IGD: Padres @ Diamondbacks (29 Sep 06)

first pitch: 6:40 p.m., PT
television: Channel 4SD
matchup: Clay Hensley (11-11, 3.73 ERA) vs Livan Hernandez (12-13, 4.95 ERA)
buy tickets

I never saw the morning til I stayed up all night
I never saw the sunshine til you turned out the light
I never saw my hometown until I stayed away too long
I never heard the melody, until I needed a song.

It has nothing whatsoever to do with baseball, but this is one of my favorite Tom Waits songs of all time and “San Diego” is in the title.

So there. Go Padres!

132 Responses »

  1. Ok..when the game is over…you SD people are going to have to explain the commercial..

  2. Who’s the Giants closer this week?

  3. Mark…I can’t explain it…it is too painful!!

    We deserve to lose after commercials like that!

  4. well..i never thought I’d say this…but I think i might be glad i don’t live in San Diego..

  5. It’s a bunch of pregnant women singing and dancing around a crib. Something you might see in an early Lynch film. Kind of like tonight’s game, come to think of it.

  6. Mark…it was bad. My eyes hurt!

    Well, we lost…Like Fat Tony said, the Pads can’t ever do anything the easy way.

  7. yipes…that was painful to read…can’t imagine how bad it looked.. give me the Tom Petty video 389 times a game..

  8. Ok, Giants bullpen, just give me 6 more outs…

  9. I assume the Giants will find a way to blow this one, so I’m off to watch the season premiere of Doctor Who. Better luck tomorrow night.

  10. Phil Niekro just struck out pinch hitting for the Gnats…

  11. Despite the loss, I’m getting the battle station prepared for Operation:Postseason Tickets at 9 AM tomorrow. I’m hoping 2 phones and 2 computers will be enough…anyone else trying tomorrow?

  12. good luck in the morning….if i decide to go…i’ll pay someone who is sellling once the schedule comes out. It was easier to go to the playoffs in ’98 when I didn’t have kids…

  13. Ugh, Cal Poly love and all, but…Kevin Corriea is the best option? I guess when you have the Giants bullpen it is…

  14. Hey..he got through the inning… 3-2..bottom of 8

  15. Hmm…that was actually a pretty sick inning. Way to represent, Corriea!

  16. Keeping with the theory that we can’t do anything easy…LA has 1st and 2nd with 1 out in the top of the 9th…

  17. the friggin Giants need a closer

  18. wow, mike stanton…thanks for nothin

  19. Dodgers win.

    Magic number to win division remains: 2/3

  20. One more win, or one Philly loss and the Pads are in. Don’t sweat it. vr, Xei

  21. Man, how useless are the Giants? Apparently Benetiz is hurt, so you bring in Stanton. I live in SF, so I happened to meet some friends out at bar, and so I got to watch this sh*t live-ish, on TV. OK. So Felipe Alou, who somehow knows the voodoo sauce to beat the Pads, down a closer, decides “Stanton is my closer.” Grady puts up a string of RHB, no matter, Stanton is my man. You have Vinny Chalk, you is almost Meredith like vs. RHB, and yet, you keep Stanton in there, because, apparently, he is your closer. Dodgers win, Padres lose, indirectly. I hate the Giants.

  22. Drove to Phoenix last night. Funny, though, I couldn’t pick up the Pads game on the way, but I found the Giants game from SF. Giant announcers sounded resigned to losing once Kent got on base. Sad.

  23. Not to be nitpicky, but while Clay’s pitching line was very good, he was definitely pitching up in the zone. GB-FB: 4-9; entering the game: 321-121. So last night was 3% of his outs this season, but 7% of his flyballs. Given that, he still had very good numbers.

    Watching him pitch, I was scared that someone was going to hit him hard, which happened.

    Of course, while it was good to see the team joking around, it is not good to get 4H with the post-season sitting there. Yes, two more games, but I really don’t want the last one vs. Webb to be a “must win” to avoid a one game playoff with the very, very hot Phillies.

    I hate to say it, but the Dodgers are playing like a team of destiny. Both dramatic HR’s, rallying last night, etc. We have been playing well but not getting the dramatic wins. Maybe such wins are just luck, but they have to be believing they are going to win it. Doc sounded like he, and presumably the rest of the team, thought they were going to win it. Time to make that happen.

  24. Ok, that sucked that everybody won cept us and the stros, but we just need a single win to get to the playoffs. I am truely hating the dodgers right now. The way they are playing, they could win out, but we stil have the advantage. If we win the next two and so do the dawgs, we win the west based on h2h. But first thing first, got to knock the phils out tonght to secure a spot. Worse case would be a playoff Monday agains the Phils in Philly. Who would start that game? Anyway, Wells tonight, oh god.

  25. Ok, I’m a nervous wreck this morning. What’s the phrase “more nervous than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs”? I have VERY little faith in the mostly gout-free David Wells tonight…really ready to be proved wrong on that.

    Fortunately, the Dbacks are sending Cruz out there, and we’ve pounded him before. A few early hits, maybe a run or two in the first, and the Livan game will seem more like the anomaly it should be. I read in the UT that apparently the plan is to send Cruz out there for 2 IP (why?) and then send out Enrico Palazzo, I mean Enrique Gonzalez, who we’ve also had success against. Our jekyll-and-hyde offense should be good for 6 or 7 tonight I’m hoping, so just need DW to avoid walks and keep the ball down on the ground.

    (go padres)

  26. Papers here in Phoenix filled with Luis Gonzalez tributes and good-byes. Paper says that Juan Cruz will start and go for 2 innings ”to get some work” followed by scheduled starter Edgar Gonzales. Last time he piched against us we crushed Cruz for 9 runs in 2/3rds back on May 17. We need to do that again.

  27. I think Enrico Palazzo will, however, sing the national anthem and save the Queen from Reggie Jackson

  28. Playoff tickets on sale now, get ‘em while they last.
    I got my Game 1 tix at 9:03 and the best available were in section 318.

  29. clayton, I’ll see you nervousness and raise you….the Dawgs seem to be on one of their streaks and the Pad bats are going into one of their cold spells, the sky is falling and the cow don’t give no milk no more. Yikes!!! The giants have to win at least one, and so do we. I guess at this point, I just want into the Playoffs.

    Imagine how sweet it would be to meet the dawgs in the NLCS. To smash those arroygant punks right in the mouth. But e gotta win at least one more game. Wells is a big game pticher, well, this is a big game for us.

    Its not the pitching that concerns me, its the hitting. If our bats are cold ( like we seen many times this year) that could be real trouble.

  30. I hope Bochy has a fallback plan if Wells doesn’t have it today. Mike Thompson needs to prepare for this game as if he’s starting.

    Cruz starting is good news, two innings of his meatballs should be enough to get a decent lead.