Tuesday, April 8, 2003

Back to the teal color scheme. I had to change it, because I was growing disturbingly fond of the mustard and hamburger motif. Not good.

I didn’t catch yesterday’s game. Doesn’t seem like I missed much other than more abuse at the hands of the Giants, so we’ll be brief this morning.

San Francisco 7, San Diego 4 (ESPN)

The Good

• Sean Burroughs: two plate appearances, two walks.
• Lou Merloni: three hits; we love this guy.
• Xavier Nady draws another walk.
• Wiki Gonzalez pokes his head out of the doghouse and knocks in three runs.

The Bad

• Burroughs: leaves the game with a strained right shoulder; uh-oh, here we go again.
• Ryan Klesko and Rondell White: not much production from the heart of the lineup.
• Oliver Perez went from missing the plate to catching too much of it: three bombs in five innings. We keep telling ourselves it’s early, but his lack of experience keeps nagging at us.

The Ugly

• Second straight game, 12 runners left on base. Can’t get away with that against good teams.

Tonight: Jake Peavy vs Damian Moss at PacBell. Game time, 7 PM. Television: Channel 4.

Addenda, Corrigenda, and Other Latin Words

• In yesterday’s column, I mistakenly noted that Monday’s game would be a 7 PM. It was, in fact, at 1 PM. Regardless of the fact that I may have saved you some grief in the process, I apologize for the error.
• I forgot to mention probably the oddest thing that happened at Saturday night’s Storm game. At one point, a bunch of alarms sounded and lights flashed, causing the game to be delayed for a minute or two while everyone tried to figure out what the heck was going on. Turns out the ribs were on overdrive at Randy Jones barbecue and had set off the stadium smoke alarm.
• I also neglected to mention one of the coolest things about Sunday’s Padre game. Somewhere around the sixth or seventh inning, an image of a bunch of Marines sitting just above us in left field was displayed on the giant scoreboard. Standing ovation. I’m not the most overtly patriotic guy in the world, but it was awesome. Regardless of one’s opinion of the current situation in Iraq, these kids deserve ultimate respect for putting their lives on the line to get the job done.

That’s all for now. More as it happens…