tonight … Will Venable with 2 HR’s for Ft Wayne … http://tinyurl.com/ofatl
in case you just noitced the padres changed their site. their slogan now is Mission October on the top.
link: http://sandiego.padres.mlb.com/images/masthead/sd_logobanner_primary.jpg
also.
Vinny Castilla signs with Colorado only to find out it’s not the old coors field. ( link: http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060814&content_id=1609550&vkey=news_col&fext=.jsp&c_id=col )
Also, Rox discussing trade for Preston, bad offense, Wilson (link: http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060814&content_id=1609537&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb )
cold downtown, heavy bay air, clouds coming in, love to be wrong. but the atmosphere at petco spells low scoring, boring game.
nice play by Hensley!
Castilla just signed a minor league deal with the Rox. . . .
Hensley has made a couple of nice plays so far…
For those of you watching channel 4….the espn2 broadcast has our old buddy Rick Sutcliffe doing the game with Eric Karros.
Amazed more teams aren’t laying bunts down third with Walker there. Success rate would have to be close to .450 if the batter has any speed at all.
Wow, nice recovery by Hensley.
Vizquel really slowed down on that slide into first. He almost looked like he was going to come to a stop before he reached the bag.
Damn, second straight game a guy comes out after getting hit by a pitch. Piazza out, Bowen in.
Boo-yah Lynch!!!
Hey, anyone know about a Padres’ release? Paul and I talked this evening and he said he heard someone was released. He heard something about a switch-hitter (Blum? Bellhorn?)… Anyone know?
Haven’t heard anything, PF. We need at least one of those guys around to bail out Walker, who just committed his second error of the game. That’s five in 12 games with the Padres. Not that I’d want him back, but it took Vinny 69 games to reach that total.
I’m not sure that Walker gives us enough offense to make up for his horrid defense. As opposed to Vinny who couldn’t hit, but at least didn’t cost us any games with his defense.
Jose Mesa just gave up a 3-run bomb in the 8th — D’Backs up 3-2. That means Mesa is in line for the win if the Rox come back.
That’s a rule in baseball that needs to be changed. Like a closer can’t pitch himself into a save, a reliever shouldn’t be allowed to pitch himself into a win. Jeff Francis goes 7.1 shutout innings (he did leave with two guys on) — silly that Mesa or a subsequent reliever get the win.
OK, back to the Pads.
Hensley is throwing a beautiful game, but the defense is killing him.
Piazza has a “right forearm contusion” and is listed as day-to-day.
Well, at least Affeldt (1 inning of work) gets the win for Colorado instead of Mesa. Rox 4-3. Still hate that rule. Makes as much sense as the GWRBI stat did.
They’re playing this game like it’s 35 degrees in Chicago. What happened to the defense? And the offense too for that matter.
Wilson “Walker” Betemit made an error to put men on 1st and 3rd with 1 out, Marlins-D’gers. Amezaga grounds out to pitcher and Dontrelle Willis bats for himself with 2 outs in 7th, down 2-1. Grounds out to 1st.
The Dodgers can’t win again, can they?
Stanton fakes out his own first baseman on a pickoff attempt, sending Bellhorn to second. Because, you know, Bellhorn is a big threat to run.
No K here Khalil. Show us that fly ball power!
The Jints tried like hell to give us a run but we wouldn’t take it.
Hopefully that’s not our only scoring opportunity tonight.
Dodgers now up 4-1. Maybe they should have pinch hit for Willis (I know he’s a decent hitter, but 2 outs in the 7th, 2 men on…)
BigKTfan,
I read once that the official scorer can give the win or loss to just about anyone he wants, but they never do, because that would be “going against the book” and they would come under scrutiny. So I think they have some lee-way, but they never take it.
Why bunt again there? Stupid.
I can’t believe one of our best power threats was just up there trying to lay down a sacrifice bunt. This is painful.
Bochy bunting Cameron…huh?
Re: #26
That’s true, but it’s almost never exercised, except in the case of a reliever who gives up 5 runs and is in line for the win when his team comes back (or when the starter leaves early and all the subsequent pitchers go 1 or 2 innings).
It just seems to happen to a starter every day and it makes wins, losses and no-decisions very misleading. I wouldn’t mind except that when announcers talk about pitchers, win-loss record is the first thing they mention.
I’d like to see:
5 innings – 3 earned runs or less and you leave the game ahead, starter gets the win whether the bulpen blows the lead or not
6 innings – 3 earned runs or less, you leave the game tied or ahead, same as above
7 innings – 3 earned runs or less, you get the win if your teams wins, no matter what happens
Sorry if this is off topic, Geoff.
Now let’s get those runners in!
We’re not going to score here.
Off-topic? Eh, it’s baseball — good enough for me.
Time for an AGon-bomb!
That’ll do.
This is where Todd Walker was supposed to atone.
Where’s Bard? Blum is 0-7 against Benitez.
The mighty Blum has struck out. Tough loss for Hensley.
Too bad Hensley gets credited with the loss. This one is squarely on management for failing to field a big-league third baseman and for ordering one of the team’s best power hitters to lay down a sacrifice bunt in a crucial situation. Poor decisions beget poor results. We got exactly what we deserved tonight. Very irritating to watch.
Bard’s wife had a baby and he is not with the team. Tough loss…certainly had our chances..
Alas, the petco curse has struck.
So much for our hot bats. Shame Clay had to lost that one. The Dodgers continue to pull away. Bard must have been hurt, otherwise Bochy’s tendancy to insert Bowen in knee-jerk fashion is starting to cost us. Bowen has gotten way too many at bats in the cleanup position.
I agree Geoff, watching Walker play third is painful (nothing against the Todd) and only reminds me of what the Dodgers managed to pull off, without really giving that much up. You want a good laugh go read the Padres mailbag on their site and look at the gushing praise Lyle Spencer heaps on Cesar Isturis. Perhaps we should have signed Vinny to that minor league deal. Aaron Boone anyone? Surely we have another no-name arm to give up…
If the padres can’t learn how to score off of these young Giant Pitchers We (as padre fans) have a lot of long seasons ahead of us.
Boch got out managed this game, Walker is not a 3B, and the last person I would want up with 2 outs in the 9th is Blum, but there was no one else on the bench, which is the exact reason why I hate it when boch pinch hits for a guy because of match ups.
but tomorrow brings another day and another game.
Well at least Leone may get a shot in Sept, but from all accounts he’s no whiz with the glove as well.
I am usually a Padres Optimist…I get made fun of by my friends for the rosy outlook I have for the team…despite what you may have read here…but tonight I have reached a level of frustration I have NEVER had before…
I walked out of the ballpark angry…and that is not right. I go to the games for fun…win or lose I always have fun. Tonight’s game made it very diffcult for me. I want to give away the rest of my season tickets and not go to another game…to think, I have to have my post season $$$ in by Friday…what a joke.
GY, I am with you…tonight’s loss falls squarely on the shoulders of KT and Alderson…although I will give Bochy credit with worst supporting actor award for bunting Cameron…I need to chill for a few days…I need to get away from the Pads…I am so frustrated…I may need to ride my motorcycle on the Ortega to cool off…Frigg’n Padres…Frigg’n KT…Frigg’n Bo-shea…
I don’t blame Bochy if he called for the bunt. Cameron strikes out A LOT, we needed one run to tie, and Cameron has speed and can usually lay down a decent bunt.
Worse case scenario is we have two on and one out, speed with Roberts and Cameron, and IF Cameron does his job, Giles’ SF brings home a run. Bochy was pitting the Pads bullpen against the Giants bullpen at home, and he wanted a win to start off the homestand. Cameron didn’t get the job done, not Bochy!
The 3B situation has to be eating at Towers and Sandy a lot more than us. Those guys are big on defense.
A terrible game all around. Bard gone, Piazza goes out, Bowen doesn’t come through, Walker was miserable, and even Khalil let one get by. The Gaints subbed Bonds out at exactly the right time so Linden could catch Giles’ liner — the stars just weren’t aligned.
But Hensley was excellent, and it doesn’t hurt to have our starting staff clicking once again now that we are in the stretch run.
2.5 games means nothing. Just ask the Dodgers.
And Betemit was 0 for 4 tonight with 3 strikeouts and an error, in case anyone was wondering.
I think we still need to give Walker some time at 3B, because every other option out there is sub-replacement level. (By the way, how do the Padres not have a single player in the whole organization capable of playing 3B at a replacement level?!) Blum and Bellhorn are two of the worst hitters in the league, and Castilla probably was (catchers excluded). Walker will hit much better than replacement level, if still somewhat below the league average for third basemen. And Aaron Boone sucks. Any other options out there? (Can Bard play third?) If Walker can just figure out this whole throwing thing, we can survive the rest of the season.
let’s also remember. Walker is there more for his bat than he is his glove and if his bat comes around and starts hitting gap to gap, I think most of you will forgive his errors.
I think what frustrates me most about the Walker thing is that the Padres had the exact same opportunity last year to stick Xavier Nady over there and didn’t because of concerns about his defense. In that context I don’t understand how importing a guy this year who can’t really play third base was considered a viable option. I don’t mind having Walker around as a left-handed bat off the bench, but I cringe when he has to make a throw the same way I cringed when Castilla swung at the first pitch. Neither is something I care to see again.
Meant to note this in last week’s writeup of the Mets/Padres game I was at where Hensley pitched. I was very impressed with how much that guy hustles. Every time he hit he was running hard down the line.
yeah I agree with Masticore, Hensley has good stuff but he was throwing faster according to the ESPN gun tonight than last start at New York.
maybe the point is to not start Walker when you have an extreme ground ball guy like Hensley is pitching. I also thought one of Walkers errors could have been taken away last night.
interesting point by Jay Jaffe on the Prospectus HitList and when I looked at the end of the Mets series I thought that extra bat was missing and it might have been Greene:
from BP
(link: http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=5422 )
“As predictably as the sun setting on the NL West, Khalil Greene has yet another hand injury…Hitting .254/.324/.444, Greene’s had a mediocre year; his 17.3 VORP is seventh on the team and eighth among NL shortstops, but when the alternative is Geoff Blum (-4.7 VORP, an MLVr that’s 0.192 runs per game lower, and a 92 Rate), every day out of the lineup means runs down the drain….”
It won’t help us this year obviously, but if we are open to experimenting, the more I think about it the more it might make sense to move Kottaras to third base. With the lingering questions about whether his defense is good enough to handle catcher, why not try him at third in the winter and see what he could do? I mean we are playing a guy at third that can barely play second, we have another guy in AAA learning on the job. Why not Kottaras? The downside being that he will lose a lot of his value if we move him out from behind the plate.
Speaking of playing third base for food, that’s what Sean Burroughs will have to do after he was released by Tampa. He posted an awful .214/.268/.252 line in 131 ABs for AAA Durham. Anyone want to bring him back?
Choppy chop chop…where have you gone…
Sickening loss. Greene’s K with a man on third. Then, using Blum instead of Bard to face Benetiz. No way this makes sense. Blum has had the best BA as a PH (.379) but Bard has an OBP of .478 as PH. So that is kind of a toss up, but when Blum is 0-7 with 2K against Benetiz, you have to go with Bard. Bard is O-1 with a K, but that is not much of a data point. Blum has not walked much as a PH, but Bard has been great at that. Given Benetiz was wild, there is a good chance Bard walks (he probably would not have swung at ball 4 like Blum did), then you have bases loaded with DR up and I like that. If we cannot win games like that, then the division does not belong to us. 2.5 back and time running out to start executing better, as a manager and as players. I was disgusted watching them play, with the exception of Hensley and the OF.
Bard wasn’t at the game – his wife had a baby and he was with her.