Storm Watch: Elsinore Takes Lead in Series against Lancaster
Tue, Sep 11, 2007
by Geoff Young
We arrived at the Diamond just after 6 p.m. (and just after the obligatory stop at In ‘n’ Out). Got seats in our favorite spot behind home plate, but a little closer than usual — first row, right next to the radar gun that fed the scoreboard silly numbers like 47 and 52.
Attendance for the game was listed at 1,462, but that seems a bit generous. I guess getting out and supporting your home team in a playoff game requires more effort than watching football on television at home.
The game started out like a Padres game — many opportunities, few results. In the first inning, with two on and two out, Kyle Blanks hit a sharp grounder to third baseman Zak Farkes to end the threat.
(The fact that Farkes made the play is irrelevant; I mention his name only because the PA played fart noises whenever he came to bat. Get it? Because his last name sounds like “farts”; damn, that’s funny. I almost hurt my knee from slapping it so hard.)
The second inning was worse. With one out, Mike Baxter singled to right and then stole second. After Juan “Flaco” Ciriaco drew a walk and Jose Lobaton struck out, Lancaster starter Travis Beazley walked the next two batters to force in the game’s first run. David Freese then hit a weak grounder to second for the final out. The Storm had taken a 1-0 lead, but they also had left five men on base through the first two innings and for a while, it looked like that might come back to haunt them.
The JetHawks, for their part, mounted only one serious threat against Elsinore starter Steve Faris. In the fifth, having put runners at the corners with nobody out, Faris induced leadoff batter Ryan Khoury to pop out to catcher Lobaton, who got tangled up with plate umpire Hal Gibson but managed to make the catch. Steve Garrabrants followed by rapping into a 6-4-3 double play that featured solid work by all three defenders involved. Shortstop Sean Kazmar ranged to his right and made a nice backhanded grab, then fired to Ciriaco, whose strong throw to first (Ciriaco is normally a shortstop) just beat the runner at first, thanks in part to the stretch of the 6′6″ Blanks.
Heading to the bottom of the sixth, the Storm clung to their 1-0 lead. Beazley’s night was done. Even though he’d given up only one run, he’d thrown a lot of pitches, and the nine baserunners suggested that he wasn’t fooling anyone.
The new Lancaster pitcher, Ismael Casillas, had what you might call a bad outing. Baxter led off with a towering home run over the green monster in right. Ciriaco followed with a double to left. Lobaton then singled to center, scoring Ciriaco. After walking leadoff man Josh Alley, Casillas finally retired a batter — mainly because the batter wanted to be retired. Kazmar laid down a sacrifice bunt on a 3-1 pitch for the first out of the inning. David Freese then came up and launched a three-run homer to deep right-center, giving the Storm a 6-0 lead.
Casillas was pulled after allowing five of six batters to reach base and score, and order eventually was restored, but not before Blanks hit a laser shot into the trees beyond left field. Blanks’ homer was impressive not only for its distance and trajectory, but also because he’d looked lost all three times he’d faced starter Beazley. The home team now led 7-0, and my wallet had gotten a little lighter thanks to all the hat passing that comes with three home runs.
The Storm added another run in the seventh on a homer to left off the bat of Ciriaco. I’m still not sure how his drive — a high fly ball, really — managed to clear the fence or stay fair. (When the ball left his bat, I was hoping it would land out of play, which I guess technically it did.)
Lancaster scored its only two runs in the eighth. The Storm came back with one more of their own in the bottom half and could’ve scored even more. With one out and Kazmar on first, Craig Cooper hammered a ball to right that I thought was gone. Unlike Freese’s earlier shot, though, it didn’t clear the monster and Cooper had to settle for a double. Blanks then drove home Kazmar with a line drive sacrifice fly to left. I thought Kazmar left the bag early and so did JetHawks manager Chad Epperson, but umpire Gibson disagreed and the Storm extended their lead to 9-2, which is how this one ended.
The two teams hook up again Tuesday night at The Diamond in Lake Elsinore. First pitch is at 7:07 p.m. PT. The Storm have a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series; if they win tonight, they advance to the championship series. Go Storm!
by Peter Friberg
You will not see Kyle Blanks at the back end of Baseball America’s Top 30 Padres prospects again (actually 29th going into this season). He’s a stud.
AA
No game…
High-A
David Freese: 5 AB, 1 R, 2 H, 3 RBI; HR, SO
Craig Cooper: 5 AB, 0 R, 4 H, 0 RBI; 2B – hard to do
Kyle Blanks: 4 AB, 1 R, 1 H, 2 RBI; HR, SO, SF
Mike Baxter: 4 AB, 2 R, 2 H, 1 RBI; HR, SB
Commentary:
Craig Cooper had a “great, but zero luck” game… He got four hits in five tries yet failed to knock anyone in or score a run himself…
The parent club resumes its pursuit of a playoff berth on Tuesday with the first of three in Los Angeles against the Dodgers. We’ll have the IGD up and running at the usual time…
Picking up where last year's version left off, the Ducksnorts 2008 Baseball Annual provides in-depth analysis of and commentary on the San Diego Padres. Get your copy today.
September 11, 2007 at 8:30 am
Here we go 20 straight games, I would imagine the Pads will need to go 14-6 to win the west and 11-9 to win the wild card.
Lets Go Pads!
FREE P-MAC!
September 11, 2007 at 8:31 am
Unless “blast Storm” is synonymous with “blows chunks”, the headline on this milb.com article needs to be reworked …
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.....;fext=.jsp
September 11, 2007 at 11:11 am
wow all is quiet on the Ducksnorts front today
September 11, 2007 at 11:40 am
Another good game for Jake the Dodger killer to pitch. We are coming off a series of bad losses. Jake normally turns us around after a loss.
September 11, 2007 at 1:05 pm
GY … here’s a poll modification idea … seein’ as how eggplant is a runaway in current competition … even versus the gratuitous Padres’ malaise … let’s put it up against something truely dispicable … like say … Steve Garvey’s #6 on the Petco wall … heck, I’d be interested to see how *I* would vote on that choice!
September 11, 2007 at 1:10 pm
I would vote Garvey all the way, the only things I hate more than a Padres player not being able to wear #6 are Raiders fans, The Yankees and house cats.
September 11, 2007 at 1:49 pm
6 … yow, that’s a rough list! See, if we’re gonna talk hate, let’s get Urkle and Patchouli off the list and get some serious things to choose from!
OT … here’s something fun … our ol’ friend (well, my ol’ friend) Freddy Guzman got his first MLB AB of the season today … and he HR’d!!!
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/boxscore?gid=270911206
… yes, *that* Freddy Guzman!
September 11, 2007 at 4:49 pm
I wouldn’t be a Padres fan if it weren’t for Garvey (the whole rebellious teenager thing - rooting for a team different from my father when the Dodgers didn’t re-sign him), so it would be hard to vote for that one….
Of course, my father would ask - would it have been better to be a Padres or Dodgers fan for the last 25 years? The Padres have the advantage in WS appearances, but the Dodgers did actually manage to win one…
Of course, Ducksnorts is waaaaayyyy better then anything a Dodger fan could produce.
Advantage: Padres
September 11, 2007 at 5:25 pm
Rootin’ for Rox tonight …
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/boxscore?gid=270911122
… up 2-0 on Phils after 4 …
September 11, 2007 at 5:27 pm
8 - you’re on thin ice there, Sean!
September 11, 2007 at 5:30 pm
OT … LaRussa with Mulder in the #8 slot in line-up …
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/boxscore?gid=270911117
… always cracks me up … and I was a LaRussa fan until this past All-Star game when he left Pujols on the bench in the 9th inning …
September 11, 2007 at 5:40 pm
2 … just for the record, they’ve fixed the headline at milb.com … this morning, the headline on the article said “JetHawks blast Storm” … uh … NOT!
September 11, 2007 at 5:42 pm
HR’s in the 1st inning Headley and Ciofrone have Missions up 3-0 thru 2-1/2 innings!
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.....x_sanaax_1
September 11, 2007 at 5:51 pm
12: Didnt he do that for like a whole season one year? i thought i heard he did and he got better production from it.
September 11, 2007 at 6:02 pm
13 … it’s getting to be a team effort … Missions now up 6-0 in bottom of 4th …
September 11, 2007 at 6:05 pm
14 … I’m thinking your comment is re: #11 (rather than #12) … and I’ve not read/heard anything that indicates LaRussa has actually had “better production” with a pitcher in the #8 spot … I’m open to such a possibility … but I think I read enough “stats stuff” that if this were the case, I’d have seen/heard/read something along those lines and remembered it … let me know if you (anyone) finds a reference to the contrary … it sure seems like there’s been times this season when Jake woulda been a better #8 hitter than who the Padres let make outs in that spot …
September 11, 2007 at 6:15 pm
#5: I don’t want to change a poll once its started because folks who have already voted might want to make a different choice and won’t be able to do so. I’ll see if I can come up with a good Garvey question.
#7: Cool. I saw him play at Oklahoma City on the way out to Cooperstown. (I also saw Jorge Velandia at Durham.)
#8: Thanks, Sean. Flattery will get you everywhere.
#11: Personally, I liked when Dontrelle Willis batted seventh a couple times toward the end of ‘05:
http://www.baseball-reference......9220.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference......0020.shtml
September 11, 2007 at 6:21 pm
15 … Josh Geer is putting on a “hit-to-contact” clinic tonight … only 1 K thru 5 IP … and that was the opposing pitcher … but only 4 hits and 0 runs …
September 11, 2007 at 6:24 pm
17 … I’m not sure there is such a thing as a “good Garvey question”
September 11, 2007 at 6:50 pm
Not sure if I should put this here or in the game thread, but I’ll put it here to stay out of the way. Anyway, regarding the pitcher hitting 8th thing. In The Book by Tango, Lichtman, Dolphin they did some work that showed that hitting the pitcher 8th can gain you a couple (literally like 2) runs a year. It works out like that because of the advantage of having two “leadoff hitters,” instead of having the pitcher hit ahead of the leadoff man. Again, it’s only a few runs but it’s still there. Interestingly, Lichtman, one of the authors, consulted with the Cards. Maybe that’s where La Russa picked it up, I don’t know.
September 11, 2007 at 8:03 pm
re: 17 - 5 … um, I’ll bet a lot of guys want to change their vote now