| time: | 4:05 p.m. PT |
| tv: | 4SD |
| sp: | Clay Hensley (2-3, 6.70) vs Kyle Lohse (7-12, 4.61) |
| pre: | Padres.com, SI.com, B-R.com |
Three things:
- Carlos Ruiz is an idiot. Thanks for lighting a fire under the team’s collective posterior. Here’s hoping Marcus Giles is okay.
- Great response by the Padres. Embarrassing the opposition in its home park with a 14-3 whooping is sweet revenge.
- What did we ever do without Milton Bradley? The Padres score 5.28 runs per game when he’s in the lineup, 4.29 when he’s not.
I cling to a fantasy that Clay Hensley will return to 2006 form. That would be helpful beyond description. Go Padres!
Termel!!! Nice work.
Sledge lives!
Someone mentioned how they love this park. And I pointed out how the Padres are actually one of the best offensive teams in the league, using the equalizing of road stats.
Love Park Place (Jenga), but man he’s insanely on the edge.
I don’t know how Bradley is in the clubhouse, etc., but the Padres needed some swagger. Bradley has it.
Nice to see “Strike 1″ show up on the scoreboard to start Hoffy’s 9th …
Double by Rollins … on 0-2 pitch? Ouch, that changes things …
Holy crap I thought that was gone.
Hoffy vs Howard … what a showdown!
109 … “holds him to a single” … fine by me!
Great job Padres. Stay on the road. Or come home and keep doing what you’re doing.
YOWZA!
Man, we are just showing ridiculous amounts of fight and heart these days. You can’t ever assume that this team is gonna lose.
Hoffman is still terrible, ERA since Aug. 5 is still 9.00.
How much longer do we run him out there, Buddy?
We are coming to get you, AZ. That NL West belongs to us!!!!
These games have been so exciting. I freaking love this game.
Great win and it was good to see The Regulator go deep again and mouth off to the fans. And kudos to Brocail for drilling that punk and not letting it hurt the team. I just wish he had stuck him in the ribs.
If I was Bud I’d give Bradley the day off tomorrow, I think he’s a prime candidate for some retaliation.
This series also reminds me why I hate Philly fans. I’ve always felt that the constant booing of their own players actually hurts the team. As a player it has to get in your head.
117: see Scott Rolen
Good thing Sledge hit that homerun! Didn’t it seem like Iguchi’s flyout was hit harder than either Kouz’s or Sledge’s HR?
117: I’m conflicted, because we seem to need Bradley in every game till the end of the year at this point. That said, protecting him is a must.
Yeah, Bradley probably needs a “mental health” day.
But it would be hard to sit him tomorrow against the team trying to chase you while he is hitting home runs every day.
Bradley needs to play every day…we need that bat in the lineup
114: I wouldn’t want the Padres to run anyone else out there but Hoffman.
He has a four or five poor outings every year. He is also going up against great lineups with the Mets and Phillies.
117, 118: See every player.
I lived in Philadelphia for awhile and spent a lot of years on the East Coast. I think the Philadelphia fans are happier if they are losing. The fans are so negative and so critical — it’s really an art form there. If you think 1090 is bad, you should try to listen to Philly sports radio. It’s awful! The hosts and fans are so confrotational most players don’t even appear on the radio anymore. I remember listening to an interview with Larry Bowa (a few years ago after he was fired as manager) that was just unreal. Bowa and the radio host just traded insults for the whole interview. It was funny but sad at the same time.
I meant a specific example of a player who got tired of it and signed elsewhere.
53: I still want to know which ex-Phillies player (my presumption) was in the booth last night going on and on about how that was just hard-nosed ball. (It’s on the highlights for yesterday.)
124. I know Trevor hits rough patches every year, but this is a very long rough patch, again I’ve been tracking him since Aug. 5, which was 3 weeks ago.
And you mention the line-ups. True. Some of the bad outings have come against the Mets and Phillies, but others came against the Astros and Reds.
I know no one wants to hear it, and I’m very unpopular for saying it, but when a closer’s stuff “goes” it goes very fast, it’s not a role that you can muddle through with marginal “stuff” like a starting pitcher. Trevor is missing, and missing badly with location. He can’t put the change-up where he wants it, and if that pitch isn’t working, nothing else will.
Getting in late here. Sweet win!
#20: I had a Sam Adams with lunch in Whittier before watching Hapa perform.
#53: Totally agree. Ruiz had that coming.
#70: Not a problem. It’s something I’d been wondering myself as well.
#105: I can’t remember the last time we had a guy as intense as Bradley on the team. You definitely don’t want a whole clubhouse full of ‘em, but it’s a nice change.
#117: I was listening on radio while driving back from LA and Jerry said something like, “If you’re going to hit him, hit him in the neck.” I’m paraphrasing, but that’s the gist of it. Pretty funny.
128: Just like when his stuff completely went earlier in the year when he blew a couple of saves back to back? And just like it was completely gone when he responded with like 20 consecutive good outings? If his stuff is marginal, why aren’t guys hitting homers and doubles off him now? Why is he just getting killed by singles? How is he still capable of striking guys out?
Hoffman doesn’t strike a ton of guys out, so he relies on not walking guys, not giving up homers, and having a good defense behind him. He’s still not really walking guys and not really giving up homers during this bad streak, the singles are just finding holes. It happens.
Bradley is a man with a mission right now. Hey, this is how you win pennants —one man goes unconscious and carries the whole team on his back –the other guys have the pressure taken off them and then they start to explode.
“Big bat, we need a big bat” ….that’s all we heard from the frontrunners in May until now. Well, the organization got the big bat in Bradley and we have (arguably) the best pitching staff in the game, so the sky is the limit..
You notice though that Hoffman still makes some BIG pitches with his back to the wall. Tonight he strikes out Rowand to end it. He retires Alou on Thursday’s epic game after getting ahead 0-2 on two nasty pitches. Wednesday he makes Delgado look foolish on a change to end that one. Even when Hoffman is off, you don’t total implosion like you get with some relievers.
Can we actually steal one more tomorrow with Stauffer on the mound in that bandbox ?
128: His change up looked damn good tonight. Who else do you suggest we run out there??? Hoff has been the most reliable reliever all year. He hits rough patches but you dont throw out a guy like that because you have a feeling he lost it.
I guess you could toss Bell in the closer role till Hoffman gets out of this slump. Hoffman has been nothing short of awful for the last 8 games, and right now unless the Padres are up by 3 it’s really scary with him in there.