first pitch: 7:05 p.m., PT
television: Channel 4SD
matchup: Chris Young (9-5, 3.84 ERA) vs Matt Morris (8-10, 4.75 ERA)
previews: Padres.com | SI.com
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Time to play good news, bad news.
Good news: Chris Young induces a lot of fly balls.
Bad news: Many of those fly balls leave the yard at home.
Good news: The Padres are a game better than they were through 118 games last year.
Bad news: The Dodgers aren’t messing around — they had an opportunity to play this hand and they jumped all over it.
Good news: Despite themselves, the Padres are only a game back in the wild card chase.
Bad news: The Reds — the one team that helped itself even less than the Padres at the deadline — are leading the pack.
GY … actually, it’s “good news” that the Reds are leading the Wild Card race … isn’t it? Unless you don’t want to win the WC, I s’pose … but I gotta think we do … so it’s good that we’re only chasing the Reds … I gotta believe we can catch / beat the Reds.
Also, good write-up of Mike Thompson’s good outing for Portland Beavers yesterday at http://www.pdxbeavers.com/ …
Orlando Hernandez’s (of those Mets who are so much better than the Padres) line score for today:
4.0/10hits/11ER/5walks/4K (losing 11-2)
At least the Pads haven’t had one of those in a while!
LM: I hope you’re right about the Reds. I still think it’s kinda pathetic that we’ve fallen behind them.
Bad news: That we’re even talking about the wild card.
Well, I hate to bring this up after last night…but the weather is cloudy again as the marine layer rolls in. I predict another low scoring affair.
At least with Chris Young in there we shouldn’t see so many infield errors.
I like low-scoring affairs.
Young’s first inning: 6 pitches, 6 strikes, 3 outs.
Mets, Cardinals, Dodgers, Padres. But don’t book it; I’ve already got enough problems with my AL picks.
– Rob Neyer’s NL playoff picks from his chat today.
Ah, RISP with less than two outs and nothing to show for it. How refreshing.
I wonder: When we are going to start hearing the calls to fire Merv Rettenmund?
LOL, I wonder if Dave Magadan is available.
Nice play by Gonzalez.
Any chance Gonzalez wins the gold glove this year? Off the top of my head I can’t think of any real good fielding first basemen in the league.
I don’t think he’ll win it..but he should get some serious consideration…kinda like Barfield for ROY
Okay, let’s get more than zero runs here.
Can we score a freakin’ run here please?
Man, this is brutal.
That might be the overstatement of the year Geoff..
Pujols will probably win it, because he’s probably still the best fielding first baseman, but more importantly, it’s based mostly on reputation and for some reason, good hitters win the award a lot.
Fielding win shares, through Aug. 5:
Pujols, 1.5
Fielder, 1.5
Berkman, 1.3
A-Gon, 1.2
Helton, 1.2
Since the ASB:
Mike Cameron: .277/.331/.580
Chris Young: .000/.000/.000
Which do you have bunt and which do you have swing away?
I need more information, Geoff.
They need to bring in Piazza for his defense.
Situation for Cameron: 8th inning, down 1-0, runners at first and second, nobody out.
Situation for Young: 2nd inning, no score, runners at first and third, one out.
It was a rhetorical question…
Oh, that’s easy. You have Cameron bunt to stay out of the double play and have Young swing to… to… uh, catch the defense off guard?
Ugh, the heavy air got that one.
Yeah, I know, I was joking.
Pedro Astacio threw a two-hit shutout against the Braves.
Gotcha. See, they’ve killed my sense of humor.
The TV guys were just mentioning Omar Vizquel as a potential HOFer. I’m not sure I see it. I guess he compares fairly well to Ozzie Smith, but I’d still put Alan Trammell in there first.
These swings are really late.
Geoff, which one of Cameron’s at-bats today would you have taken over the bunt? With your team down 1-0 in the 8th — not bunting had got you nothing all day — and knowing your bullpen is markedly better than the opposition’s, why not at least get runners to 2nd and 3rd with Giles and Bowen coming up? If Cameron doesn’t bunt so hard, the Pads tie it. A fly ball or grounder gets you nothing — not to mention a K (as in K for Kameron).
Not saying I agree with Bochy, but it’s hard to find fault with his strategy.
As for Young, a bunt from a decent hitting pitcher in the 2nd inning to move a runner up so you’ve got 2nd and 3rd and two outs? If you’d have Young bunt in that situation, it’s hard to disagree with Bochy’s Cameron strategy in the 8th.
Because Cameron has been a good hitter this season, and an especially good hitter since the All-Star break. He may have driven those guys home. He definately could not have done that by bunting. Young could never have driven those guys home.
See, Walker makes others make throwing errors, too.
Morris has gone into self-destruct mode. Let’s take advantage.
Piazza must have a target on him.
That’s all we will see of him.
Kevin (#32) gets the line of the night.
Squeeze, Geoff? Lol.
Very funny that the announcers are talking about how well Morris pitches in the 7th, 8th, and 9th innings, and now they say that Alou should really pull him before he goes through the lineup a fourth time and people figure him out.
Chris Young: no decision
Dodgers just got a leadoff single in the 7th (0-0 game) and Grady Little had his .300 pinch-hitter — bunt the runner over. Hmm.
Grady Little is the Padres’ best chance for a division title.
The manager of the 1-12 Dodgers or the 16-1 Dodgers?
The Dodgers have excellent talent. But Little can be counted on for some mistakes down the stretch.
4-0 talent-laden Dodgers are winning again (despite Grady).
Bochy’s got no case here — Durham reached the base before Barfield applied the tag.
And it comes back to haunt us. As for the Dodgers, it’s on the verge of becoming impractical to worry about them. At least the Reds lost.
It looked to me like Barfield had bad positioning on the catch; if he had actually been there to catch the ball in the right spot then Durham would have been out by several feet. Thoughts?
So the Marlins’ starter throws 6 shoutout innings. If the Marlins came back (a very long shot), the win would go to one of the relievers who have now given up 4 runs in less than an inning.
Have I mentioned I hate that rule?
The Giants’ broadcast had a great replay of the Durham steal – Barfield got short-hopped by the throw, had to raise his glove to catch the ball, and then didn’t get a good tag down (he tagged Durham’s thigh after his foot had hit the bag). Durham was safe.
Wooo! Bellhorn didn’t make an out!