IGD: Padres @ Pirates (29 May 07)
Tue, May 29, 2007
by Geoff Young
first pitch: 4:05 p.m. PT
television: Channel 4SD
matchup: David Wells (2-2, 4.85 ERA) vs Tom Gorzelanny (5-3, 2.51 ERA)
previews: Padres.com | SI.com
The road has been unkind to David Wells so far this season. Opponents are batting .388/.449/.688 against him away from Petco Park. That’s sort of like 1942 Ted Williams.
But hey, it’s only four starts.
In other news…
| Player | 2006 | 2007 | Diff. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stats are through May 28, 2007, and courtesy of Baseball-Reference. | |||
| NOG | 3.88 | 3.33 | -0.55 |
| Greene | 3.90 | 3.44 | -0.46 |
| Cruz | 3.99 | 3.61 | -0.38 |
| Cameron | 4.08 | 3.92 | -0.16 |
| Bard | 3.70 | 3.56 | -0.14 |
| OG | 3.67 | 3.54 | -0.13 |
| Kouzmanoff | 3.74 | 3.78 | +0.04 |
| Gonzalez | 3.90 | 4.09 | +0.19 |
I’m not prepared to draw any conclusions just yet, but file under “I” for “interesting.” Go Padres!
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May 29, 2007 at 4:02 pm
Yes!!! Finally a weekday game I can come home and watch after work!
This is really the way life should be.
Am I gonna have company?
May 29, 2007 at 4:14 pm
I’m here as long as I can stay awake. My ability to stave off sleep depends greatly on what we see of Wells in the first inning or two.
Nice to see Cammy working the count after GY drawing attention to the Padres low P/PA numbers.
May 29, 2007 at 4:17 pm
1: Give me about 45 minutes, and I’ll be at home watching the game too. For now, I’m relegated to Gameday Audio.
Encouraging start thus far with 2 guys on and Adrian up.
May 29, 2007 at 4:20 pm
Whoa, Khalil walked.
May 29, 2007 at 4:20 pm
Alright, I’m calling it right now… Grand Slam
May 29, 2007 at 4:21 pm
Nice AB by Khalil, hopefully that helps him get a bit of confidence and see the ball better. He’s a lifetime .400 hitter at PNC, so here’s hoping he gets the monkey off his back in a big way.
May 29, 2007 at 4:23 pm
C’mon Kouz, get it and rip it.
May 29, 2007 at 4:24 pm
Crap.
I guess we should be happy about the high pitch count, eh?
May 29, 2007 at 4:24 pm
Nice AB by Kouz. Runs would have been nice, but at least Gorzelanny threw a bazillion pitches.
May 29, 2007 at 4:25 pm
Darn, that would have been the perfect opportunity for Kouz to break out of his mini-slump.
At least we got Gorzelanny to throw over 30 pitches in the first inning.
May 29, 2007 at 4:32 pm
Good sequence to Bay.
May 29, 2007 at 4:34 pm
And the other ex-Padre gets us. Nice effort by Kouz.
May 29, 2007 at 4:36 pm
FSN Pittsburgh had horrible replays for the Nady single. How far was Kouz from the ball? Did it go under/over him or was it farther to his right?
May 29, 2007 at 4:39 pm
13: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: These announcers suck.
May 29, 2007 at 4:41 pm
Why o why can we not get a leadoff double over to third with less than 2 outs? Need NOG to pick us up here.
May 29, 2007 at 4:42 pm
First off, that pitch to NOG was low. Second, how come the plate umpire had to think about it so long?
May 29, 2007 at 4:43 pm
Strike 3 was clearly down and in. They should start drug testing the Umps.
May 29, 2007 at 4:43 pm
15: Even if Sledge had done that, was Wells really going to be able to drive him in? The productive out is pretty much pointless there; Sledge should just have been trying to get a hit.
May 29, 2007 at 4:45 pm
Joe West has always been a thorn in our side.
May 29, 2007 at 4:45 pm
I want Sledge to succeed but with his struggles against lefties maybe it would be a good time for the front office laptop to suggest to Black that P Mac should start from time to time.
May 29, 2007 at 4:46 pm
#13: On the replay it looked like he drew leather.
May 29, 2007 at 4:46 pm
Listening on XM, Pirates announcers just said that NOG got booted …
May 29, 2007 at 4:47 pm
Hallelujah, it’s Robles, not Blum.
May 29, 2007 at 4:47 pm
#22: Yep, Robles is in. Congrats to the umpires for stealing the show this early.
May 29, 2007 at 4:50 pm
Fanned him all the way.
May 29, 2007 at 4:51 pm
David Wells has been hanging out with Jake Peavy. 4 K’s through 2.
May 29, 2007 at 4:52 pm
I hate Joe West. Stupid Ump!
May 29, 2007 at 4:54 pm
Still, NOG shouldn’t get himself thrown out.
May 29, 2007 at 4:56 pm
28: Yeah, if we all know West’s reputation for escalating conflict, NOG should as well and know to be more careful.
May 29, 2007 at 4:57 pm
I think they should throw fans out for even trying to reach over and catch a ball that’s still in play.
May 29, 2007 at 4:58 pm
At least we didn’t waste a lead-off double this inning. That’s progress.
May 29, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Damn, at least we kept him from advancing.
May 29, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Death by paper cuts. Very heads-up play by Khalil, although you have to wonder what Paulino was thinking.
May 29, 2007 at 5:18 pm
Man, so much for elevating Gorzelany’s pitch count, eh? We gotta have better ABs than last inning.
May 29, 2007 at 5:23 pm
I hope the umpires get this right.
May 29, 2007 at 5:23 pm
I thought I saw that ball bounce.
May 29, 2007 at 5:23 pm
#36: It absolutely bounced. And now they’ve gotten the call right.
May 29, 2007 at 5:24 pm
LOL to Matty’s reference: “Jane you ingnorant slut.”
May 29, 2007 at 5:30 pm
Adrian is so slow…
May 29, 2007 at 5:39 pm
Why couldn’t have hit that when he had bases loaded?
May 29, 2007 at 5:40 pm
Kouz hammered that pitch. Missed a homer by about a foot or so.
May 29, 2007 at 5:40 pm
We just got a lucky break.
May 29, 2007 at 5:42 pm
NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
Why is Blum swinging a bat?!?!?!
May 29, 2007 at 5:42 pm
Finally on the board.
May 29, 2007 at 5:43 pm
2 outs…why not Branyan here?!?
May 29, 2007 at 5:43 pm
They don’t even put Blum’s average next to his name on GameDay. But he’s got to run into one sometime, right?
May 29, 2007 at 5:44 pm
Why didn’t an out by Silent L suprise me?
May 29, 2007 at 5:44 pm
46 - not this time apparently
May 29, 2007 at 5:45 pm
Okay, we got a run and Blum is done. If we can get into their ‘pen soon, I like our chances.
May 29, 2007 at 5:45 pm
Or not. He could continue to be the suckiest suck that ever sucked.
May 29, 2007 at 5:46 pm
49: I like your ‘glass half full’ outlook Geoff.
May 29, 2007 at 5:47 pm
Um. Or not…
May 29, 2007 at 5:48 pm
Oh, Green nice play. I’ll let you marry my daughter.
May 29, 2007 at 5:48 pm
The Claw’s first HR allowed this year.
May 29, 2007 at 5:49 pm
53: Greene
May 29, 2007 at 6:03 pm
Wow, a Kevin Cameron sighting.
May 29, 2007 at 6:04 pm
56: I think its just an illusion created by the machines to get us to work our brains harder.
May 29, 2007 at 6:04 pm
Kevin Cameron? I was starting to think he was as mythical as the Loch Ness monster or WMD. We’ve been playing one or two men short for the last month.
May 29, 2007 at 6:07 pm
Surprisingly effective for a guy who hasn’t pitched in a game in 2+ weeks.
May 29, 2007 at 6:13 pm
Pirates go to the lefty with Sledge due up. Right-handed bats on the bench: Bowen, Peavy, Maddux.
May 29, 2007 at 6:14 pm
I’d give my eye teeth - maybe one eye tooth - for a RH hitter worth a darn.
May 29, 2007 at 6:19 pm
How hard could it possibly be to find a right handed hitter capable of putting up a 750 OPS against lefties?
May 29, 2007 at 6:19 pm
Seeing Sledge bat against left handed pitching is painful ( 0 for 18 for the year against lhp). Pads are in absolute desperate need of any sort of right handed hitting off of the bench and for spot starts in left field or right. Heck, I am not picky. I would take Jerry Hairston Jr. to start in left rather than Sledge.
May 29, 2007 at 6:26 pm
I don’t expect an ALL STAR/big bat to be acquired by the Padres. But I don’t want them to settle for Sledge batting against left handed pitching.
May 29, 2007 at 6:28 pm
Craig Wilson was freely available recently. He would have been a fine fit. Somebody to start against lefties other than Sledge, and somebody to pinch hit against lefties other than Blum.
May 29, 2007 at 6:28 pm
Also, Branyan should have been pinch hitting for Robles there.
May 29, 2007 at 6:29 pm
Well, there’s always tomorrow.
May 29, 2007 at 6:30 pm
We appear to be terrified of changing the roster. Wilson was a good choice. There are RH hitters available. But we continue to send Blum up there. At the very least use Branyan, who has a better eye and 2x the power.
May 29, 2007 at 6:30 pm
Very lethargic effort this afternoon. Oh well…
May 29, 2007 at 6:31 pm
So that was the good Pirates starter we’ll face, and that was our bad starting pitcher. Next two days should be different.
May 29, 2007 at 6:37 pm
I was going to advocate Branyan hitting there, but then I saw Branyan, in 91 AB in the last three years against lefties, has a 571 OPS with 51 K’s. So he has no business hitting against lefties.
Think how much trouble we’d be in if we hadn’t signed Cruz in the offseason.
May 29, 2007 at 6:39 pm
This game highlights the difference between the Padres and truly dominant teams - dominant teams sweep the weaker teams regularly. The Padres have been unable to sweep the Nats, Cards, Bucs, Reds, Rockies, Giants, Cubs or Marlins. All of those teams are under .500 and one would hope that we would sweep at least two of those series.
Yes, we swept the Brewers, but they’re .500 or below against the East, West and interleague. Their record is a indication of their weak division.
To win in October means winning series against good teams and sweeping the crummy ones regularly.
May 29, 2007 at 9:21 pm
Down on Farm … 3 HRs so far tonight for Storm … http://www.minorleaguebaseball.....a_lesafa_1 … 2 by Blanks + 1 by Freese …
May 29, 2007 at 9:23 pm
At AA San Antonio, C Nick Hundley with a 2B and HR (good for 6 RBI) … plus a coupla more hits for Chase Headley … http://www.minorleaguebaseball.....p;did=milb … Sean Thompson? Not so good …
May 29, 2007 at 9:26 pm
Huge news (imo) out of Portland tonight … Mike Thompson with a “quality start” (7 IP, 8 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 Ks) … http://www.minorleaguebaseball.....p;did=milb … OK, it’s not a *great* start … but it lowered his ERA to 9.73 … and so I’ll call it a huge sign of progress … who knows, we might need him at some point down the road!
Royce Ring with 4 Ks in 1.1 IP for his first save this season … ERA @ 0.82 …
May 29, 2007 at 9:35 pm
I was also surprised that we didn’t make a move for Craig Wilson. He would have been an ideal fit. As I was watching today’s game I was trying to think of outfielders who hit right-handed and play on teams that are going to be out of the race and therefore might be available…anybody think that KT might want to go after X. Nady now that Bochy is gone? I also thought about Emil Brown in Kansas City. We’ve got to find some offense out of left field. I’m really hoping that the White Sox really fall out of the race and we can go after Jermaine Dye. Dropping him into the 4 spot behind Adrian really makes our middle of the lineup quite a bit better.
May 29, 2007 at 10:31 pm
Latest on Latos:
http://padres.scout.com/2/647504.html
“We have made our final offer,” Grady Fuson, Padres’ vice president of scouting and player development, said. “I am not optimistic.”
May 29, 2007 at 10:54 pm
75: I think our left field production will be fine when we can go back to a Cruz/Sledge platoon out there. It’s when Sledge is starting against lefties and Cruz regularly against righties that we’re in trouble.
I love the idea of trading for Jonny Gomes to be the right-handed bat off the bench or spelling OG in right against lefties.