Lucky Win
Two blunders by the Brewer first men
Botched squeeze play
Jeff Cirilo running error in the ninth (BTW, Padres are still paying him)
But when you are going well, luck is with you and we will take it.
Getting fun now, no?
Milwaukee's Journal Sentinel has an OK write up on the game. I assume Drew Olson was in attendance because he said the weather was great, but his description of the game is pedestrian. No quotes or interviews. And no criticism of Brew Crew play either. Most be a company man.
Five in a row.
Go Padres
Padre Mike
Notes:1. Apparently Miguel (also called Migs) got a nice pie in the face with being interviewed after the game (I heard this on the radio coming in), banana cream pie maybe.
2. Uncle Teddy described an incident, very serious, that didn't get a lot of air play. Apparently in SF in the clubhouse, there was a giant box of donuts and a bit was taken out of each one. Now we got a pie in the face and disfigured donuts and that sounds like a prankster in the houseÂ
.Trevor.
Another Nice Win, Yawn
Great win and finishing 6-3 on the roady.
This win shows me that there is no let up in these guys, a good sign.
Gotta run. Taken the kids to Sea World today.
Tonight, the brew crew are in town.
Go Padres
Padre Mike
Phil Breaks Out
Phil breaks out the whooping stick in eighth and leads the Padres to an 5-3 victory over the Gayants.
Gayant starting pitching held the Paddogs to 2 runs and Stauford did a nice job for his forth outing in the bigs. The difference in this game was the lack of middle relief for the Gayants and Phil Nevin, who stroked a three run jack in the eighth to break a two run tie.
Today, another day game, Eaton (7-1, 3.49) faces Jason Schmidt (3-1, 4.79).
We are 5-3 on the road trip, 5-4 would be great. Schmidt, unlike years past, is beatable. Bochy will rest some guys, but our back ups are good, so it would be a competitive game.
Hey, our bullpen finally got some work in...heh, and held the Gayants til Trevor time. Hoffman struggled allowing a run, but he tends to do that when he hasn't worked in a few days.
Hey Peavy and Lawrence, give the guy a chance, would you....ball hogs...heh.
OK, another win to finish the longest roady of the year, then its home to face the brew crew on Monday.
Go Padres!
Padre Mike
Fan Notes:1. The audio is strange from Pac SBC Bell Park. Noticed it Friday and Saturday. No crowd noise.
2. Not sure who the Fox first chair was yesterday, but was he boring. Said about two words every inning and with no crowd noise, sounded like church. Mud and Maddy return today.
3. The Chronical isn't so blistering today in describing the game. Getting used to it I guess.
Not to be Outdone
Padres win again.
Lawrence pitches a complete game to further rest the bullypen.
Take that Mr. Peavey.
A little rivalry is good for a pitching staff. In addition, Stauffer can feel a more comfortable that the bullpen is ready in case he falters.
Its a day game today with mudcat and the other guy taking a rest day from the cable broadcast...enjoy the city fellas... The game is on Fox. God, please play a good game in front of the national audience. If we blow up, no one will take us seriously until Sept.
Another distraction I have regarding baseball is reading the newspaper of the town the Pads are playing in. Of course, the internet makes this possible. This morning it would be the San Francisco Chronical (
www.sfgate.com) and Henry Shulman.
Shulman basically rips SF a new one while calling the Padres the "class the National League West." I think he has a strong case of ballclub envy, a feeling Padre fans know all to well. The Pads are a team playing well, hitting well, pitching well and winning. SF continues to struggle around .500. But hey SF fan, you had your fun. Now its our turn.
Notes1. Sister called me from the game at 9-3. She was leaving early. BTW, she has great seats, which I've used a few times. (In fact, I've been to Pac SBC Bell Park several times but have yet to catch a game at Petco.)
2. Peavey was all over ESPN and CNN/SI yesterday, but not a peep about the Padre win last night or the Lawrence complete game. But the Yanks and Sock are all over the place. East Coast media bias, no?
3. Brian Giles frequents tanning salons? Read about it in the UT this morning. Must be metrosexual like the Governator?
4. Tim Flanery needs a lot of work on the radio. He is so stiff calling the game, yet BSing with guys on the pregame, he's great. Flanman, relax bro.
Go Padres!
Padre Mike
Padres Win, More Standings Fun
What started out as a nice game turned into a blowout. And Jake the snake really delivered. He's the kind of guy you want leading your platoon. He's not doing it for himself or the money, but for the other guys, in this case the tired Padre bullpen. Nice work Jake.
Complete game, two-hit shutout of a pretty hot team and the bully gets the night off.
Something tells me, that will be the spark the pen needs.
BTW, what is he saying to himself out there on the mound?
And Dave Roberts, doing it all in lead off.
Standings are fun this morning. Padres are the forth best team in baseball right now, behind the White Socks (huh?), Orioles, and St Louis. Those three teams are 6s, that is, their winning percentage is above .600. The Padres are in the high 5s. Teams can also be in the 4s and 3s. Thank God, there are no 2s.
The NL has 1 six team, 8 five teams, 3 four teams and 3 three teams. Basically, 9 teams with winning records and 6 teams below .500. That means lots of competition as the 9 fight among themselves and have relatively few sub 5 teams to feast on.
OTOH, the American Leagues has 2 six teams, 6 five teams, 2 fours teams, 3 three teams, and (I lied) 1 poor, god forsaken two team, the Royals. Oye. (BTW, didn't the Amer had only 14 teams). So, the AL has only 8 teams playing above .500 with two of those, thoroughly dominating. That leaves 7 teams to feast on. Little less competitive in the AL, yet they have more WS rings and All-star games then the more competitive NL in previous years. Go figure.
Can you say super team, as in the Yankees? Clearly you can buy the best players and win more.
Our own mid-level market team, da Padres, are hanging tough though.
Tonight, the Gay Ants. My sister is going to the game and giving me a call.
Go Padres
Padre Mike
Notes:1. Jake the Snake is the lead story on CNN/SI this morning. Cool.
2. Outside the Lines did a piece on the impact of a Barry Bond-less Gay Ant team. The kayak concession went from 100 rentals a night to 3. Ouch.
3. Is there something wrong with Boch's head (or hat)? Either one is too large or the other particularly small. Looks like a little league ballcap he's wearing. Maybe a lucky hat. Forget I said anything.
Bully Blows Up
Didn't catch the last part of the game, but the UT says the bullpen gave it up in the eight.
May had a tough start in the first, looked like he had nothing, gave up three. But after that he settled down and did just ok.
When I went to bed it was 3-1 in the fourth and a boring game. The Az pitcher was slow.
Woke up to a 12-11 lose with Otsuka unable again to retire any hitters. Next time I'll stay awake.
Padre Mike's advise: Check Oki's arm, check the shoulder, check the elbow. Don't ask, just stick the damned thing in the MRI and find out. Prediction: Oki on the DL with arm trouble, something he thought would pass and therefore didn't tell the trainers about. Grrrrr. Check the arm.
Klesko, Giles, Hernandez, Green continue to hit. Nevin had a blopper but struck out three times. He still sucks.
Tonight, Jake the Snake goes against the d-backs. Whomever wins takes the lead in the west. Then we head to SF.
That's all for now.
Go Padres!
Padre Mike
PS In my previous post I tried to post a table with standings info, but failed miserably. My HTML skills need work.
Good Win, First Again
Grip Time
Oh, by the way, we won, but you, dear Padre fan, knew that already. Back in first.
And back to my grip.
Brian Giles, god love em, is stupid. That is the only conclusion I can think of as to why he would swing at the first pitch (ducks on the pond) from Sealy when Sealy was throwing more balls then Dan Fouts during a Raiders game.
Got to be a brain power thing. All aggression, no thinking. I hope he's not juiced.
Can't argue with results, certainly, but there is going to come a time when that "be aggressive at the plate" crap grounds you out of a run scoring inning in the playoffs. Moneyball, Brian, moneyball.
More Standings HooplaHey, you know my love of the standings. Well. CNN/SI has an extended standings that even more fun. Its
here.
Padres Extended Standings, May 25 2004:
W L Pct Home Road Day Night Grass Turf 1-run X-inn East Central West AL Last10 Strk
27 18 .600 16-4 11-14 7-9 20-9 24-14 0-0 12-3 4-1 6-0 9-5 11-11 1-2 8-2 Won 1
Look at 1-run games (12-3), that means a nasty closer
Home record, best in baseball, so much for whining about Petco Park
Extra inning games are nice to (4-1)
We are killing the East and Central, but only .500 against the West, hmmmmm
And thank God, no turf games. Can you believe we used to play on that stuff.
More Standings InfoOn May 25, 1998, the Padres were 31 20 - .608
Or with 44 games complete in 98 (same as yesterday) , the Padres were 29 15 - .659
So in 98, we were a little ahead of where we are now. Interesting stuff.
BTW, these numbers came from
www.baseball-reference.com/. Great site.
Snakes again tonight, but a bit earlier. 6:15, I think
Go Padres!
Padre Mike
Big Week
Wow, been a way a while and a lot of stuff happened.
- Loretta out for a long time with surgery
- Nevin trade rumors that ain't true…heh
- Won eight in a row…then dropped two
- Third to first, and back to second by half game
I like tonight's game because even in May, the boys are playing for something…first place.
Eaton has been strong, (6-1) but may also be lucky.
I remember that the Snakes swept us earlier this year, so there is a wee bit o payback in this series too.
Looks like the West is for the taking and the Padres and Snakes are the potential takers.
Also, mark you calendars for next Wednesday. That is June 1st, the day we get to make predictions and judge this Padre team. Hmmm. This week should tell us a lot.
Are we a good team that got off to a slow start but now are going to maintain a presence in the NL West?
Or, are we a streaky team that surges for a week or two, then returns to 500?
At this point, I think we are a surging team because as Padre hitters go, so goes the team. This is true for most teams, but the Pads have some streaky hitters, Nevin/Giles, so when they go cold, so does the team.
Should be a good series starting tonight @ 6:40.
Padre Mike
Well, First Series Loss
Well, its the first series loss in a while which is tough. I remember the Padres in 98 and we won nearly every series at home and a lot on the road. It was a remarkable run actually.
Losing the series to the Ms isn't so bad, but all Padres fans have a feeling in the pit of their stomachs that maybe our 8 in a row was a fluck and we are headed back to the middle of the pack. Could happen. But then is when you see what a team in made of. This is when you see leaders emerge like Giles after the first three terrible weeks of the season.
Who will it be. Jackson, Blum, Klesko, any would do.
We are also playing out unlikely revivals this season, the Snakes at Bank One, or whatever it is called these days. By vitual of today's loss, we are a half game behind the Snales in the West, so these games will be important.
BAck in town tomorrow. Hope the weather is nice, hah, of course it will be.
Go Padres!
Padre Mike
Catching Up in DC
Washington DC
Imagine the small Padre pleasures of a vacation. Got up this morning (we are staying at the Hilton Garden Inn on 14 th street in DC-nice place), walk out the door and there is a USAToday at my feet.
Well, lets have a little fun. OPEN the sports page as I make my way to the lobby and some coffee. Who is in first, still, our boys (by just a half game, the snakes won last night).
So while I'm missing the fun of a seven game win streak at home, or with the guys at the office, its great traveling the country and seeing these little signs here and there.
The pleasure of the standings.
Tonight, its Seattle, a cool team, up in Seattle, a cool town with a cool park.
Peavy (3-0) on the mound and although he hasn't played well on the road, maybe the mound at Safeco will be to his liking. Anyway, you know you'll get a game from him no matter what.
And it helps that the once tough and classy Mariners are in dead last at 16-24.
I'll be checking in at 10 pm E time for the game on Gameday here in the hotels business center (actually a tiny room with three computers-but again nice).
Go Padres.
Padre Mike
Wish it Were June
God, I wish it were June because then I could make an assessment of the Pads. I could say this team looks and feels like a contender, not just for the wildcard but for the division. I might say they are playing as a team and getting good performances from the big guns as well as the wood riders and that is the mark of a good team.
I might even say something crazy like 1998.
But its not June yet, so I'm keeping my big mouth shut.
Pssst... Last nights win over Atlanta in another come-from-behind-in-the-eighth victory reminds me of 98, but we can't make any predictions yet. Not til June.
Padre Mike's rule: can't accurately assess a team until June 1st. Why? Its a long season.
Stay with me folks, I got every cliche in the Big Book of Baseball Cliches. Every sports writer, amateur or hardened pro, has one of these.
Got home from a late night on the town in NYC, opened Gameday and the Pads were rallying, and I had that feeling we might win again.
Woke up this morning and they did win and are in first place, well technically we are tied for first place with the snakes, but the local paper, the UT, has the Pads in first poistion even though we have identical records. Like the home cookin.
CNN/SI has Pads listed second; whats the deal there? Do they go alphabetically? Snakes, Padres, shouldn't we be on top?
Love our home record too...14 and 4...best in the majors....Atl is 13-5 at home and 10-10 on the road so the boys still have work to do tonight, but I guarantee, even though you will hear "its a long season, we don't get too high or low," they are feeling it too.
What fun. Go Padres!
Padre Mike on the Road.
Sweet Win
Great comeback win in the seventh and on to the blow out. I hope ESPN shows the game as a come-from-behind victory and not as a simple blow out. The Fish pitcher was killing us until the seventh.
Can you say, SD is not a major market?
And even better, the Dog Bones get bumped to third as the Snakes win and we win. We wind up in second with the same number of loses but one less win...
Sweep the fish, Nice. That'll give those young kids something to think about.
It is so much fun when things are going your way and the wins start piling up.
Now, Atlanta 23-14 1st in the East, comes to town, another good test, But I think the boys are up to it.
I feel good for the Boch, he deserves a winner as much as any of us. Quality guy, good manager.
Padre Mike
Tough Standings
Dateline NYC...well really LArchmont which a very pretty place North of NYC along the Long Island Sound.
Another win over the fish. Did not see the game but I checked in at about 1 am last night after the Bar Mitzha. Looked like Peavy threw a nice game...
What is that, three in a row...so I'm really looking forward to cracking the standing and seeing the Padres in second....but no. We are winning but so and the Dog bones and the snakes.
Damn.
That is the hard part about this game. We play great but we are only holding our own. Boy, love to have a few of those early games against the Dog Bones back.
OK, go Pads. Sweep the fish.
Padre Mike
Hello from NYC
Boy, the game doesn't start until 10 pm. I'm tired. Walked around Manhattan all day with the wife and kids. Great weather.
New York, New York, its a hell of a town....wish I knew the rest of the words to that tune...
Ahhh, Marlins just jacked one to tie the game...catching the game on gameday.
More later.
Padre Mike
Will be a Nice Plane Ride
Not me, although I'm about to take a flight to NYC…but the Padres on the ride back to SD.
Nothing makes for a happy plane like going 5 and 2 on a road trip that had four in Bird town. Nothing makes for a happy plane like a win for the rookie pitcher, 16 hits, no errors, a 5-hit game for Loretta, a 3 run jack for Klesko, and a 2-7 victory for the Pads on getaway day. Bochy also got his 800th win as the Pad skip, nice.
On top of all that, tomorrow is a day off…happy indeed.
Marlins are coming to town, though. Its my theory that there is one team each season you beat on for no good reason and one team that beats on you. This season's candidates for beating the Padres mercilessly are the Dodgers and quite possibly the Marlins. Of course, we saw the Padres beat on the birds so they may be our doormat this year, we'll see.
The fish, however, scare me. Young and feisty, pitching, pitching, pitching. Lets hope the long flight makes eh tired.
Good win, great roady, see you all from NYC.
Padre Mike
PS, had a fun time posting on Ducksnort during the game through the comments feature.
Trivia fans: How many Padre pitchers got their first win and first hit in their major league debut?
I don't know, look it up. Heh.
Cool Tool for Office Workers
Well, we lost last night on a lack luster performance. Lawrence was OK but our hitters tanked even after knocking out the Reds ace in the third with a line drive up the middle. Actually, I think he turned an ankle trying to get out of the way.
4-2 on the road is nice, though. 4-3 would be great. Usually .500 is what you want so we are ahead of the game.
Boys have just started a day game in Cincy, 9:35 am here. I work in a building with lead-lined windows, apparently so no one can spy, so radio reception is nil and MLB wants to sell you internet streaming on the game.
So I would be SOL for today's fun except for this cool little applet provided by MLB that provides near real time game updates. I got it running now, its great.
Go to the Padres website and click Gameday under the main picture. Padre site is
here.
It’s a java applet thingy that provides stats, player pictures, a running dialog on the game, a diamond showing player position, and lots of other information.
And the best part, its free.
Gameday a great way for office bound Padres fans with internet restrictions to catch an early day game away. And you can get your work done as well.
Like right now, we got Roberts on third, Loretta on first, Klesko just struck out and Nevin is 2 and 1, all in the first inning.
Ah, Nevin just struck out, Come on old man.
Anyway, go Padres! We have the rookie on the mound. Probably butterflies as big as softballs in his tummy.
(Should hardened baseball fans use the word tummy, enquiring minds want to know?)
Padre Mike…
wow Giles just hit a RBI double…love that guy. Damn, Stauffer, the rookie, just gave up a two dinger….
BTW, on vacation for the next ten days. I'll try to post when I can, but I'll be back to regular posting after May 22.
In the Mix
Another win, improbable as a ninth-inning down by 4 runs come back to tie in the 9th and win in the 14th can be. Lots of fun.
Ducksnort has all the details,
here.BTW, be sure to visit the Duck because he does a nice write up of all the numbers within the game and previews the next game with numbers as well.
But the really fun part of last night's game was opening the standings on CNN/SI this morning and seeing the Pads in the mix.
Remember 84, 96, 98, and even last year a little?
There are stories about the come-from-behind victory, about who went up and who went down, etc, but nothing serves up that momentary sports fan thrill like daily glance at the standings and seeing your team in the mix.
Go ahead, give it a try…
here.
I'll wait.
See, nice, no?
Padres are a couple games out of the wildcard (best thing since batting helmets), tied with the snakes for second, and two back of the Dodgers who are playing the Birds.
Ah, now I can get on with work. Got my fix of the mix.
Get your fix every morning while it lasts, and hopefully it will last all season long….
Cincy again, 4:10.
Padre Mike
Three Steps Forward, One Step Back
Wow, going into SL, I thought the Pads had their work cut out and it might not be pretty. But we took three out of four, played decent in the field, and hit a ton in the clutch.
Brain Giles looks back, just in time too cause Klesko has gone cold. Philip, seems grooved.
Rolands, Poohols (sic), Larry, and Edmunds, gees that is enough to make a pitcher call in sick, but Lawrence, Eaton, and even May came through. Great fun.
We'll just ignore yesterdays game. 11 runs in the first inning spells the end for Redding. Maybe the bully, maybe flat out release. Once the Woodman returns, May will be in the fifth spot.
Off to Cincy, with a couple of 4:05 games. Gee, that is just about the time I get off work. What a nice coincidence.
But I'll tell you, watching a game on TV is a big time waster. Better to listen on the radio and get some work done. When there's a big play, rush in turn on the TV.
Feelin It, Padre fan…
Padre Mike
Break Out Game for Giley
Nice Win, Padres!
The Cardinals are clearly headed for another WS, they are good and consistent so it was great to see a Padre victory, great to see the Pads rally after St L tied in the seventh.
And finally, Giles gets off the snide and gives it a ride. I was about to start a Giles Death watch.
Tough to see the Woodman down in the hole for 15. Redding and May? Hmmm, we shall see.
Sean, watch the catcher, watch the catcher. Sheet, too late. Realize SB is only 24? Yikes.
So we got mo going into today's game. Lets go Padres!
Padre Mike
Nice Couple o Wins
Nice couple of wins for the boys. Lot of hitting though not a lot runs, but a win is a win.
Bochy getting kicked out was fun and he was right too.
Giles, what is the matter? Four times he came up to the plate last night and fours time he failed to make base plus, he stranded four or five runners. Seems like his spot came up with two outs and ducks on the pond. He is really hurting. Maybe he is on of these guys who can't play in his home town.
Afternoon game going on right now. Be nice to win three in a row before heading to St Louis and a real ball team, last year's World Series not withstanding.
Padre Mike
Decent Weekend Set
Two out of three ain't bad. Didn't get a chance to see any of the games but two out of three ain't bad.
Listening to Mighty 1090's Chris Ello, he said in baseball you don't win every game but you have to play better and that is what we want to see out of the Pads, better play and I think we got that this weekend.
Article in the UT about Sandy Alderson. Apparently he is the guy who invented the Money Ball concept. Money Ball, at least as I understand, simply takes intuition and experience out of the player evaluation equation and replaces it with hard statistics. He also developed the on base percentage.
I'd say the Padres are going to be reworked big time next year because Sandy only wants players with the ability to get on base then get over and in Petco, that means line drives hitters and guys who can control the bat.
Notes:
Mark Loretta is good and getting better. Love to watch him play. Knows the game, the situation, the pitcher, and acts accordingly.
Brian Giles, where are you? Man has this guy died in the 3 hole. He's completely psyched out when you goes up there. Maybe Bochy should sit him down a spell.
Lawrence pitched a great game Sat night. Out pitching is doing pretty good.
Next up, Colorado. Should beat these guys.
Padre Mike
