Blogging the San Diego Padres… established 1997

Some music I try not to think about at all, some I don’t care to hear but enjoy playing, some inspires me to play, and some just makes me want to stop playing altogether and do nothing but listen. Pretty much everything by the late Jeff Buckley falls into that last category. What a shame there isn’t more of it to enjoy.

Anyway, in case you missed it, the Padres beat the Cubs, 1-0, at Wrigley on Monday. Having watched the rebroadcast, I have a few thoughts (there’s a shock, huh?):

• Adam Eaton looked terrific. He worked ahead in the count all afternoon and never was in any kind of trouble until the sixth. The curve ball is much tighter than last year’s version and he is using it later in counts as an out pitch. No walks. Very nice performance. Now let’s see if he can string a few of those together in a row.
• The score was 1-0, but the Pads should have scored a bunch more runs. Ryan Dempster threw a lot of pitches and was working out of jams most of the day – Padres had at least one man on base with less than one out in each of his six innings. Poor baserunning and situational hitting kept the game as close as it was.
• What’s up with Khalil Greene‘s defense? Errors in back to back games; he’s got three now on the young season. To be fair, Greene isn’t the only guy playing bad defense. I think we all got a little spoiled watching him last year. He’ll be fine.
• Top of the sixth was bizarre. Brian Giles leads off with a smash to right that dies in the wind. Jeromy Burnitz goes back too far on the ball and mishandles it when he tries to come back in on it. Ryan Klesko drills a ball down the right field line that just misses Scott Linebrink, who is stretching in the “bullpen” and who has to roll over on his back to avoid being hit. The Russian judge gives him a 10. Then, after Phil Nevin pops out weakly on the first pitch of his at-bat, Ramon Hernandez hits a ground ball to second. Neifi Perez, who is playing in, looks home but throws to first. Giles scores, and that’s your game.
• Akinori Otsuka was a little shaky but made the pitches when it mattered most – the slider he fanned Burnitz on to end the eighth was filthy. My biggest concern with Aki right now (with the understanding that it’s very early in the season) is that he’s been horribly inefficient so far, averaging 23.5 pitches per inning. Don’t work hard, work smart.
• Trevor Hoffman? Oh yeah, no problem. The changeup he used to strike out Todd Hollandsworth in the ninth was vintage Trevor.

In Other News

• Seems the taco shop thread is taking on a life of its own. I may have to come up with some kind of quasi-official “Ducksnorts Guide to SD Taco Shops and Tortillerias”; suggestions welcome, of course.
• From the comments, Funkinstein has an update on the Ramon Hernandez contract situation: “Postgame guys said Ramon is asking for 4 years, $40 million. Not gonna happen.” Agreed, not in San Diego. That is Jason Varitek money, and while it won’t surprise me to see Hernandez get a comparable deal, there’s no way it’ll be with the Padres.
• A couple days ago in the comments, LynchMob gave the heads-up on Tim Stauffer’s season debut at Portland and Travis Chick’s at Mobile. He also notes that recently signed (why?) Kerry Robinson is off to a slow start with the Beavers, while John Kruk clone Paul McAnulty is heating up with the BayBears.
• Storm get first win of young season (NC Times). This is the game I was at Saturday night. RHP Jared Wells (BA #15) worked into the sixth. Scoreboard had his fastball in the 88-93 mph range. Breaking ball was inconsistent, and the changeup looked good although he didn’t throw it much. Pix below.

Tim Redding looked okay in his first start for the Padres. Scoreboard had his fastball at 88-92 mph. Secondary pitches were nothing to write home about but generally he was effective. Defense, the one aspect of the Pads’ game that has been lacking so far this season, is the one that bit them on Sunday afternoon and hung Redding with a 6-3 loss. Khalil Greene‘s two-out throwing error on a ball hit by Ty Wigginton opened the floodgates in the fourth, leading to four unearned runs. Very frustrating defeat, to cap a homestand that wasn’t bad but that could have been a lot better. The Padres outscored the Bucs, 17-12 in the four games. Unfortunately 11 of those runs for the home team came in one game. Right now the Pads are winning the blowouts and losing the close ones. It’s early, but check out the top four teams in the NL West so far:

    W L RS RA
LA  4 2 42 30
SF  4 2 33 32
SD  3 3 41 30
Ari 3 3 41 47

Again, it’s very early and odds are things will even out over the course of the season, but this division is going to be tight again in 2005. Games that should have been won in April will come back to haunt a club in September.

Upcoming Series: Padres @ Cubs

• Mon., Apr. 11, 11:20 a.m. PT, Ch. 4, Adam Eaton vs Ryan Dempster
• Tue., Apr. 12, 11:20 a.m. PT, Ch. 4, Jake Peavy vs Mark Prior
• Wed., Apr. 13, 11:20 a.m. PT, WGN (?), Brian Lawrence vs Kerry Wood

If you’re going to take a long lunch, make it Tuesday, when Peavy and Prior take the mound. As for Wednesday’s game, some sources have it broadcast on WGN, others not at all. I’ll keep researching.

So the Padres can hit at home. A day after Ryan Klesko knocks one out to right-center, Phil Nevin hits a bomb to dead center. Here’s hoping a little success during the first homestand of the year gets in their heads and stays there for a long time.

And how about Xavier Nady? As Eric noted in yesterday’s in-game discussion, the Pads are doing just fine without Dave Roberts. Fully recovered from his strep throat, Nady collected two singles, a triple, and a homer in five trips to the plate Saturday night. Yeah, I think he’s okay.

I only got to see the last few innings of the rebroadcast because we were up in Rancho Cucamonga watching the Storm vs the Quakes, but I’ll take 11 runs at Petco any day of the week. In fact, tomorrow would be good.

Finally, the other big item from yesterday’s discussion:

Recommended Taco Shops

[Updated - thanks for all the suggestions!]

• El Asadero at 6866 El Cajon Blvd. (not far from D.Z. Akins; submitted by Dex)
• Lolita’s Taco Shop at 7305A Clairemont Mesa Blvd. (just east of I-805; my personal fave – best carnitas in town)
• El Indio (multiple locations; submitted by Brian G.)
• Adalberto’s Mexican Food at 2498 Market St. (corner of 25th; submitted by Jeff – “Open 24 hours, drive-thru, and best carne asada burritos this side of Barrio Logan.”)
• Las Cuatro Milpas at 1857 Logan Ave. (in the Barrio, pretty much under the beginning of the Coronado bridge; submitted by Jeff – “absolute best Mexican”)

Baseball and Mexican food. Seriously, does it get any better?