first pitch: 7:05 p.m. PT
television: Channel 4SD
matchup: Jake Peavy (5-1, 1.64 ERA) vs Rich Hill (4-3, 2.91 ERA)
previews: Padres.com | SI.com
So far in ‘07, the Padres haven’t made opposing pitchers pay for falling behind in the count as much as in recent years:
| Year | PA/G | BA | OBP | SLG | ISO | XB/H | PA/HR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stats are courtesy of Baseball-Reference and are through May 21, 2007. | |||||||
| 2007 | 6.00 | .253 | .455 | .342 | .089 | .271 | 264.0 |
| 2006 | 5.77 | .315 | .536 | .498 | .183 | .369 | 58.4 |
| 2005 | 6.22 | .310 | .534 | .482 | .172 | .338 | 53.0 |
| 2004 | 6.23 | .301 | .526 | .469 | .168 | .317 | 43.9 |
It would be good to see the boys get back to punishing those who cannot throw strikes early in the count. How? Sorry, I just ask the questions around here…
185 Comments
Lets get this party started. We should take the Cubs two out of three and be ready for the Ms on Fri. Go Padres!
Narrow strike zone tonight.
Jake got squeezed right there.
Better be that same zone for the Cubbies…
2: Yeah, that doesn’t bode well unless it’s consistent.
It’d be nice to see a called strike on the outer half.
A swinging strike is fine, too.
Wow, there’s the outside strike.
Yeah, but Jake keeps his pitch count down by getting those outside corners called.
Swinging and missing may be all of Jake’s K’s. The first pitch to Lee (K) looked just like pitches called balls on Soriano and Theriot. You have to be very good as an ump, because the pitchers just put it right at the edge. Can’t change your mind.
“Wicked” hanging slider down the middle of the plate. ha!
Gameday has Peavy hitting 99 on several pitches. That gun is usually a couple mph fast, but I still don’t see many people hitting 99 regularly.
A little trivia on Aramis. Twice he has GIDP (not possible here) with diving catches by KG where he does the glove only flip to second to start the GIDP. Be interesting to see if happens later in the game.
Cubs 1 for 1 on batted balls. (line drive)
2 for 2. (2 line drives)
Peavy with what will be around a 30 pitch inning if he gets out of it right now.
Damnit, his getting squeezed is not helping.
Thankfully Kouzy beat the runner to the bag. Cubs 2 for 3 on batted balls (2 LD, 1 GB).
Nice play by Kouz to end the inning. That was way more difficult than it needed to be.
Nice play by KK. My Tivo says he beat the runner.
Both those hits came on two strike fastballs. I’d like to see Jake go with the slider there to get the swing and miss.
I missed how Giles got on base. If it was a hit, what kind of batted ball was it?
You don’t see a WP on a walk every day…
Walk.
#22: NOG drew a walk.
Looks like this could be a tough inning for Hill, someone tell Cameron to take until a strike is thrown.
Wow. Hill can’t find the zone.
Nice to see Hill get the call. He earned it with his pinpoint accuracy earlier in the inning.
Mike Cameron – Rally killer.
Tie ballgame.
Padres 1 for 1 on batted balls (LD)
Padres 1 for 2 on batted balls (LD, FB)
Nice AB by Adrian. Khalil put a charge into one, too.
Khalil changed his stance again. I like the crouch better, he seems more aggressive when he does that.
How does this guy Hill have such good numbers? He doesn’t look impressive at all.
Down on the Farm … Nate Culp with another good outing for Ft Wayne … http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?gid=2007_05_22_ftwafx_cliafx_1&t=g_box&did=milb … he’s one of the few bright spots on that team … Cedric 1-for-4 tonight with a 2B …
34: Is this new stance better or worse, in your opinion?
I wish Cameron could have done what Khalil did, although it ended up not being necessary with Adrian. Regardless, Cameron frustrates the bejesus out of me with men on.
And at AA San Antonio, Josh Geer with a very nice 7 innings of work … http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&t=g_box&gid=2007_05_22_spraax_sanaax_1
After 1 …
Pitches-strikes – R Hill 24-13; J Peavy 30-19.
Ground balls-fly balls – R Hill 0-1; J Peavy 1-0.
Batters faced – R Hill 6; J Peavy 6.
… it’s looking like it will be a battle of the bully’s …
The K to Cameron looked like a strike, perhaps a bit closer than the non-calls on Jake, but the ump had two borderline non-calls on 2 strikes on Jake and gave Hill his sole borderline one. The camera angle makes it hard to really judge.
OT … Oswalt vs Lincecum rematch … dynomite!
39: I think it was a strike. The ump had just been squeezing Peav was all.
36: When Khalil stands straight up like he usually does it seems like he waves at more of those sliders off the plate. When he bends at the knees like he did earlier he seems to attack the pitch more. Just an opinion, who knows if it’s really true. Maybe facing a lefty he knows he won’t see that slider so he adjusted his stance.
42: Good call and nice catch. Hopefully he can recapture that tear he was on earlier.
Kouzy!
Kouz, baby! Can’t stop him in May.
Kouz missile!
KK for player of the month!
Thanks GY.
KOUZ!!!! Opposite field power!
GY, just replied to your E-Mail. I’m in for 3.
Somebody tell me about the KK bomb … where and how far?
50: Just over the wall in right.
Was Nevin doing a crossword puzzle?
Dogs go up 1-0 in bottom of 2nd …
NOG!!! Alright.
And just so everyone can be bored by tales of my fantasy baseball team, I’d like to share with you that I benched my regular third baseman for Kouzmanoff tonight.
52: It looked that way.
#49: Sweet. Thanks, bud!
55 … you da man! I’ve got KK … stuck with him thick & thin (but my league is deep … to cut KK, I’d have to pick up Blum … not an option). 51 – thanks.
After 2 …
Pitches-strikes – R Hill 40-27; J Peavy 48-31.
Ground balls-fly balls – R Hill 1-2; J Peavy 2-0.
Batters faced – R Hill 11; J Peavy 10.
58: That’s a mighty deep league. I cut Kouzy after two weeks (I drafted him late). I picked him back up two weeks ago.
Cubby BABIP dips to .429 all outs made on balls in play were ground balls.
59 … contrast to this … thru 3 innings in the Oswalt vs Lincecum rematch …
Pitches-strikes – R Oswalt 30-21; T Lincecum 30-23.
Ground balls-fly balls – R Oswalt 7-1; T Lincecum 6-1.
Batters faced – R Oswalt 9; T Lincecum 9.
Sorry for the noise, I’m just a *huge* fan of both of those pitchers … and they are showing why tonight … ‘cept the K counts are down
Has the strike zone changed since the first inning? Seems like Jake is getting that outside corner now.
Can of corn for the 3rd out. Nice.
63: Haven’t noticed.
Score. I benched Damon for Cameron tonight.
63: Looks like the ump is determining the zone based on the pitcher. I don’t agree with that, but it beats having Joe West behind the plate.
OMG that was CRUSHED by Cammy!! Lynch, it was middle in out over center left field (I believe).
Damn! He’s on my team, too, but I failed to start him tonight. Oh well. Can’t win them all or something.
Petco is not being too problematic tonite.
Adrian GONE-zales!
Lynch, down and in. Crunched to just left of the right field pole.
Padres have outhomered opposition, 18-5, at Petco Park this season.
That’s back-to-back Jack!
67 & 70 … thanks, guys!
Another nice drive by Khalil. Geez, this guy must get killed in places like Cincy and Philly.
Good God, they may have to call this game due to fog! Has anyone else noticed the marine layer moving into the park?
.250 BABIP by the Padres. .375 by the Cubs.
The three home runs help, though.
I love hearing the KOUZ from the crowd as he comes to the plate.
75: That’d be fine if we can get in enough innings to get a win.
74: He had a 2.91 ERA coming into the game. I guess we get to be the ones regressing him to the mean.
Hey, check this out … the baseball-reference.com site just continues to get *BETTER* … http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/SDP/2007_orgbat.shtml … Franchise Depth Charts and Minor League Franchise Stats … GY, you gotta add this link to the right bar …
I remember watching Vida Blue play and everyone would chant ‘Bluuuueeeee’. Sounded like everyone was booing him. Kinda funny and kinda shows I’m gettin old.
Thru 3 …
Pitches-strikes – R Hill 58-41; J Peavy 58-37.
Ground balls-fly balls – R Hill 3-3; J Peavy 4-1.
Batters faced – R Hill 16; J Peavy 13.
That .444 BABIP against Peavy is disgusting.
Errrr… Maybe the fences are good where they’re at huh?
83: Make that .400 BABIP.
5 of 5 grounders turned into outs by the Padres infielders.
Yes, but what is the Cubs’ line drive %?
87: 18%
Make it 25% LD and a .333 BABIP. Look at that. Now he’s been lucky. haha
Rox tie-up the D-Backs and Brew-ha’s tie-up the Dogs … I like the trend …
90: NL West clubs coughing up leads?
30% LD for Padres. .200 BABIP. Should be more like .420 BABIP with average luck.
Thru 4 …
Pitches-strikes – R Hill 66-46; J Peavy 70-45.
Ground balls-fly balls – R Hill 3-5; J Peavy 5-3.
Batters faced – R Hill 19; J Peavy 17.
Kouzy is having a hell of a May. .333/.400/.590
Pretty play by Khalil.
That was a sick play by Khalil. Wow.
Wow! Did somebody overclock the Khalilbot? That was ridiculous.
It’s plays like that that make me care less what his average is.
That was so much fun to watch. Pretty, pretty play. So nice that you can throw hard bouncers to AGon, and you don’t have to worry.
Sweet! No doubter to left.
Wow, That was an AMAZING play by Greenie.
So, we’ve established that a belt-high fastball down the middle isn’t a good pitch to throw Cameron.
Great pick by Gonzales, no doubt. Khalil deserves to be play of the night on ESPN for that.
Cameron with another bases empty bomb. I suppose I should be happy he’s hitting, but damn, it seems like these never come with men on.
CAMMY!!!!!! 2 HRs in 5 inninings.
Lynch- middle in, went over the left wall.
Ok, I logged on to talk about Khalil’s sick play and Mike launches #2.
102: Nonsense, Cameron never hits that pitch.
*looks around*
The scouts bought that, right?
I really hope that KT sees fit to keep the IF together for a couple years. If Kouz can continue to hit like this and Khalil stays health, we’ll have one of the better infields in baseball for years to come.
That .167 babip is starting to bug me.
If we don’t see Silent L tonight that won’t hurt my feeling either.
103: That’s really more the fault of the guys in front of a hitter.
#105: Rich, be sure to swing by the next time Cameron’s turn comes up in the order.
If you didn’t catch it, check out Nick Canepa’s article in today’s San Diego UT Sports Page. Kinda funny.
Nice throw by Kouz.
Thru 5 …
Pitches-strikes – R Hill 81-58; J Peavy 85-55.
Ground balls-fly balls – R Hill 5-5; J Peavy 6-3.
Batters faced – R Hill 23; J Peavy 20.
Jerry Coleman, talking about how much better than advertised Kouz has been defensively, said that the scout who filed the report on Kouz’s defense should “have his shingles taken away.”
113: I’d really like to hear why scouts didn’t think he could play third base.
We heard so much about Kouz being so bad defensively… I love a position player asserting his authority on a fly ball like that. The kid is confidant in the field and far from a butcher. When he’s hitting the way he has the last 10 days, I start thinking about being able to finally ignore third base in the off season. Wouldn’t that be nice?
Here’s hoping that Josh learns how to join the party and start hitting like most everyone else.
116: I’m with you on that. Granted, he’s no Caminiti.
117: Just the last ten days? He’s hitting .333/.400/.590 for the month of May.
Dodgers are up 3-2 top 6. Hopefully the Brewers can mount another come back and put up some more runs.
.325/.392/.575 after that K.
2 not-so-good ABs for KK after the HR?
Oh no, Silent L on deck.
Nice to see Jake not throw over 100 pitches tonight.
Matty is hilarious. He said Kouz is “almost sinister” and “doesn’t blink”, probably sleeps with his eyes open, ready to spring into action.
I think he looks like the principal in Back to the Future:
http://bttfstrickland.ytmnd.com/
123: He struck out on a high inside fast ball.
123: The K wasn’t a particularly bad AB.
Looking deeper at Bard’s numbers, he’s been getting pretty unlucky. He’s got a 23.8 line drive%, but only a .266 BABIP, and he’s got a pretty good 10 BB against 12 K’s in 102 PA. He’ll come around.
Storm have a good 3-run rally to go up 3-2 after 3 @ High Desert … http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&t=g_box&gid=2007_05_22_lesafa_hdmafa_1
129: Gotta love Hardball Times’ batted ball stats.
Thru 6 …
Pitches-strikes – R Hill 99-69; J Peavy 98-64.
Ground balls-fly balls – R Hill 5-5; J Peavy 8-4.
Batters faced – R Hill 26; J Peavy 23.
… yup, I’ll be happy going to the ‘pen now …
Heath Bell getting one K on a pitch in the dirt and another on a pitch about hat high.
I think Bell can get Soriano
2 balls in play allowed by Bell. Both are hits. That’s rough.
Bell’s getting squeezed now. Lousy ump.
Where the F*ck did that miss?!
Bell is getting squeezed badly. Way to interject yourself into the game, ump.
I just saw the news that the Atlanta Braves gave struggling pitcher Mark Redman his unconditional release on Tuesday … he might be worth taking a look at … seems possible he’s better than Mike Thompson right now … all I’m saying is that it seems like it’s a good time to give him some innings for AAA Portland and see our pitching coaches can help him out … and he was born in San Diego …
Ump screwed us there.
And equally importantly, he’s screwing up my fantasy team’s WHIP.
140: You think?
Lousy ump… at least it didn’t cost us any runs.
136 … I wonder if one of Bell’s “problems” is his reaction to ‘getting squeezed’ (aka a percieved bad call by the home plate ump) …
142: Not on ball 4, but in getting to ball 4.
That 2-1 pitch to Soriano was a strike. Thank goodness it doesn’t matter now.
Some more random fun with Hardball Times’ batted ball data:
Josh Barfield this year: 5 BB’s, 36 K’s. He’s striking out at the same rate at Kouzmanoff and walking half as often. He also has a .296 BABIP despite a 14.7 line drive %. Kouz has .241 BABIP despite a 21.4 line drive %.
Meaning, Barfield’s not really getting unlucky.
147 … I’m happy with the trade … was at the time … still was at the end of April (but gotta admit it was looking grim) … very happy now …
147: In fact, he’s getting lucky. To the tune of about an extra .030 on his BABIP.
OT … Chan Ho struggling at AAA … http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&t=g_box&gid=2007_05_22_albaaa_nozaaa_1
.143 BABIP tonight for the Padres. The Cubs pitching staff wasn’t just bad tonight, they were lucky, too.
Cla does his job inducing two grounders.
The strike zone tonight has been awful.
Diaz is having a terrible night behind the plate. His zone is all over the place.
The garden weasel rolls another grounder, but they can’t turn two.
Great play by Adrian. If Cla can find the bag, we’re out of the inning.
That’s a lot of ground balls.
The strike zone has been awfully tight for the Pads tonite, but they’re persevering well. Who pitches the ninth?
How many Cubs hits have come on grounders, Richard?
C’mon Brew Crew, you can do it! (down 3-2 bottom
Mike’s up and I’m dropping back in as requested…
GY, I may have a boat load more people joining us on the 9th. I’ve been on the phone and I work with a lot of Padre nuts like us at Solar. I’ll give you a total in E-Mail by Friday.
Mike is the man tonight. This game should definatly make the ESPN highlights.
Switching pitchers now? What? Did Guzman have a 21 pitch limit?
#161: Thanks, Rich. It didn’t work out this time, but the effort is appreciated…
#162: Awesome! The more, the merrier.
163: Wha wha what? LOL. Yeah, wtf up with this?
Damn, that curve almost took a u-turn.
162: We’ve got to be on SportsCenter tonight with Greenie’s play and Cameron’s 2 HR night.
Is Trevor warming up?
I’d prefer to see Trevor out of the stretch. He does’t pitch as well with runners on base. I’m not doubting him, just wish they had gone with him to begin with.
168 … I’ll assume he warmed up before coming in … sorry ’bout that, the Yahoo feed is down … and GameDay isn’t working for me …
This game’s felt close since Jake came out. I’ll be glad when Trev finishes it off.
My MLB.TV feed died too, so I’m dead in the water. What’s going on?
And… breathe…
Strike two was almost literally in Bard’s glove when Lee swung. Trevor is a blast to watch.
Trevor just forced a pop fly from Derrek Lee. Ballgame.
Mike Cameron MVP for the game. Right? Cox SD4 viewers should cast your vote.
Full count to D. Lee-runners on 1st and 2nd.
With runners at first and second, Trevor got Lee to hit a routine fly to Cameron on a 3-2 pitch. Game over.
Anyone else have considerable issues with their MLB.TV feed tonite? I’m thinking about bitching to MLB (I lost my feeed for about 10 minutes at two separate points tonite, with the last time being the top of the ninth), but they’ll probably just say that I shouldn’t be getting the Padres feed in the first place.
Nice. That studio does look pretty cool. I may stay up for the post-game tonight.
176 … why not KK … sounds like he added some good D …
173: LMMFAO! You had doubts?
181: He did. Actually a good outing by all tonight. Damn fun game to watch.
You need to get satalite or something, Lynch.
And Mike is MVP on 4SD.
The new 4SD studio is nice!