| time: | 7:05 p.m. PT |
| tv: | 4SD |
| sp: | Greg Maddux (7-7, 4.35) vs John Maine (10-5, 2.91) |
| pre: | Padres.com, SI.com |
If you want to feel bad for a team, how about the Baltimore Orioles. They traded John Maine and Jorge Julio to the Mets for Kris Benson. New York turned Julio into Orlando Hernandez, so essentially, the Mets parlayed Anna Benson‘s overpaid, broken down husband into two good starting pitchers.
Nice trick, that…
After top of 5th …
Pitches-strikes – J Maine 68-47; G Maddux 65-49.
Ground balls-fly balls – J Maine 4-4; G Maddux 7-2.
Batters faced – J Maine 18; G Maddux 19.
All right, Black, you paying attention? That fifth inning was a lot less sharp than his previous four innings. This probably indicates that he is starting to tire. This means you should have a reliever getting ready to come in at the first sign of trouble in the next couple of innings.
52: And as if on cue, Meredith is warming in the pen.
Sweet. Thank you Adrian. First pitch knock.
Adrian is now officially BACK!
I hope this means Adrian is pulling out of it.
He’s got four extra base hits in the past two nights. I think he’s out of it.
OK, everybody knows I’m not a Cla Merideth fan and so I’ll try to keep my comments to myself.
Maddux is done. I hope he’s alright.
57: Although his double tonight should have been an out, I still agree that he’s pulled out of his slump.
On one hand, good to see Black pull Maddux before something goes wrong. On the other hand, this is so ridiculously out of character for Black that something must be wrong with Maddux. Any word?
58: How’re you feeling about him right now? Seven pitches.
Great inning by Meredith.
61: My sentiments exactly. We haven’t heard yet.
Rick, why the Claw hate? I think Cla is a wonderful pitcher (there ya go right there) and I thinkk he still has a lot to offer as a Padre.
Damn, that looked like an xBH off the bat. Though he’s still K’ing more than I’d like to see, Khalil looks more comfortable at the dish lately.
#62,63,64: A rare outing. I just hate watching side-arms. They may as well be pitching fast soft-ball. The control is usually terrible and the types of pitches they can throw is limited. The only reason they have any success whatsoever is because the batter isn’t used to see it come from that angle.
66: I would say that Cla has pretty good control. If he keeps his pitches down, he’s usually extremely effective. Also, as a reliever, you really only need two pitches. Cla throws a sinker and a slider. It’s not like Trevor has struggled with his fastball/changeup combo.
A DP coming up here.
#68: If there were less than 2 outs already.
Wow, Blum, I am proud of you. Excellent at bat.
Let’s hope Ring doesn’t relive last night.
Ring here? Does anyone else like this, cuz I don’t.
I really like the use of Ring there. Delgado and Green are horrible against lefties. The execution by Ring, not so much.
Mike pushed that one out. I thought he had it. Wow.
I hope like hell someone else is warming.
#75: Bell warming up.
For his career, Delgado has a .992 OPS against righties and a .805 OPS against lefties. Green career is .884 against righties and .758 against lefties.
Come on, guys. Scott Schoeneweis of the 21-23 K/BB ratio entering today? That was a fairly pathetic inning.
Will we see Trevor tonight?
After doing some further investigating, I have found that Schoeneweis is actually decent against lefties. I withdraw my condemnation of OG and Adrian. My frustration with Bradley remains. Glad we cleared that up.
Thank you Ben.
Throw strikes, Linebrink. Actually, scratch that. Don’t just throw strikes, throw good strikes where you hit your target, instead of aiming for the center of the plate and trusting that your wildness will put the ball on a corner somewhere.
I hate Linebrink
Why the hell is Linebrink automatically our 8th inning guy? Jesus Christ.
I make a phone call and WTF just happened? It’s tied up 4-4? WTF?
I can’t wait to read the words “eighth inning specialist” before Linebrink’s name in the paper tomorrow…
85: Scott “Walk, Walk, Gopherball” Linebrink happened.
86: Why is 8th inning specialist even a specialist?
88: That’s a great question, but every time he’s been mentioned in recaps recently in the UT, he’s been described as a “specialist,” as if it’s some sort of label like “closer,” which of course Scott isn’t and can’t be. But gosh darnit, he’s so great, he’s an eighth inning specialist!
My case in point against side-arms right there.
BTW, I can’t wait until we collect our draft picks for him this winter.
Credit Khalil for not chasing any of those sliders.
Smith is showing what a side-arm really looks like.
Bad pitch to K Bard, bad pitch indeed.
Is it too much to ask for Silent L to come through again?
Oh God, we are gonna rely on Silent L now?
Man. Joe Smith has come a long ways since his days at Maryland.
Worst words a Padre fan can herar: “And it will all come down to Geoff Blum”
At least it’s not Blum batting right-handed.
98: hahahaha ya well he came through