Five wins in a row. A share of first place. Sweet? No, spicy; vaguely like doner kebab.
Some days you get only one hit. Some days, that’s all you need. On Tuesday, against the Giants, it was enough.
Ladies and gentlemen, break up the Padres. (Oops, shouldn’t say that out loud… it could happen, you know.)
Mat Latos pitched a terrific game. Only two strikeouts (back-to-back to end the fifth), but did you notice all the ground balls? All 13 of them? Yummy. Continue reading ›
While I’m working on the recap of Tuesday’s victory, here’s a little something to keep you busy: My latest Hardball Times article looks at some of the more unexpected performances over the first two weeks of 2010. There’s no real Padres connection, although former Friars Rickey Henderson, Miguel Olivo, Tony Clark, David Ross, Russell Branyan, Milton Bradley, Henri Stanley, and Jon Knott all make cameos.
Enjoy!
How predictable. The Padres win Monday night on a walk-off homer from David Eckstein. Yawn. Wake me when something exciting happens.
Wait, that David Eckstein? Those Padres? Continue reading ›
Another day, another thrashing of the Diamondbacks bullpen. I’m going to miss those guys. Here’s how the Padres won their weekend series against Arizona:
Starters
IP H R ER HR BB K
SD 15.2 8 3 0 0 10 17
SD 15.2 8 4 1 0 10 17
Ari 17.0 11 2 2 1 11 11
Relievers
IP H R ER HR BB K
SD 11.1 4 2 2 1 0 14
Ari 7.2 12 14 13 2 9 4
As I said, I’m going to miss Arizona’s relief corps(e).
Wade LeBlanc started in place of the injured Chris Young on Sunday and pitched reasonably well. It’d be nice to see a starter make it through the sixth every now and then, but that’s hard to do when you work deep counts. LeBlanc faced 22 batters in his first big-league start of the season and went to three balls on nine of them, which is irritating.
Still, he finished with seven strikeouts. I know a lot of people don’t believe in LeBlanc, and I get that. The guy throws a ton of slop, but to my way of thinking, anyone who can put an 89-mph fastball past Justin Upton (as LeBlanc did to end his outing) has a chance.
Random thoughts from the game:
That’s all for now. More as it happens…
We made it to our first game of 2010 on Saturday night. I was prepared to hate the new 5:35 start time, but it turns out I didn’t. We had to rearrange our eating schedule, although that worked out well, as it resulted in a Lolita’s carne asada burrito after the game.
Speaking of change, the Padres are doing a few new things at the ballpark. First, they’re making the game-day program available for free. Former North County Times reporter and current Padres publications manager Shaun O’Neill notes in his introduction to the inaugural issue of Padres Blueprint that “the size is smaller, by design,” explaining that “a playbill-style format should make it easier to read from a ballpark seat.” It comes with a scorecard and basically rocks.
GY, should I use a gel pen to keep score on the scorecard?
Not unless you want ink all over yourself, in which case you’re probably better off splurging on a classy tattoo.
Another change is that the Padres have added OPS to the scoreboard, which means I no longer have to calculate it in my head. Oh, and if you think OPS is totally mainstream now, consider this: In my section, several folks who probably have been watching baseball longer than I’ve been alive engaged in a lengthy debate regarding the acronym’s meaning. A teen-aged boy in their midst correctly identified it as on-base-plus-slugging-percentage but was ignored by the adults, who preferred “overall percentage scored” and settled on that. I should have told them the kid was right, but I am shy with strangers and besides, their “explanation” made me smile.
The giveaway on Saturday was a David Eckstein bobblehead. It looks exactly like the real thing, only slightly larger. The Sacrifice Bunt has offered to trade me his but I’ve already got one and it’s very nice.
As for the game, is it poor form to complain about a 5-0 victory? Yes, we are all agreed that it is poor form. Very well, let the complaining begin.
I know it’s early, but the Padres need to improve their approach at the plate with the bases loaded. After repeatedly letting Tim Hudson and Edwin Jackson off the hook in previous games, they did the same with Kris Benson (!) on Saturday.
Finally, in the seventh, against the always-generous Arizona bullpen, Hairston walked, forcing home Adrian Gonzalez. The next batter, Nick Hundley, blooped a single just over second baseman Kelly Johnson’s head to drive home Headley and Kyle Blanks. (Hundley earlier homered to left off Benson, feasting on one of the fattest curve balls you’ll ever see.)
Okay, enough whining. To the good stuff:
Now go away, or I shall taunt you a second time.
Getting a late start on a lazy Saturday. I wasn’t planning to write today, but how can I not say a few words about the season’s best game so far?
It didn’t start out that way. Most of the night was an exercise in frustration. As Tim Hudson did on Thursday, Edwin Jackson had trouble throwing strikes. As they did with Hudson, the Padres had trouble making Jackson pay for his mistakes. They either helped him out by swinging at bad pitches (in their defense, his slider was biting hard) or got victimized by some fantastic glovework.
On the flip side, Jon Garland… I need to start recording his starts. Sometimes I have trouble falling asleep at night and nothing seems to help. I’m pretty sure a few innings (or even batters) of Garland would do the trick.
I’m nitpicking here, but I would like to see Garland add “throw the damn ball” to his repertoire. I imagine the guys collecting dust behind him might feel the same way… assuming they feel anything after standing around for so long.
Chase Headley, who had a rough 8 2/3 innings, committed two errors. One was changed to a base hit. It was a tough play to his backhand side, but makeable. He had the ball, then lost a game of patty-cake to it.
On the other error, in the fifth, left fielder Kyle Blanks made a nice play backing up Headley and nailed batter Justin Upton trying to take second. An inning earlier, Blanks nailed Conor Jackson at second on a drive to left-center. Blanks cut the ball off while moving to his left, spun, and fired a strike to David Eckstein, who applied the tag and held it as Jackson tumbled past the bag.
At some point, other teams will stop being surprised by Blanks’ athleticism. Until then, they’ll keep doing stupid stuff to make him prove it, which is fine.
Blanks also had some solid plate appearances, lashing a single to right in the second and a double to left-center in the seventh that skipped past a startled Gerardo Parra, who may not have expected the ball to be hit so hard. Blanks’ best work, though, came in the eighth, when he spat on a tough 3-2 pitch from Aaron Heilman with the bases loaded to cut Arizona’s lead to 3-2.
Meanwhile, the Padres bullpen did a stellar job (4 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 HR, 0 BB, 5 K). So did the Diamondbacks bullpen (2.2 IP, 5 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 1 HR, 4 BB, 1 K)… if you’re a Padres fan. Those guys were brutal.
On the heels of Bobby Howry and Heilman, who lit the match, came “closer” Juan Gutierrez (you may recall him from that insane game last June 7) with his gas can. Gutierrez opened the ninth by walking Nick “I Will Flail at Breaking Balls Down and Away if You Just Give Me a Chance” Hundley after jumping ahead in the count, 0-2. Pinch-hitter Jerry Hairston Jr. followed with a sacrifice bunt.
After Gutierrez got Everth Cabrera to chase the slider Hundley should have seen, Eckstein whacked the next pitch just beyond the outstretched glove of Parra for a game-tying double. As I tweeted (excuse me!), grit happens.
Somewhere, a stathead lost its wings.
Then, as Padres fans saw all too often in 2009, Adrian Gonzalez was intentionally walked, bringing up Headley. As Padres fans didn’t see often enough last year, the man behind Gonzalez made the opposition pay, swatting a 1-1 fastball deep into the right-field seats to end the game.
Headley admired his shot a bit and threw the bat. He may get plunked for that public display of ass-whooping, but it was for a worthy cause.
The only downside of this victory is that it left me wired. Fortunately I was able to fall asleep, although worst case, I could have watched the rebroadcast of Garland’s first inning. I’m certain that would have put me out cold.
This week’s links are proudly sponsored by coffee. Give yourself a present…
Thank goodness for the day off on Tuesday. The season is a grind, and sometimes you just need a break. I don’t know about you, but after a week’s worth of games on the road and one grueling home date, I was ready to get my mind off baseball… if only for a little while. Thank you, oh wise schedulers, for accommodating all of us.
We got bored and restless without a game. Some of us rambled on about process, others picked apart articles of questionable merit, while still others pondered the state of the Padres blogosphere.
Hey, is that lint in my belly button?
Meanwhile, in all the excitement, I missed Wednesday night’s 6-1 loss to the Braves. Well, I wouldn’t say I missed it, Bob. But I did forget to DVR it, and then life happened.
I can’t comment on the game itself, but one thing I’m keeping an eye on this season is attendance. I’m curious to see how fans respond to new ownership’s words and actions. Opening Day doesn’t really count because everyone goes to that whether they like baseball or not:
“Did you see me on TV? I had lint in my belly button. Woo-hoo, I was on TV!”
Game 2 is what separates the fans from the woo-hoos. Very well, then, here is Game 2 in the Petco Park era:
Year Day Opp Att 2004 Sat SF 41,625 2005 Fri Pit 39,791 2006 Wed SF 23,721 2007 Sat Col 40,504 2008 Tue Hou 20,825 2009 Tue LA 20,035 2010 Wed Atl 24,969
Not much to go on, but that’s got to be encouraging. I can’t believe the attendance against the Dodgers in Game 2 last year. What, folks from LA had better things to do than drive down and take over our ballpark?
Anyway, we’ll keep watching.
* * *
On a completely unrelated note, thanks to the magic of the Internet, I did catch most of the Dayton/Fort Wayne game on radio. Brings back fond memories of the time I listened to Jake Peavy and Mark Prior battle in the Southern League.
I took only mental notes this time. Heard Everett Williams notch his first hit in full-season ball, a first-inning double down the left-field line. The announcers praised Rymer Liriano, who took the collar on Wednesday but who has made a favorable impression.
They also had kind words for starter Jerry Sullivan, who pitched a mostly beautiful game and who apparently featured a nasty, sharp-breaking slider. Sullivan’s final line (6 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 HR, 0 BB, 7 K) doesn’t look great, but neither does it tell the whole story.
Sullivan allowed a leadoff double to Didi Gregorius (another name I want to see in the big leagues) before retiring the next 18 batters he faced. Then came the seventh inning (which Peter recounts in his daily rundown of the Padres farm system that you should be reading): single, single, single, slam. You’d like to see a guy finish strong (hello, Adam Eaton), but I’ll take six innings of dominance.
* * *
Back in the big leagues, the Padres and Braves wrap up their three-game series on Thursday. Mat Latos faces Tim Hudson. The game starts at 3:35 p.m. PT, which is when “day” games now start at Petco Park. I’d better go set my DVR.
That’s One Way to Lower Your ERA
by Geoff Young on Apr 19, 2010 (2) Comments
I mentioned that in Friday night’s victory over Arizona, third baseman Chase Headley committed two errors but was charged with only one. The U-T’s Tim Sullivan informs us that official scorer Bill Zavestoski later reversed course.
According to Sullivan, Padres media relations manager Bret Picciolo, manager Bud Black, and pitching coach Darren Balsley all spoke with Zavestoski about his initial ruling. End result: Give Headley one more error and starter Jon Garland three fewer earned runs.
Another U-T article, by Bill Center, quotes Black as saying of Garland, “Jon is a little more deliberate than a lot of pitchers.” Center notes that “Garland’s slow pace could have played a role in the two errors committed by Headley Friday night.”
With Zavestoski’s scoring change, Padres pitchers have now allowed 10 unearned runs so far in 2010. Of those, seven have come on Garland’s watch.
I have a feeling we’re going to see this a lot behind Garland. I would prefer he keep his ERA down by getting actual outs, which would help the team more than having the official scorer penalize infielders for taking a nap between pitches (maybe MLB could use that time to sell more television advertising), but whatever.