IGD: Padres vs Diamondbacks (29 Aug 07)

by Geoff Young on Aug 29, 2007 (122) Comments

Game #132
time: 7:05 p.m. PT
tv: 4SD
sp: Greg Maddux (10-9, 3.90) vs Micah Owings (6-7, 4.69)
pre: Padres.com, B-R.com

Greg Maddux hasn’t issued a walk all month. He’s issued just three over 210 plate appearances since the All-Star break. Two of those came in the same game.

Maddux has walked zero or one batters in 22 of his 27 starts this year. In 1997, he did that in 28 of 32 starts. Maddux is averaging 1.17 walks per nine innings, best in baseball, and he’s already walked more batters than he did in 71 more innings in ’97.

It’s sick, is what it is. So is the fact that Micah Owings has outhomered ex-Padre Josh Barfield this season…

Hey, I Can See First Place from Here

by Geoff Young on Aug 29, 2007 (92) Comments

Fun win Tuesday night (box score). They’re all fun, though, aren’t they? Justin Germano wasn’t brilliant, but he didn’t have to be because the offense came through against defending Cy Young award winner Brandon Webb.

Geoff at Ballhype

Elsewhere in reality, I’ve started writing for Ballhype. My first article — “Barry Zito Is the New Mike Hampton” — is available for you perusal. Check it out when you have a moment, and “hype it up” if you deem it worthy. (You can “hype up” Ducksnorts articles, too, using that little doohickey at the end of each post. Not that I’m begging, but okay, I’m begging. Anyway…

Again.

Germano just had to keep the Padres in the game, which he did. The home team then took advantage of Webb’s wildness and indecision on a Kevin Kouzmanoff bunt (coupled with a questionable call by first-base umpire Lance Barksdale) to score four runs in the sixth and take command.

You know what else was nice? A 1-2-3 ninth from Trevor Hoffman. Haven’t seen one of those in a while (August 4, at home against the Giants, although he didn’t get a save in that one; last 1-2-3 save came on July 24 — over a month ago — at Coors Field of all places).

I like that Hoffman breezed through ninth a night after struggling. And I like that he got the final two outs against Arizona’s two best hitters.

But Hoffman is toast, right? Or wait, I think it is Michael Barrett‘s fault. What is Barrett’s fault? I have no clue, I just repeat what I’m told.

Speaking of non sequiturs, here’s something “they” never tell you: The Padres have the second best home run differential in the National League.

Team Home Run Differentials, National League 2007
Team HR Opp HR Dif
Statistics are courtesy of ESPN and are through games of August 28, 2007.
Milwaukee 180 136 44
San Diego 131 90 41
Florida 167 137 30
Cincinnati 177 156 21
Atlanta 146 134 12
San Francisco 108 100 8
NY Mets 137 134 3
Philadelphia 166 165 1
Arizona 139 143 -4
Colorado 128 133 -5
Pittsburgh 126 134 -8
St. Louis 118 127 -9
LA Dodgers 96 106 -10
Chicago Cubs 104 139 -35
Houston 132 167 -35
Washington 96 146 -50

It would be nice if “they” told you stuff like this, but they don’t, so I do. Hey, as long as it gets out there somehow…

Padres Prospect Report

by Peter Friberg

You will not see all the notable performances from the night before, but you will see the notable performances from those who are actually prospects. – Original preamble for those wondering why I select the performances I do…

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

AAA

Tucson 4, Portland 3

Michael Barrett: 3 AB, 0 R, 0 H, 0 RBI; SO – rehab

AA

Midland 6, San Antonio 5 (11 innings)

Matt Antonelli: 6 AB, 0 R, 2 H, 2 RBI; 2B, 3 SO
Chase Headley: 5 AB, 0 R, 0 H, 0 RBI; BB, SO

High-A

Lake Elsinore 16, Visalia 6

Craig Cooper: 6 AB, 3 R, 4 H, 7 RBI; 3B, 2 HR
Kyle Blanks: 5 AB, 1 R, 2 H, 1 RBI; HR, BB, SO
Jose Lobaton: 5 AB, 4 R, 4 H, 3 RBI; 2 2B, 2 HR

Low-A

Game 1: West Michigan 7, Fort Wayne 6

Eric Sogard: 4 AB, 0 R, 2 H, 4 RBI; 2B, CS

Game 2: West Michigan 4, Fort Wayne 1

Cedric Hunter: 3 AB, 1 R, 1 H, 1 RBI; HR

Short Season-A

Everett 9, Eugene 4

Danny Payne: 5 AB, 1 R, 2 H, 0 RBI; 2B, 2 SO

Rookie

AZL Cubs 7, AZL Padres 2

No significant performances…

Commentary:

Cedric is on a bit of a tear… His August numbers are .333/.411/.484…

Thanks, Peter. The Padres look to reclaim a share of first place on Wednesday. First pitch is at 7:05 p.m. PT. Assume the rest to be obvious…

1969: Expos in Town Means Victory

by Geoff Young on Aug 29, 2007 (0) Comments

August 29, 1969, San Diego: Padres 3, Expos 0 (box score)

Following two straight series sweeps at the hands of the Mets and Phillies, San Diego welcomed the Montreal Expos to town. For all the Padres’ faults during their inaugural season (and there were plenty), they never seemed to have trouble beating their fellow expansion team from north of the border.

On a Friday at San Diego Stadium, right-hander Al Santorini dominated. He allowed an infield single to journeyman outfielder Ty Cline in the third inning and a single to left off the bat of Coco Laboy with two out in the ninth. Those were the only two hits Santorini gave up all day.

The Padres, meanwhile, provided Santorini with more than enough support in the third. With one out, Jose Arcia, Roberto Pena, and Ollie Brown singled to put San Diego up, 1-0. After Al Ferrara struck out against Montreal starter Mike Wegener, Nate Colbert and Van Kelly each singled home a run to make the score 3-0. (Wegener, for whatever it may be worth, struck out the side — of course, he also gave up five singles in the inning.)

The Padres threatened again in the fifth and the eighth, but couldn’t add to their lead. In the end, it didn’t matter and San Diego had improved its record to 38-92 in front of a shade under 4,000 fans.

IGD: Padres vs Diamondbacks (28 Aug 07)

by Geoff Young on Aug 28, 2007 (157) Comments

Game #131
time: 7:05 p.m. PT
tv: 4SD
sp: Justin Germano (6-7, 4.24) vs Brandon Webb (14-8, 2.63)
pre: Padres.com, B-R.com

It is March and black dust falls out of the books
Soon I will be gone
– W.S. Merwin

Actually, it is August and if the Padres can get any production out of the back end of their rotation, soon they will be headed to the playoffs. Justin Germano gets the call Tuesday night, and he’s scuffling a bit: 0-4, 5.54 ERA over his past seven starts. Germano also has an ERA two full runs higher at home than on the road, which is weird because the batting lines against him are nearly identical.

Brandon Webb, meanwhile, surrendered two runs his last time out against the Brewers. Those were the first runs he’d given up in over a month.

Here’s hoping for a miracle. Go Padres!

Padres Beat Snakes, Peavy Breaks Record

by Geoff Young on Aug 28, 2007 (60) Comments

Gee, it’s a shame the Padres can’t come back late in games. You know, like they did Monday night (box score).

First off, congratulations to Jake Peavy on breaking Andy Benes’ club record for career strikeouts. Peavy caught Orlando Hudson looking on an inside fastball in the first inning to take over the top spot:

Jake Peavy delivers a pitch that would result in a strikeout of Arizona's Orlando Hudson and make Peavy the Padres all-time career leader in strikeouts.

The scoreboard says it all.

Peavy was in command the entire night. He worked behind in the count a bit in the second, and hung a slider to Eric Byrnes in the sixth that gave the Diamondbacks a 1-0 lead, but otherwise Peavy pitched another beauty.

We were in Section 300, directly behind (and above) home plate, and I tried to think along with the pitchers and catchers all night. I thought Peavy had Byrnes set up for an inside fastball after throwing him a couple sliders, but Peavy went with another slider. Unfortunately it caught too much plate and Byrnes launched it into the left-field bleachers.

Eh, what do I know?

Livan Hernandez, meanwhile, gave the Padres all kinds of trouble through the first six innings. Hernandez doesn’t throw a knuckleball, but he might as well: he never gets tired, and that slow breaking stuff can mess with a hitter’s head long after the fact. I still remember a game from ’05 or ’06 where Dave Roberts waited as long as he possibly could for a pitch and still ended up way out in front and missing it by plenty.

Josh Bard and Milton Bradley had at-bats like that on Monday. Unless there’s a hit-and-run play on, you don’t see a lot of big leaguers fling the bat at the ball in an attempt to hit it.

Speaking of Bradley, he hit another home run. (That was a homer, wasn’t it? I still haven’t seen the replay.) Bradley is playing well, but I still wish the Padres had gone out and gotten a big bat like Mark Teixeira. Oh, wait…

Mark Teixeira vs Milton Bradley
  AB BA OBP SLG OPS+ R HR RBI
Statistics are courtesy of Baseball-Reference and are through games of August 27, 2007.
Teixeira 98 .316 .409 .684 182 20 10 31
Bradley 105 .362 .455 .676 199 24 9 26

Weird. I kept hearing that the Padres didn’t get a big bat down the stretch; people wouldn’t say that if it weren’t true, right?

Elsewhere in the game, we need to put the “Silent L” moniker away for awhile. Geoff Blum still can’t play any kind of defense, but he’s hitting .299/.371/.409 since the All-Star break while playing way more than anyone anticipated. He’s also putting on a clinic on how to hit at Petco Park (.337/.421/.452 home vs .190/.243/.294 away).

Trevor Hoffman? Yeah, he’s making me nervous, too, but he’s our guy. What are you gonna do…

Padres Prospect Report

by Peter Friberg

You will not see me rip “Silent ‘L’.”

Monday, August 27, 2007

AAA

Tucson 7, Portland 4

Casey Fossom: 5.0 IP, 12 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO, 0 HR

AA

San Antonio 8, Corpus Christi 1

Matt Antonelli: 5 AB, 1 R, 2 H, 1 RBI; 2B
Will Venable: 5 AB, 1 R, 3 H, 3 RBI; 2B
Wade LeBlanc: 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 10 SO, 0 HR

High-A

No games scheduled…

Low-A

Fort Wayne 6, South Bend 3

Cedric Hunter: 5 AB, 0 R, 2 H, 2 RBI; SO

Short Season-A

Vancouver 13, Eugene 6

Lance Zawadzki: 4 AB, 1 R, 2 H, 0 RBI; 2B, BB, SO, SB
Kellen Kulbacki: 4 AB, 1 R, 1 H, 0 RBI; 2B, BB, 2 SO
Corey Kluber: 4.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 9 SO, 0 HR

Rookie

No game scheduled…

Commentary:

When did we pick up Casey Fossom? Where was I? Virginia? Oh yeah… Man, our Triple-A team sucks.

Thanks, Peter. The worst part about the Fossum pickup is that we might need him down the stretch.

Tuesday Links (28 Jul 07)

by Geoff Young on Aug 28, 2007 (4) Comments

Because I missed our regularly scheduled Friday Links this past week and the ’69 Padres have an off-day, I thought I’d fill some space here. I’m crazy that way, so don’t try to stop me.

Right, whatever. Here are some links (a lot, actually, with minimal commentary):

  • 2007 Scouting Report by the Fans for the Fans (The Book, via Friar Forecast). Tangotiger is conducting his annual project. I’ll let him explain:

    I want you to tell me what your eyes see. I want you to tell me how good or bad a fielder is. Go down, and start selecting the team(s) that you watch all the time. For any player that you’ve seen play in at least 10 games in 2007, I want you to judge his performance in 7 specific fielding categories.

    It’s a very cool project, and I’d encourage everyone to participate. You don’t get an “I Voted” sticker or anything, but still. Padres fans need to represent, yo.

  • Padres CEO talks finances, reluctantly (San Diego Union-Tribune, via Phantom in the comments). Old news, but better late than never. Quoth Sandy Alderson:

    The franchise, relative to other franchises in baseball, is in pretty good shape. But it’s not going to stay that way if we make multimillion-dollar mistakes.

    Yep, that pretty much nails it.

  • A Baseball Smackdown–Ensberg vs. Kouzmanoff (Fantasy Baseball Generals). Confession time: Whenever I hear the name Morgan Ensberg I always think of James Ensor and that song by They Might Be Giants.
  • Fresh arms come and go (North County Times). Heath Bell and Justin Hampson talk about their times shuttling back and forth between the big leagues and Triple-A. Quoth Bell: “People at LaGuardia started recognizing who I was.”
  • Stansberry relishes debut (Padres.com). Rookie Craig Stansberry on his big-league debut: “I had some serious adrenaline going.” Maybe. You think?
  • Again with the regulating (Friar Watch). Anthony examines Trevor Hoffman’s recent struggles.
  • Jake Peavy: Pitch variation and velocity (Friar Forecast). More fun with Gameday data.
  • Non-Prospect Diary: Dirk Hayhurst (Baseball America, via KRS1 in the comments). I’d run across these diaries earlier in the season and since completely forgotten about them. Thanks to KRS1 for the reminder. This entry is particularly poignant.
  • Q&A with Nina Detrow (San Diego Union-Tribune). Don’t recognize the name? If you’ve been watching the Padres much over the past several years, you’ll know her as the ball girl stationed along the left-field foul line. Some fun stories in here, including this one:

    Just recently, (the Cardinals’) David Eckstein hit as hard a line drive as I’ve ever caught. My hand hurt for a week. I had to move to my right to catch the ball. I didn’t have time to think. After I caught the ball, I looked back and there was an older couple sitting in the first row. They brought me some brownies the next homestand.

    Plenty more anecdotes where that came from. Good stuff…

  • The art of turning the double play (MLB.com, via Phantom in the comments). Some quotes from Khalil Greene. Also, we learn something shocking: ex-Padre Jim Leyritz got into three games at second base while with the Yankees. Derek Jeter remembers it well.
  • Angels use wings to make up for lack of offensive muscle (CBS Sports, via Didi in the comments). One thing I miss from last year’s Padres is the aggressiveness of guys like Josh Barfield and Dave Roberts on the basepaths. I still think we were right to let them go, but it was fun watching them run the bases.
  • The DRAFTYs: The 2007 MLB draft awards (Hardball Times, via Didi in the comments). Nick Schmidt checks in as the worst first-round pick. Andrew Cumberland’s #2 ranking among non-first-rounders comes with a request: “Padres, please don’t turn him into a slap hitter.”
  • No mirage in Arizona (Hardball Times, via Didi in the comments). Chris Jaffe takes a closer look at the Diamondbacks’ success this season. Among other things, he likes the way Bob Melvin has managed his bullpen:

    You’ve got to give Bob Melvin a lot of credit here. He’s putting the right guys in when it matters and sticking in the bums when it doesn’t.

  • Long-Term Free Agent Contracts: A Historical Perspective (Baseball Analysts, via Brian in the comments). This is from March 2006 but it’s still instructive in weighing the risks and rewards of long-term deals.
  • Craig Biggio Blames Media Pressure For Stalling At 285 Hit-By-Pitches (The Onion, via LynchMob in the comments). God bless The Onion.

Enjoy…

IGD: Padres vs Diamondbacks (27 Aug 07)

by Geoff Young on Aug 27, 2007 (102) Comments

Game #130
time: 7:05 p.m. PT
tv: 4SD
sp: Jake Peavy (14-5, 2.21) vs Livan Hernandez (9-8, 4.96)
pre: Padres.com, B-R.com

Jake Peavy‘s next strikeout will move him past Andy Benes and into first place all time among Padres pitchers. Peavy has recorded at least one strikeout in all but one — June 22, 2003, against Seattle — of his 164 career starts, so that’s almost guaranteed to happen. In fact, if Chris Young leads off (as he has 68 times this year), Peavy could set the mark real early in the game.

Records are nice, but wins are even better. Go Padres!

How the (NL) West Will Be Won

by Geoff Young on Aug 27, 2007 (44) Comments

Fun weekend in Philadelphia. Fun road trip. Four out of six against two playoff contenders back east? Works for me.

Now the boys return to Petco for a huge four-game series against Arizona. We can whine about the fact that the Diamondbacks are outperforming their Pythagorean record by 12 games or we can acknowledge the impressiveness of this freakish achievement and start focusing on things we can control, like winning games here and now.

I respect what the Diamondbacks are doing. They are challenging our assumptions about the relationship between runs and wins. They are forcing intelligent people to work overtime trying to figure out what makes them tick. How can that not be good for the game?

What amazes me about the Snakes is that they have no outstanding offensive performers. (Sound familiar? According to the recently discovered SkyKing 162, it should.) Pitcher Micah Owings has the highest OPS+ (125) on the team, with Eric Byrnes (114) leading the charge among regulars. Chris Young (the other one, not ours) has hit 28 homers but driven in just 51 runs. That is really hard to do, although hitting .193/.256/.340 with men on base helps.

The rotation has been solid, but with the exception of perpetual Cy Young candidate Brandon Webb, unspectacular. Doug Davis and Livan Hernandez soak up innings, and Owings has that whole “great hitter” thing going for him. The bullpen, though, is where this pitching staff shines. Arizona features five relievers who have worked 40+ games and posted sub-3.00 ERAs. Combined, they’ve given the Diamondbacks 267 innings of 2.66 ERA. (The Padres “big five” have a collective 3.21 ERA over 285.1 IP.)

All four games between the two teams, who are separated by three games in the NL West entering the series, start at 7:05 p.m. PT. Here are your pitching matchups:

Mon: Jake Peavy (14-5, 2.21) vs Livan Hernandez (9-8, 4.96)
Tue: Justin Germano (6-7, 4.24) vs Brandon Webb (14-8, 2.63)
Wed: Greg Maddux (10-9, 3.90) vs Micah Owings (6-7, 4.69)
Thu: ??? vs Yusmeiro Petit (2-4, 5.48) or Doug Davis (11-11, 4.09)

I have no idea who will start for San Diego on Thursday. Could be Chris Young, could be Clay Hensley (if Young goes to DL), could be Jack Cassel. Probably won’t be Tim Stauffer…

Padres Prospect Report

by Peter Friberg

You will not see LynchMob post the PPR for awhile… And thus, you can resume complaining about my selectivity. ;-) Just kidding, but I had to stick with my, “You will not see…” theme. Seriously, big thanks to Howard and Geoff for covering for me while I was in Virginia for two weeks.

Friday, August 24, 2007

AAA

Tacoma 5, Portland 2

No significant performances…

AA

San Antonio 9, Frisco 0

Chase Headley: 3 AB, 2 R, 1 H, 0 RBI; 2B, 2 BB, SO
Chad Huffman: 3 AB, 1 R, 1 H, 4 RBI; HR, BB, SO, SF
Joshua Geer: 8.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 SO, 0 HR

High-A

Lake Elsinore 2, Inland Empire 1

David Freese: 3 AB, 0 R, 1 H, 0 RBI; 2B – 52 XBH on season; 30 doubles

Low-A

Postponed.

Short Season-A

Tri-City 4, Eugene 3

Kellen Kulbacki: 4 AB, 1 R, 1 H, 2 RBI; HR, SO
Mat Latos: 4.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 SO, 0 HR

Rookie

AZL Royals 10, AZL Padres 4

Edgar Garzon: 4 AB, 1 R, 2 H, 0 RBI; 2B
Simon Castro: 3.1 IP, 9 H, 8 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 4 SO, 0 HR

Commentary:

Mat Latos is quietly having quite a debut season… His 4.05 ERA and 48 hits in 46.2 IP are less than impressive. But his 17/60 BB/SO ratio with 1 HR allowed is pretty sick and likely indicative of future success…

Saturday, August 25, 2007

AAA

Tacoma 6, Portland 0

Jared Wells: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 SO, 0 HR

AA

San Antonio 1, Corpus Christi 0

Chase Headley: 2 AB, 0 R, 1 H, 0 RBI; 2 BB, SO
Cesar Ramos: 6.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 0 SO, 0 HR

High-A

Island Empire 7, Lake Elsinore 4

No significant performances…

Low-A

Game 1: Fort Wayne 5, South Bend 4

Eric Sogard: 2 AB, 0 R, 1 H, 2 RBI; BB
Cedric Hunter: 3 AB, 1 R, 2 H, 0 RBI; SB

Game 2: South Bend 4, Fort Wayne 1

Eric Sogard: 3 AB, 1 R, 1 H, 1 RBI; HR, SO

Short Season-A

Vancouver 7, Eugene 3

Luis Durango: 4 AB, 1 R, 2 H, 0 RBI; SB
Kellen Kulbacki: 4 AB, 1 R, 2 H, 3 RBI; HR
Jeremy Hefner: 5.1 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 6 SO, 0 HR

Rookie

AZL Padres 13, AZL Athletics 7

Jeudy Valdez: 4 AB, 3 R, 1 H, 2 RBI; BB, 2 SO, 2 SB

Commentary:

Jared Wells has been deemed a failure… And he has failed, as a starting pitcher. However, as a reliever he has posted the following numbers:

2-1 with 3.26 ERA in 38.2 IP with 36 H, 17 R, 14 ER, 0 HR, 17 BB, 42 SO

…Conversion complete.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

AAA

Portland 5, Tacoma 3

Jared Wells: 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO, 0 HR – One-out save!

AA

Game 1: Corpus Christi 3, San Antonio 2

Mike Ekstrom: 6.0 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 6 SO, 0 HR

Game 2: San Antonio 4, Corpus Christi 0

Matt Antonelli: 1 AB, 1 R, 1 H, 2 RBI; 2 BB, SF
Will Venable: 4 AB, 1 R, 1 H, 2 RBI; HR,
Chase Headley: 3 AB, 0 R, 0 H, 0 RBI, 2 SO
Colt Morton: 3 AB, 0 R, 0 H, 0 RBI; 3 SO
Dirk Hayhurst: 5.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 SO, 0 HR

High-A

Inland Empire 6, Lake Elsinore 2

David Freese: 4 AB, 1 R, 2 H, 2 RBI; HR, SO
Cory Luebke: 4.0 IP, 9 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 0 BB, 3 SO, 1 HR – Hi-A debut

[Ed note: Monday U-T has an article on Luebke.]

Low-A

Fort Wayne 5, South Bend 1

Cedric Hunter: 3 AB, 1 R, 1 H, 2 RBI; HR, BB, 2 SO, SB
Aaron Breit: 4.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 SO, 0 HR – more please!

Short Season-A

Vancouver 9, Eugene 8

Kellen Kulbacki: 4 AB, 1 R, 2 H, 4 RBI; HR, BB, SO, CS
Jeremy McBryde: 4.0 IP, 10 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 0 BB, 4 SO, 1 HR

Rookie

AZL Rangers 6, AZL Padres 5

Drew Cumberland: 4 AB, 0 R, 3 H, 0 RBI; BB, SB

Commentary:

Nothing more to say…

Welcome back home, Peter, and thanks for once again delivering the goods. Go Padres!

1969: Padres Lose Sixth Straight

by Geoff Young on Aug 27, 2007 (0) Comments

August 27, 1969, San Diego: Mets 4, Padres 1 (box score)

There’s domination, and then there’s DOMINATION. This game qualified as the latter.

Mets left-hander Jerry Koosman gave up a solo home run to Ollie Brown with two out in the first inning. The next batter, Al Ferrara, singled to left. From that point on, Koosman was unhittable. He walked opposing pitcher Clay Kirby to lead off the third and Ed Spiezio with two out in the seventh. Those were San Diego’s only two baserunners over the final 8 1/3 innings.

New York, meanwhile, scored twice in the third off Kirby and twice more in the sixth. Kirby didn’t pitch all that badly — 8 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 3 BB, 7 SO — but he ran into a complete buzzsaw and saw his record drop to an alarming 3-18. The Padres had lost their sixth straight, in front of just over 5,500 fans at San Diego Stadium, and fell to 37-92 on the season.

IGD: Padres @ Phillies (26 Aug 07)

by Geoff Young on Aug 26, 2007 (95) Comments

Game #129
time: 10:35 a.m. PT
tv: 4SD
sp: Tim Stauffer (0-0, 17.18) vs Kyle Kendrick (6-3, 4.06)
pre: Padres.com, SI.com, B-R.com

Four things:

  1. Glad to see Doug Brocail take care of business with Carlos Ruiz. Plunking the punk in the hip won’t hasten Marcus Giles‘ return from the DL, but it’s good to know that guys have each other’s backs. And Ruiz is still an idiot.
  2. Craig Stansberry, recalled from Triple-A Portland, whacked the first pitch he saw in the big leagues just over the outstretched glove of Philadelphia second baseman Tadahito Iguchi for a single. Stansberry was batting for Rob Mackowiak, who had been announced for Brocail but who was lifted when lefty J.C. Romero entered for the Phillies with one on and two out in the seventh. Congrats to Stansberry, who also becomes the first ever big-league player born in Saudi Arabia.
  3. Milton Bradley is a unique talent and a unique individual. His style of play is infectious, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have any concerns. The home run he hit on a 3-0 fastball from Tom Gordon in the eighth to tie the game went halfway up the second deck. There are no bonus points for distance, but that was impressive. Chirping at fans who had been heckling him from behind the plate afterwards… Look, I can’t remember a guy (and maybe I’m missing someone) who has put on a Padres uniform in the past 15-20 years who would’ve done something like that. Randy Myers? Not a hitter, but he’s the only player I can think of that might have been as intense as Bradley appears to be. I guess I’m just hoping Bradley can keep his energy channeled on the right things, because we sure do need him. Still, how can you not love this quote about his exchange with fans behind the plate?

    They’re telling me I’m no good, I’m telling them I am that good. It feels good to come through and help this team win.

    I mean, it’s a bit obnoxious, but the man has a point. He is that good.

  4. Citizens Bank Park is fun, in a Coors Field kind of way, but I would hate to see my team play half its games there. Brett Myers was at least half right in claiming that the two homers he served up in the ninth were “just pop ups.” Kevin Kouzmanoff‘s looked legit to me, but how did the ball Terrmel Sledge hit even come close? Judging from the type of swing he took and the trajectory of the ball, I’m guessing it doesn’t reach the warning track at Petco. Hey, we’ll take it.

Whatever the outcome of Sunday’s game, the Padres have won consecutive road series against playoff contenders and they’ve done it with lots of hitting. Can they keep it going and get the sweep in Philly behind Tim Stauffer? The matchup would appear to favor the home team, but after seeing Sledge’s pop up clear the left field fence on Saturday, I’m not ruling out anything.

Go Padres!