Padres (6-6) @ Dodgers (5-6)
Greg Maddux vs Chad Billingsley
1:10 p.m. PT
Channel 4SD
AM 1090, FM 105.7, XM 185
MLB, B-R
Gee, Ward, don’t you think you were a little hard on the Beaver last night?
Padres (6-6) @ Dodgers (5-6)
Greg Maddux vs Chad Billingsley
1:10 p.m. PT
Channel 4SD
AM 1090, FM 105.7, XM 185
MLB, B-R
Gee, Ward, don’t you think you were a little hard on the Beaver last night?
What the hell was that last night?
ugly… and it started off so well.
I guess I picked the right game to miss watching. Y’know, I didn’t see our other blow out loss to the Dodgers either, actually.
I turned it off in the 4th.
I had it on but I was outside the whole time just checking the score. It was kinda nice since I didn’t have to hear vin Scully ramble..
BTW…great article in this weeks issue of ESPN the Mag on Greg Maddux..I don’t know if it’s online or not..but if not, it’s worth picking it up for that article.
Hey…did you guys know that a lot of Scott Hairstons family members have played major league baseball?
Silent L2…
WTF?
He would have stole second eventually.
10: Probably, but Maddux had to throw several more pitches to get Pierre out. Also, what was with granting time while Maddux was in the middle of his windup?
11: I hate when umps allow that. You see it all the time.
12: It just seemed like if they’re going to call ticky-tack crap, they shouldn’t allow time outs mid-windup either.
I hear ya. Leitner mentioned it too
This game seems to be moving awfully slowly for a game with no scoring.
time to wake up for some scoring!
atrocious at bad for Bard there…
Josh looked horrible
17: “at bad,” indeed.
Hey…a run… nicely done P-Mac
19: whoops… who said we need spell check on this thing…
whew, I was getting worried that we might not score there.
Is there some kind of rule against scoring two runs on one swing?
23: yep..little known rule that teams from San Diego can only score 1 run at a time…I think it was passed by MLB sometime last week
21: Firefox.
25: downloading it now
This seems like a really quick hook, even for Maddux. Is something up with him?
Maddux out pretty early tonight
27: I’m guessing that it’s because of tomorrow’s off day
Only thought on Maddux could be that it’s nearly 100 degrees in LA Today
A battle of the bullpens doesn’t leave me brimming with conficence.
Thatcher looked pretty good, but I think they pulled Maddux a little early. He only threw 65 pitches or so. The 95 degree heat could be the reason.
Good inning for Meredith there.
An insurance run or two would be nice here.
33: insurance runs? are we allowed to do that?
34: Yes! Particularly this inning before Trevor comes in.
Oh… dear God…. Trevor is warming up.
(gulp)
I think there is that same MLB rule that doesn’t allow us to score insurance runs
I think there is that same MLB rule that doesn’t allow us to score insurance runs
Ok…I’m gonna watch the Masters for the next few minutes…someone wake me when Trevor saves it
38. Yes, that is why Edmunds was required to give himself up at second base, in the seventh.
That was impressive by Hoffman against Ethier. Not bad against Kent either.
Black was saying that Hoffman’s velocity is still good but that his fastball location has been very poor this season. He’s looking go so far today.
Whew. That looked scary right off the bat.
Wake up Mark O – it’s another save and a series win!
he saved it? it’s over? nicely done Trevor
Gameday had Trevor at 87 and 88 with his fastballs. For comparison, Bell was at 91 to 93, so he looked pretty bad again today. Hoffman’s location looked really good too: pretty much everything at the knees on the outside corner. He again used sliders against the righty Martin and fastballs against the lefties, although his one pitch to Kent was a fastball.
Whew!!! We won. Trevor is the best!!! Yay!
Man, can’t be doing this all season.
Stressful, but counts in the W column and what a buzz kill for LA; the creaky looking Padres coming to town, just having lost two of three to SF, beat up on us yesterday, but still lose the series. Gotta burn a bit and they probably don’t see us again for awhile. Ha.
Now I am starting to get frustrated with the roster, as many others already have pointed out. Given we often play close games, how many innings are Ledezma, Rusch and Gonzalez going to get? You need 1 innings eater, maybe two, but if all the leverage innings are going to Thatcher, Meredith, Bell and Hoffman, either get another body that can handle leverage innings or send one of those guys down for a bat.
And, a delayed answer to gripes about the off-season (in order of frustration):
1) Not getting a defensively competent, offensively competent CF. They were there: Jones for 1Y, Bradley (more bat, less glove but he could do it), Cameron.
2) Deeper bullpen. When I watch reasonably cost Japanese imports going to other teams, I wonder why we did not do that? Aki was a success, can’t we do it again?
3) Paying up for a legit 4/5th starter. Again, compare the upside of a Kuroda vs. Germano. I guess we have the Prior/Hensley/some darkhorse option floating out there, but getting a 3-5 arm would give us a solid 1-5 without praying Prior or Hensley recover and would give us some injury protection if 1-4 goes down or really struggles. Maybe Rusch counts, but given the other holes, it seems like they are going cheap.
Maybe this is part of the plan. Maybe they figure next year is when Headley and Antonelli will be ready, so that is the time you pay to fill in the holes, not a year ahead of it. But still frustrating to ride out a year designed to come up short.
47: The problem at the moment is not not having a legitimate 4th or 5th starter. So far Wolf and Germano have been just fine. Certainly the wheels could come off Germano’s bus at any point, but so far his two starts are two more closer to a return of Prior. I’ll take every one. The only issue with the starting pitching is Chris Young and his wildness and loss in fastball velocity. Hopefully it is just a mechanical thing. I read somewhere else that his first three starts this year are eerily similar to his first three starts last year. So hopefully he can put it together.
But as you mentioned the big problems with this team at the moment are outfield defense and another arm in the ‘pen for high leverage situations. Carrying two left-handed mop up guys is not working, they haven’t been very good and they never pitch because every game that we have played has been close. I guess we will soon see a rotating door of righties to audition for that Brocail role from last year: one of Gonzalez, Zarate, Bass, Hensley, or Cameron will soon be the guy hopefully. And maybe we can ditch one of the lefties for another bat on the bench.
As much as I cringe when the ball goes to Edmonds, I think we are stuck with him until he his next injury which, given the way he has played since he’s been back, could be Tuesday. A lot of wincing after running full speed at a Bard pace if you ask me.
Germano leads the league in ERA at 0.00.
Wolf ERA is 2.25.
Thanks to the offense, neither have decisions.
6: The Maddux piece was listed among the Friday links on this site (h/t me).