The story was supposed to be Jake Peavy‘s 16 strikeouts and complete dominance. The story was supposed to be Terrmel Sledge‘s opposite field home run off sinkerballer Brandon Webb. The story was supposed to be anything but what it became.
It’s a credit to the Padres’ bullpen that a two-run lead headed to the eighth is considered a victory. Wednesday night provided a shocking reminder that this isn’t always the case. The fact that it came at the hands of Stephen “I Shoulda Been a Padre” Drew adds to the sting, but honestly, it’s nothing personal; a loss is a loss no matter how you slice it.
Peavy pitched the game of his life and gets nothing. Sorry, folks, I’m too disgusted to offer any cogent analysis. Maybe today will be better.
by Peter Friberg
You will not see all the notable performances from the night before, but you will see the notable performances from those who are actually prospects.
AAA
No games scheduled
AA
Chase Headley: 3 AB, 1 R, 2 H, 2 RBI; HR, BB – another home HR
Cesar Ramos: 4.0 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 2 SO, 2 HR – the clock strikes midnight
High-A
David Freese: 5 AB, 0 R, 1 H, 0 RBI; 3 SO
Wade Leblanc: 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 6 SO, 0 HR
Low-A
No games scheduled
Commentary:
It’s still too early to be conclusive, but Chase is now trending positively with his home/road splits:
Home: 32 AB: .281/.343/.500
Road: 37 AB: .432/.523/.811
I don’t get how BA (among others) rated Leblanc (16) behind Ramos (10).
Thanks, Peter. That’s all for now. Chris Young and Livan Hernandez square off tonight at 6:40 p.m. PT. We’ll have the IGD up and running by 5:30. Go Padres!
Of all the nights to be unable to watch the game! Can’t believe I missed 16K’s. Unreal. Loved Jake’s attitude afterwards too – 51′s his guy, no questions asked. Big time game in a big matchup (vs Webb). Hoping he gets another chance to show that kind of nastiness in a playoff game again.
Overall, the Dbacks fans can break their arms patting themselves on the back just like the Dodger fans last year in THAT game. We’re in it to win it, and I have no doubt this will be shrugged off.
Now, we took a much better approach to Livan “I sell cartoon balloons in town” Hernandez last time around, I’m confident we can knock him around the yard tonight.
Anyone know if Cesar Carillo is alright?
As far as I know, Carrillo is okay. He was removed from his last start after 1 inning due to a 63-minute rain delay.
I think that the pitch that Drew hit for the game-winning HR was one of the most hitter friendly pitches I’ve ever seen. A belt-high, middle in fastball at 81mph, that’s about the speed of a batting practice pitch, isn’t it? Of course, that’s the peril of using Hoffman as your closer. If he can’t locate his fastball, he’s going to get lit up. Another thing I’ve noticed is that if his velocity is down (like it was last night) he’s going to be terrible. If his fastball is over 86mph he’s going to be alright, if it’s down in the low eighties like last night, it’s not going to be pretty. The fact that he can get people out with his horrible fastball amazes me though.
Ducksnorts lives!!
Is there a bigger idiot on San Diego radio than Coach Kentera? I was listening at lunch today and he says Doug Mirabelli told Gary Thorne that Curt Schilling painted the red stain on his sock during the ’04 playoffs. Then he proceeds to blast Mirabelli as talking out of both sides of his mouth and Schilling as a loudmouth me-me-me type.
If Coach had actually bothered to read what happened he would know that Thorne said on air that it Mirabelli told him it was painted on as a PR stunt. Mirabelli denied ever saying that, the Red Sox have denied it, Curt Schilling flat out stated on his blog (which Thorne said he’s never read) that it was blood, the sock is in the Hall of Fame and the bloodstain has grown darker over the years, just like blood and unlike paint. Kentera totally missed the point of the story, which is a broadcaster said something stupid and defamatory, and blasted the players just because he personally dislikes them.
Much as it pains me to defend Mirabelli about anything, it sounds like this is all on Thorne. Pinto used to work at ESPN and has a nice take:
http://www.baseballmusings.com/archives/020393.php
I logged into MLB.TV way after the game, after knowing the outcome, to judget he balls and strikes on Hoffman. There were a few pitches that were borderline, but, not having the seen the whole game I have to accept that Hoffman’s location was off enough to force him to throw some meaty fastballs when he did not want to. He got away with it with Byrnes (who fouled and popped up two meaty pitches) but not Drew.
Fearing that I will be thrown into a proverbial well, again, not having actually seen the pitching, I am guessing that Jake was very, very on. That said, if Jake is going to throw 117 pitches of very, very good pitching, I would much rather have 9 innings and fewer K’s than 7 innings and more K’s. Maybe this is just the way Jake pitches, and have to accept his inefficiency with his incredible skill, but the efficiency hurts. At it hurt last night. Who knows, maybe if he pitches to more contact a few drop and/or fly out, and he does not have 2 hit, no run ball but 6 hit 3 run ball or something, but I would just love to see him pound the zone. Maybe he did, and a lot of the pitches were fouled off, but if he is trying to paint the corners with his stuff I would prefer to trust the defense a bit more, and close out the game.
Maybe it is just not possible, or very, very hard, because hitters are so good and getting more disciplined, but I remember a game at Arizona a few years back, our pen was smoked, and Jake just came in was like “try to hit it”. I am pretty sure he threw a complete game under 110 pitches.
I found it here:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/boxscore?gameId=250526129
Granted, the offense gave him a big cushion, but I remember him pitching that game and he just came right at hitters. Only 2 K’s, but 9 innings of 2 hit balls with 94 pitches. I feel like the K is almost the equivalent of the HR: a metric, that while important and good to have more of, everything else equal, but often crowds out more important elements that lead to wins. In this case, efficiency. Blowing away that many guys is awesome, but 7 Ks and 9 shut out innings is a win.
Jake had something like 25 missed swings, mostly on his slider which was just filthy. Hard to tell a guy to stop making guys miss.
Trevor has a very small margin of error. If he falls behind in the count he pretty much has to come with the fastball. Hitters know this and wait for it. If it’s not on the black they can hit it. If it’s up in the zone it’s out of the park.