| time: | 5:05 p.m. PT |
| tv: | 4SD |
| sp: | Greg Maddux (11-9, 3.75) vs Jeff Francis (15-6, 4.12) |
| pre: | Padres.com, B-R.com |
Jeff Francis has been terrific again this year, proving that his 2006 breakout season was no fluke. On the bright side, he’s been terrible against the Padres of late. Francis has allowed at least five runs in each of his last five starts against San Diego. He’s 1-3 with a 9.91 ERA during that stretch, which dates back to August 2006.
The bad news, of course, is that past performance is no guarantee of future performance. Here’s hoping that in this case, the trend continues…
Khalil continues to rake at Coors. Go Padres!!!
I see everyone else was fooled by the 5:05 start time as well.
How come there’s no strike zone in gameday???
Adrian works a 7-pitch at-bat and Khalil and Kouz make first pitch outs. Sigh.
3: It seems to be on all GameDays. I bet it’s a reaction to criticism of the umpires. MLB doesn’t necessarily want that information public.
Maddux having a better at-bat than several of his position players now.
5: I meant that it seems to be missing from all GameDays, so it’s not just a Coors Field thing.
This game is really motoring along.
Since no one’s around, through five:
Pitches-strikes: Maddux 67-45, Francis 89-54.
Ground outs-fly outs: Maddux 12-3, Francis 12-5.
Batters faced: Maddux 21, Francis 22.
Sigh – make that through six….
Why is Maddux gone? Please don’t tell me it’s the “he pitched six innings so he must be done” kind of reasoning. On second thought, that would be better news than that he’s injured.
Hmm – I might have been tempted to leave Maddux in for one more inning, notwithstanding everyone’s concerns about him from the 5th inning on….
He only had 70 something pitches.
Though the first two guys up are the only ones who have gotten hits off him today…
Put him away, Bell…
It’s a good thing we kept Blum and his sub .600 OPS against lefties in the game to face Francis again leading off the inning. Wouldn’t have wanted Ensberg or someone that can actually hit lefties better than a pitcher hitting.
Gameday says Ensberg is now pinch-hitting for Stansberry. Did something happen to Stansberry? Wouldn’t a pinch hitter have been a better idea for the guy that can’t hit lefties at all (Blum), assuming Stansberry was healthy?
Though to give Blum credit, he at least made contact (and wasn’t in a DP situation where we would rather he did what Ensberg did….)
Hey Bard – he might be stealing….
Hey, that is true. 3 at bats against a lefty and nary a strikeout. Nary a hit or time on base either, but beggars can’t be choosers.
Well, that might slow them down.
Punch him out, Bell….
19: Sometimes you just have to hope for small favors – no GIDP, no men LOB… He’ll never be a favorite, but I’ve decided to cut him some more slack…
Khalil just totally saved a run.
Ring his Bell….
Heath Bell is flat out unhittable.
We can’t keep letting them get guys on every inning.
Let’s get some insurance here…
21: Oh, this is definitely not an issue with Blum. This is an issue with Black who doesn’t realize that Blum hits like a pitcher right-handed. I’m excited to get NOG back because it will force Black to go back to a platoon.
I wouldn’t mind seeing Black take a chance with Cammy…
Come on Khalil, you love Coors…
The Storm game is somehow 2-2 in Lancaster in the ninth. It’s a pretty shocking score considering the teams involved and the home ballpark.
I’m watching this in gameday and it says they’ve taken both Matsui and Taveras out. Was there a collision?
30: They both pulled something running the bases.
So that’s why the Padres let everyone run on them. They wear the opposition out and cause injuries.
32: Russell Martin can speak to the effectiveness of that strategy.
Shakespeare better stay in the game….
Uh-oh, Barrett sighting.
31: thanks. I should follow more closely. They were on defense and it said they were both taken out for an injury so the only thing I could think of to explain it was a collision.
Death
Taxes
Hoffman
9 strikes in 10 pitches for Hoffman. Nice.
Helton was hitting .619 (13-21) off of Hoffman before that at bat. Of those 13 hits, only 4 were for extra bases, though.
Great work by all pitchers involved today (possible exception of Brocail).
St. Louis has rallied for 6 runs in the third against Arizona to chase Micah Owings. It’s 6-3 Cards.
This was a big, big win for this ballclub. If we can get out of Colorado with 2 out of 3 it will be huge. The Rockies have been a hot team as of late so to bury them tomorrow and push them back to 5 out with 19 games to play means that we will have one less team to worry about in the drive for the last spot.
Also, I feel really good about Maddux as the 3rd starter in the post season. Has this guy stepped it up or what ?
Sucks that David Wells is pitching so well for the Dodgers